The Perfect Cookie: Your Ultimate Guide to Foolproof Cookies, Brownies & Bars (Perfect Baking Cookbooks)

NOTE: I purchased this book on Dec 1st and there are no print issues in the front of the book so I'm assuming ATK has fixed the print issue that many refer to in their reviews.I'm a huge ATK fan and have watched the show for years as well as own many of their stand alone cookbooks as well as the annual editions. They are one of the first places I go to check if they've got a recipe. With that said, I've made plenty of their cookie recipes with rave reviews with many of recipes found in different CB or on the web. So... I was very excited to find a CB that contained a lot of tested, well know cookie recipes in one place. At first glance, the book layout is fantastic. It covers, drop, slice & bake, sandwich, brownies & blondies, bar, no-bake, Christmas and gluten free cookies.... and that's just the recipes. It also covers in detail core baking techniques, equipment and tools, staples, chocolate, manipulating texture, storing shipping and sharing and of course cookie troubleshooting. But the absolute most wonderful thing they did for this book was include a picture of EVERY cookie they showcase as well as tell you why the recipe works. I adhered closely to the instructions of the placement of the pans in teh oven, rotation of the pans in the oven and the bake time they recommend. I used silicone baking sheets as well as parchment paper.So as the 2017 Christmas season approached, I scouted four or five recipes to try.Chocolate Chewies (pg 63): These were one of the easiest to bake and turned out perfect. Really rich chocolate taste with a fudgy brownie like consistency. Only eight ingredients in this recipe. Came together quickly using my stand mixer and made exactly 25 cookies. Will definitely bake again.Salted Peanut Butter-Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies (pg 71): I picked these cookies because my family is a huge fan of peanut butter "anything" and I've always loved the "sweet and salty" thing. The taste of these cookies were great. They had a nice play between the chocolate/peanut butter and the pretzel. One thing I did wrong however was double this recipe which made the batter dry because I wasn't able to get all the ingredients incorporated thoroughly. I made a note in the book not to do that next time. These are drop cookies and you form the dough in 2TB balls and then press each ball using a greased dry measuring cup. Some of the balls crumbled and I had to pinch them back together. It worked and they came out fine however, I probably caused more work for myself than needed. Also, I had to add a minute or two to the time. Adhering to their time suggestion, the first batch tasted slightly raw. Once I got the time down for my recipe, all turned out great. Will try again making only one recipe.Swedish Walnut Fingers (pg 109): My note in the book was these are "very hard to make". That's because I'm a novice at rolled and pressed cookies. But... this recipe is AWESOME!!! My husbands absolute favorites. This recipe contains a LOT of butter so you have to work quickly and there is quite a bit of chilling to do. Once the dough is pressed into 1/2 thick 10x8 rectangle, you have to use a floured fork to make this "washboard" design in the dough. If it's not chilled enough (my case) the design become a mess not resembling any kind of lines... I had to add another chill step before I could use the fork. Once the dough is thoroughly chilled, the washboard design works. Secondly, I wasn't sure how much these spread during the baking process. I got them too close and they ended up touching each other during baking. Will definitely bake again!Rugelach with Raisin-Walnut Filling (pg 198) I was on the Kitchn website and they had an article saying, "the best cookie you'll ever bake". It happened to be a rugelach cookie so my last cookie for the baking season was this raisin-walnut filled rugelach from this CB. I got the most complements from friends about this cookie. Friends raved how good it was and I have to admit it was my favorite for the year too. Rugelach is a Jewish party snack that is a cross between a cookie and a pastry. The wonderful thing about this cookie is I had enough dough to use four different filling. The dough has cream cheese in it so it bakes up very tender and flaky. I used raisin and dates/ chocolate and peanut butter/ walnut, pecan and brown sugar and lastly, apple jam and walnuts. Their instruction for the rolling of the dough was not clear so using the instruction from the Kitchn recipe too, I rolled the dough into a 8in to 10in circle about 1/4" thick and filled and then cut like a pizza and rolled the cookies from the outside of the circle in.... creating the crescent shape the cookies are well known for. They were absolutely delicious and I will make again.I'm excited to have this cookbook in my library of cookbooks and I really like that I have a concise, well-tested resource for so many cookie recipes. Looking through I can't think of one cookie that they haven't covered. Highly recommend if you don't have a one stop cookie cookbook on your shelf.

I love, love, love this cookbook. I appreciate the explanations about why the ingredients and steps were necessary for a certain texture and taste. The instructions are easy, and the pictures are big and good quality.

Being shown this book is solely responsible for me purchasing many hundreds of dollars of baking equipment - it so fantastically describes *why* a dish works and how/where to use each type of ingredient (types of flour, sugar, ect) that I felt that even in my ignorance going into it that I could make most any recipe it lists.Nearly every recipe inside contains one page which has three sections: Ingredients (all imperial units), numbered steps to make the dish, and why the dish works including why, say, dutched cocoa powder was chosen over normal cocoa powder. The other page (opposite it on the right) contains a high-quality photo of what the recipe should look like when done.As I've read the book the only mistakes made in the recipes so far have been my fault where I didn't read a recipe well enough before starting a step, causing me to do something wrong.I have only one significant complaint about the book but it's not worth taking a star off for: The book assumes that you have a stand mixer when you make most of the recipes in its pages. When I started making some of the cookies it details I was doing the mixing by hand which was tiring, but the book presents timings such as "beat on high for 3-4 minutes", which you have to convert to longer times if doing work by hand. My complaint is that the book assumes you have a piece of equipment which easily goes for $300-400, that most people won't have starting off in their baking habit.More light-heartily, this book will cause your credit card bill to go up as you find out all the (honestly) useful tools you may not have known were so useful, not to mention all the ingredients. I never even knew cake flour existed or the particulars of chocolate before getting into this book.One last fair warning: While nearly every recipe uses the same base set of ingredients - flour, sugar, baking soda, ect, many of the recipes call for specific brand-name ingredients. The book does well at times where it recommends how you can substitute one ingredient for other name-brand ingredients, but at times the book tells you that you must use X ingredient, and you have to find a work-around if it's not available in your local shops.Overall, I highly recommend this book. It has kicked off my new-found baking habit which I'm sure will keep my cabinet in regular use and keep me popular with my friends, who seem to enjoy my new hobby's fruits as well.

Love it!!! I love to bake and after years of baking all my tried and true recipes, I decided I wanted to try a few new ones. This book is perfect for that. I even found my new favorite sugar cookie. Hand-mixing the dough was surprisingly relaxing and nostalgic. I went on a baking spree this past weekend, and every single cookie I’ve made has been a huge hit. I love the “why it works” section. Understanding some of the science behind the ingredients is going to be so helpful in tweaking recipes to get the outcome I want in the future. I sit for hours with this book and just read it because it has so much helpful information. Highly recommend!

Yummy is all I can say and great book in prep for Christmas,