Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #401528 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Maida is the Queen of Cookies
If you love to bake cookies, there's no way around it--you must have this cookbook. I have nearly every cookbook with cookie recipes that Maida has ever written, but this one reprints the majority of her cookie recipes from over the years, so if you can buy only one (and several are now out of print), snap this one up.

Maida's recipes are wonderful, her instructions are the best, and she gives you all the information you need to succeed every time. There are lots of bad recipes out there, but you won't find any of them in this cookbook. Every Christmas, it seems like at least half the recipes I'm using (and I have a whole shelf of just baking cookbooks to choose from) are hers. She and they are the best. After reading one of her recipes, you will seriously wonder why everyone doesn't write recipes like this. But literally no one else does, so Maida remains in a class by herself.

One of my top 5 all-time favorite cookies is in this cookbook--the Austrian Wienerstube--dark chocolate-pepper cookies that are to die for. I made them again this year, and they are wonderful. But it really is hard to go wrong with any of Maida's recipes--which is what makes her indispensable.

PS Buy parchment paper already! You'll never go back. I just made 38+ dozen cookies of many different types using two pans which I never needed to wash, thanks to parchment paper. You can buy it at any grocery store, but if you're serious, order it from a baking supply company in the same size as your pans. Once I did this, the only thing I wondered was why I hadn't done it years ago.

If you have earlier titles do not bother with this book
First, this book is not a reprint of a previous title. It is a reprint of a selection of recipes culled from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies, Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts, and Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts. The dust jacket claims that all the recipes have "been reviewed and updated." I compared numerous recipes to the originals and found no changes whatsoever. If you are serious about cookies and Heatter in particular, I recommend that that you search out used copies of the above cited books instead. They are very easy to find in used bookstores as they were also issued as book club selections.

Another complaint about this book and other two in the series (Cakes, Pies and Tarts) is the layout. Recipes are often placed in the wrong category and the recipes are run together, a particular pet peeve of mine. While her recipes do work, they could also benefit from an strong editor's hand. They tend to be over written and needlessly complex. Instructions are written in a long narrative, making it difficult to follow. A numbered step method would have been much better.

Recipes are great; but editing is poor.
Maida's recipes are wonderful. However, the editors did a poor job of putting the cookbook together. I was excited to see sugar cookies listed under the "Drop Cookie" chapter (Finally - an easy sugar cookie!). However, when I turned to the recipe I discovered that it was a rolled cookie. Upon further investigation I discovered about 20 recipes in the wrong sections. Since the recipes are reprints, the editors didn't really have anything to do except sort the recipes. It was disappointing that they didn't take the time to do a decent job.