cover image The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook

The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook

King Arthur Flour, King Aurthur Flour. Countryman Press, $35 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-88150-659-4

The holidays may be the only time of year when store-bought cookies just aren't special enough to share with friends and family. Even novice bakers are willing to move beyond their comfort zone and try something festive. Now, they don't have to go it alone. The King Arthur Flour Company, the largest educator of bakers in the world, has provided a thorough how-to on cookies that will appeal to beginners and advanced bakers alike. The company's bakers have already won The James Beard Foundation KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year award for the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion (2003), and now they set their sights on the cookie. The bakers have singled out eight essential cookies--chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar, peanut butter, shortbread, molasses-ginger, brownies and biscotti--and offer both traditional and exotic recipes, as well as variations and decorating tips to allow for bursts of inspiration. Of course all baking starts with the basics, so the bakers begin by providing information on measuring, baking pans, cookie cutters, ingredients, tools and flour, and they end with a chapter on The Finishing Touch, where they dissect icing. With mouth-watering photos as motivation and drawings to offer assistance, this cookbook is a must for any serious baker. It leaves no cookie unturned.