Cover Image: The Cookie Bible

The Cookie Bible

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Member Reviews

The Cookie Bible is the newest addition to the well-loved collection of baking cookbooks by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Excluding the forewords, the introductions, and the guides -- this has eight glorious chapters with a total of over a hundred recipes. This is one fully loaded cookie book that has got your cravings covered.

I have to be honest here and say, I don’t really read the foreword. But in this book, I absolutely loved reading this part. Miro and Shilpa Uskokovic did a really great job making me hungry while they described how much cookies they ate while they were testing recipes for this book.

Now let’s get to the recipes! The first thing I check for before testing a recipe is how the measurements are written. I bake for a living so I’ve always preferred using a digital scale, and also because my mentors insist on it. I was really happy seeing metric weights! From my experience, American cookbooks normally use volume weights for measurements, so I was relieved to see that they were at least both present.

The layout of the recipes are easy on the eyes and very easy to follow. Beginners will certainly appreciate all the tips and guides this book has provided, particularly the Baking Gems. One issue I have is there aren’t enough photos!

Overall, this seems like a great book to me. I have a list of recipes to try out from this and I can’t wait!

Thanks, Net Galley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for this ARC!

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WHERE HAS THIS RECIPE BOOK BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?!? Seriously, I was only in about 20% when I said to myself not only am I going to buy a copy for myself but also for my father and my friends alike!!! This is BY FAR the only cookie recipe book you will ever need in life. Move over Martha Stewart! Ms Beranbaum puts her to SHAME!!!!! I highly recommend this book not only for its stellar recipes but also for it's baking tips in EVER RECIPE recorded.

I'm going to start in on some recipes I copied this week but rest assured THIS COOKBOOK WILL BE MINE!!!!!!!
Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for this free E-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

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This recipe book has a great combination of easy recipes for amateurs and more complex ones for experienced bakers. I really appreciated that both weights and measurements were included for each recipe. I also really enjoyed the huge variety included in this recipe book.
Although there are many photos included in this book, I would have preferred more as I personally like to compare my own pre-baked product with the photo to ensure I’ve completed everything correctly.

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The Cookie Bible
The Cookie Bible is a beautifully written cookbook with excellent photography. It is a collection of every kind of cookie I could think of. Being a bread baker, I was glad to see weights of ingredients, not just measurements. The recipes are very detailed and might intimidate the novice baker but anyone who can read a recipe should be able to follow these because they are so clear in the step by step directions.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Any book by Rose Levy Beranbaum is a wonderful book to have in your cookbook collection. Her books are well thought out and include plenty of delicious recipes and cooking tips. Her cookbook, The Cookie Bible, is no exception.

Her cookbook includes plenty of baking information making it easy to successfully bake delicious cookies. Her recipes look pretty good too.

You will find the following chapters or book sections in The Cookie Bible:

Recipe List
Foreward
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Golden Rules
Baking Gems
The Three Basic Methods for Mixing for Most Cookie Doughs
Equipment
Ingredients
Rolled by Hand
Dropped or Piped
Shaped by Hand
Rolled and Cut
Holiday Cookie Cutouts
Bar and Cake Cookies
Meringues and Candies
Extra Specials
Appendix
Index

The recipes are written in both metric and imperial measurements which I like. You will also find plenty of color photos illustrating the recipes.

Some of the recipes you'll find in her cookbook include:

My Dream Chocolate Chip Cookies
Candied Pineapple Biscotti
Christmas Wreaths
Golden Butter Financiers
Jammy Plum Bars
Swiss Schoggis
Cashew Comforts

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

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So many recipes I want to try! This book is well laid out, with lots of delicious photos and detailed instructions. Most of the cookies here are fairly complex and have quite a few steps, but the instructions are clear and easy to follow. I made the snickerdoodles (which I've never made before from another recipe) and they turned out fabulously! Definitely one I'll be baking from again in the future.

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There are so many yummy recipes in here! Great for anyone who likes to bake. A nice variety as well!

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This is a gorgeous cookbook for experienced cooks who want to make the best cookies possible. They do tend towards more elaborate recipes in order to create the perfect cookies. There are lots of photos, for almost every recipe. No nutritional information is provided.

