Crazy About Cookies

December 1, 2010

Publishing this year Booze Cakes and A World of Cake, Castella has been busy. Here, she first introduces baking equipment, decorating tools, ingredients, and decorating, then shares tips on baking, storing, and transporting cookies. Recipes are written for the beginning baker and include variations (e.g., substituting walnuts for pecans). Ideas for novices can be found in the "Everyday Cookies" section; more difficult cookies, such as Fondant Snow Globe Cookies, are near the end of the book. This versatile cookie book can be used by both beginners and masters.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2010
There is no such thing as too many cookie recipes. A veteran baker expands readers repertoires with well-loved traditional and innovative doughs that, regardless of individual tastes, will make mouths water. Los Angeles industrial designer, professor, and author of Crazy about Cupcakes (2006) Castella dives into her 300 small sweet treats by dividing them by occasion: that is, for every day, for parties, for special occasions, for holidays, and for Christmas. She emphasizes enabling bakers to produce great batters and cookies every time. Tips abound, from fixing too-hard cookies (insert a sliced fresh apple into an airtight container) to recognizing why cookies are too flat (the butters too soft). Another area of concentration is on innovation, though American favorites like chocolate chips are well represented, too. Many of her creative concoctions demand advanced skills, such as working with marzipan to generate fruit look-alikes, making a cakelike housewarming invitation, and building a Black Forest brownie ice-cream cake that promises to transform any birthday party. Of course, opening sections capture the fundamentals of cookie making, from tools to techniques, while the back-of-the-book chapter features different doughs, fillings, and frostings. Templates for cookie construction appended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)