The Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen Cookie Lover's Cookbook

October 17, 2011
This solid, encyclopedic reference opens with an equipment overview, including basic knife skills, and is followed by practical advice for food safety and healthy eating, some entertaining strategies, and an introduction to wine. Recipes, which are helpfully coded with symbols for heart-healthy, slow cooker, and make ahead , reflect the magazine’s multicultural but accessible sensibilities: miso soup stands by split pea with ham, and chicken with rice; Brazilian pork chops and Cajun meat loaf are included alongside oven-barbecued spareribs. Vegan pumpkin waffles and crustless leek and gruyere quiche are thoughtful nods to changing contemporary diets. Throughout, tips on buying and preparing whole grains, freezing and reheating casseroles, and frosting layer cakes enhance the educational experience. This volume brings the venerable institution up to date with QR codes that enable the reader to instantly watch helpful how-to videos on a smartphone. While this volume isn’t breaking any new culinary ground, it would make an ideal gift for a young or emerging home cook. Photographs.

November 15, 2012

The latest cookie book from the editors of Good Housekeeping features a ring-bound format with tabbed dividers that make it easy to browse different types of cookies (e.g., Easy-to-shape Cookies, Health Conscious Cookies, Holiday Cookies). There's noticeable content duplication (many recipes appeared previously in The Cookie Jar Cookbook and The Great Christmas Cookie Swap Cookbook), but bigger scope and new design features (e.g., mobile device-friendly links to videos, a gift index organized by type of cookie lover) make this a solid choice for beginning bakers who don't own similar titles. VERDICT Buy for demand.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2012
This spiral-bound volume contains more than 250 cookie recipes, from drop cookies to shortbreads, brownies to more complex holiday cookies, and employs the approach that the very beginning is a very good place to start by first outlining types of flour, chocolate, sugars, and kitchen equipment (appliances, pans and utensils) and continuing right down to tips on how best to transport the finished treasures. Recipes for many heirloom, traditional, and international cookies are included. Decidedly modern are links that readers can snap with their smart phones to watch how-to videos on Good Housekeeping's website and a chapter with myriad options for the gluten-intolerant and vegan. Each recipe is clearly outlined and includes nutrition facts, and most are accompanied by photos. Recipes have been tested and perfected in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen (the color photos will have some wondering how to get an invitation to that). An appendix that includes volume equivalents and last-minute (i.e., do-or-die-moment) substitutions and several indexes, one organized by preferences of the cookie's intended recipient, make this an exceptionally useful baking reference.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)