Do note that these are for mainstream cooks who do not cook for anyone with dietary restrictions. I keep hoping that modern cookbooks will include at least a chapter for those who are gluten free, vegan, allergic to nuts or eggs, diabetic, keto, paleo, etc. but this is yet another that assumes everyone in the world wants to bake with butter, eggs, white flour and lots of sugar. Most of these recipes will not substitute well for those who can't have these ingredients. For those who don't mind this, this is an excellent resource.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

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Ode to your cookies gets my cookies baking

Posted on March 11, 2021 by michellelovatosbookreviews, world's first book color commentator, book reviews with a twist

QUICK! Grab my diet pills! Inject the insulin! Cork my mouth shut! Call my counselor!
Just when I thought I was safe from packing on another dozen pounds, Houten Mifflin Harcourt presents The Cookie Bible.
Seriously? A cookie Bible?
Thin, crisp, and chewy chocolate chip cookies?
I can resist. I can resist. No. I can’t resist. Move over. I’m sidling up to this bar.
Hello, sugar. It’s nice to greet you. We know each other well. I’m your biggest fan. I take drugs to quell you – to keep your scintillating tentacles from hooking my hands around your creations. Even pills a don’t touch that animal desire to slide your sweet narcotic taste away from my addicted mouth. Oh, Sugar. You darling, mischievous imp. You alone, are the sexiest seductress in my world – or would that be seduction? Or Casanova? Oh, whatever. Let’s get to this review.
The Cookie Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum, is the answer to anyone’s sheet-soaking dream for sugar. “Rolled by hand,” “dropped or piped,” “shaped or cut.”
I am drunk already.
Beranbaum shares her version of classic cookie favorites and introduces us to recipes I never conceived before.
Kourambiethes!? Muscovado? Cat Tounges? Swiss Schoggies? Ex-cauuuuuse me!? What did you say, Ms. Author?
The Cookie Bible takes bakers, and sugar aficionados like me around the world in this must-buy cookbook.
Here’s what I’d do. Buy this book for your favorite baker’s next birthday. Or heck. Just give it to them as your latest “Love Gift,” and let them experiment before the end-of-the-year holiday season begins.
The Cookie Bible is packed with culturally-classic mama-used-to-make recipes that wrap a golden bow around any holiday celebration; Halloween through New Year’s.
I am 57 years old, and as I read these recipes to my mother, she tells stories of my father’s grandmother, who made this cookie or that cookie for Christmas. I remember, as a child of the 60s and 70s, sitting perched atop a kitchen barstool to watch my mother whisk and roll and shake powdered sugar over similar confectionary joys.
The Baking Magician takes “healthy” ingredients and turns them into devilishly delicious delicacies. Tahini crisps, lime butter squares, apricot walnut rugelach. And interational favorites too: Norweigen Pepparkakors, German Mandelbrot, Austrian Ischler.
Beranbaum offers Jewish, Greek, Italian, and Brazillian recipes. And here is the icing on my proverbial cookie: Swiss Lebkuchen – a recipe from 2,000 b.c. Mesopotamia, considered to be the world’s oldest cookie recipe.
Now, this is the kind of family history I like.
But wait! Call the EMTs! Beranbaum unveils the answer to combining leftover cookie-making ingredients in her Freedom Treasure Cookie recipe, where she teaches bakers how to recycle cookie excess to create custom cookies as personalized as a thumbprint.
Hold on. I choked on my coffee. I need to recover.
No discrimination here. Beranbaum uses brown, white, powdered, and Muscovado sugar.
Oh, joy, tell me what to ingest and I’ll open my trap and let it drop into the silo.
Beranbaum makes a smart move wrapping up this page-turner with her recipe for Prune Lekvar. That should get things moving in a different direction.
Though Beranbaum authored The Cake Bible in 1988, the Pie and Pastry Bible in 1998, the Baking Bible in 2014, and Rose’s Heavenly Cakes in 2020, I’m lucky she hasn’t gotten around to writing the Donut Bible. Those floating sugar rafts are my real favorite.

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Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him. You will enjoy what you work for, and you will be blessed with good things. Psalm 128: 1-2

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As a biscuit fiend, I loved this book. All recipes are well set out and easy to follow and the pictures all are beautiful. I would recommend this to anyone else who loves biscuits

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I absolutely loved this cookbook. The photography is gorgeous and really shows the intricacies of the products. Makes you really wish you could make some of this stuff as soon as possible! I like the title, it’s unique and makes me think that the book contains a lot of useful info (which is does!)

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400 pages of cookies? Can it get better than that? So many cookie recipes that I don't know which one I should make first. Most of the recipes have photos and they all look so good! The recipes look very long and they are at least two pages plus the page with a photo. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

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I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help me God : The Cookie Bible is the only cookie cookbook you will ever need! Trust me. I know cookies! First, this cookbook not only has beautiful photos, but it is organized logically! There is a recipe list on vi-vii showing all the recipes in each chapter, in addition to an appendix and index in the back. Equipment and ingredients are also given attention before the recipes begin. Chapters are organized by the type of cookie: Rolled by Hand, Dropped or Piped, Shaped by Hand, Holiday Cookie Cutouts, Bar and Cake Cookies, Meringues and Candies, and Extra Specials which contain recipes for fillings like ganache, lemon curd, jam, etc.
Second, each recipe gives both weights and measures. And anyone who has ever attempted French Macarons knows you better weight ingredients and not rely on measuring. However, for many cookie recipes, measuring is fine and The Cookie Bible gives you that easy option and no need to Google weight to cups!
Third, this is a gigantic book that gives you bang for your buck. Beginning with “ My Dream Chocolate Chip Cookie” ( with tips on how to create your preference for thin, chewy, crispy) to Pitachio Paves, Norwegian Pepparkakors, Chocolate Studded Truffle Cookies, Madeleines, Biscotti’s, Pizzelles, and I even found a recipe for Christmas Wreaths made with cornflakes and marshmallows that my Mom used to make every Christmas. LOL.
This is a cookbook that belongs in every kitchen and will make a favorite wedding or Christmas gift. I know it’s going on mine!
Highly recommended for all Cookie Monsters!

