Dorie’s Cookies

Greenspan, the IACP and James Beard award–winning chef and New York Times bestselling cookbook author, admits in the introduction to her latest book that she has wanted to create an all-cookie cookbook since she wrote her first book in 1991. It may have taken Greenspan a while to finally give fans the gift of an all-cookie cookbook, but it was worth the wait, as it encompasses all of her influences over the years: the techniques and flavors learned at Julia Child’s side, years working with Parisian patissier Pierre Herme, and recipes from the pop-up shop she and her son ran. Fans of Greenspan’s other cookbooks will be pleased by the variety of recipes, including old favorites such as the World Peace Cookie. There are elaborate sandwich cookies, humble drop cookies, and revisions of chocolate chip cookies. A chapter devoted to savory cookies offers, among other unexpected treats, honey–blue cheese madeleines and spicy togarashi meringues. Unexpected and magnificent-sounding creations such as a Thanksgiving bar, made with homemade cranberry jam and fresh raspberries sandwiched between a crust made from cocoa-walnut shortbread remind readers that Greenspan is, let’s say it, the cookie savant of our time. Recipes in the book, as always the case with Greenspan’s recipes, are thorough enough to allow an unsure baker to find success. Accomplished bakers will be challenged and inspired by the breadth of recipes and the many suggestions Greenspan offers throughout the book to modify recipes. This is a cookbook to read, bake, and eat your way through. (Oct. 25)