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Where to start, this book is brilliant, as a home baker and a collector of cookbooks I was thrilled to be chosen to read and review this book.
I loved that the recipes were written using all types of measurement eg. Cups and grams it's a huge time saver.
The picture tutorials are a fantastic idea and all of the hints and tips at the start of the book were very helpful.
Overall this book feels like you have a good friend baking beside you telling you stories about these recipes, there is a warm and friendly feeling from this book definitely one to cherish and one I could see being a staple in any home.

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Is there any food that embodies “pure comfort” more so than cookies?

The smell, texture, taste of chewy, crunchy, pillowy cookies; memories of cookies clutched in toddler fists, chocolate chip smears on faces unable to wait for those melty warm cookies to cool and set. Reading this book, an unadulterated cookie heaven, was like floating in a pool of pure love.

Bar none (no pun intended) this book is the ultimate treasure trove of cookie goodness - from its beautifully clean and easy-to-follow layout, to the gorgeous full-page photos, and culminating with its incredibly complete coverage of cookie favorites, including the tried-and-true as well a whole slew of new goodies to savour.

I really liked the chapters organized by cookie style, including : rolled by hand, dropped or piped, shaped by hand, rolled and cut, holiday cookies, bar and cake cookies, meringues and candies, and a final chapter on extra specials.

For each recipe, Ingredients are provided both by weight (European style, and since I’ve started baking bread, my new favorite) and imperial/cups (North-American style).

Three food preparation options are provided for each recipe: food processor, stand mixer, and mixing by hand.

Recipes also include multiple variations, increasing the coverage of this book to cookie-loving dizzying heights.

And best of all, this book is absolutely gorgeous. Thumbing through the mouth-watering full page photos of most recipes, I found myself bookmarking so many to try so many, bookmarks became superfluous.

A few of the must-tries I noted:

🍪 Tahini cookies
🍪 Chocolate crackle cookies with almond flour
🍪 Coconut snowball kisses -mmade with decadent sweetened condensed milk, I dare you not to lick the spoon.
🍪 Chocolate phantoms - richly crunched with macadamia nuts)
🍪 Cashew comforts - crunchy and cushiony with cashews and sour cream)
🍪 Churro nuggets - donut like little nuggets with or without
creamy filling. My fellow Canadians will recognize as a delightful version of Tim-bits.
🍪 Rugelach - cream-cheese pie crust dough - the variation with apricot walnut filling looks amazing.
🍪 Biscotti Biscotti Biscotti (did I tell you I love biscotti) - candied pineapple, pecan, chocolate. I have to try the pistachio and lemon zest variation.
🍪 Bourbon balls-who needs to wait for the holidays?
🍪 For those of you like me who love caramel - chocolate and pecan pralines, or butterscotch toffee both look divine.
🍪 Dulce de leche - another of my absolute favourites - it was a treat to find this recipe here in the “special extra” section, along with lemon curd and chocolate ganache.

5 “I just adore these cookies” stars.

A very big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the author, Rose Levy Beranbaum for an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

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This cookbook is an excellent guide to creating decadent cookies and has a great selection of cookie recipes to choose from. The recipes are accompanied by gorgeous photos and easy-to-follow instructions on how to make them. I definitely recommend to anyone new to baking and professional bakers.

Thank you to Rose Levy Beranbaum, NetGalley, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC of this book

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I absolutely love anything Rose Levy Beranbaum writes about baking. The pictures, the priceless recipes and so many cookie, bars and meringues baking tips, makes this the only cookie cookbook I will use. So many recipes that I never thought would pair well together. Our new family favorite is the oatmeal-chocolate chip-raisin-walnut cookie.

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Better than using allrecipes.com. Nice collection and good photos. I liked that it has different methods of mixing but never will I ever use a food processor for cookies again even if recommended, in so many ways it failed.

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I found The Cookie Bible to be very well written. I especially liked the Mise En Place, Baking Gems and Storage section. A very concise and in-depth cook book that will be helpful to the novice and appreciated by the skilled baker.

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Wow completely fabulous cookbook! This book is well organized with so many delightful recipes I hardly know where to start it shows how to make almost every cookie you can imagine! The recipes are well laid out and list and special equipment and ingredients you might need. I can't recommend it enough!

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

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