Cookies for Christmas: Fifty of the Best Cookie Recipes for Holiday Gift Giving, Decorating, and Eating

Too soon for Christmas baking? Yes, but not for deliberating. This little book, almost literally a handful of recipes, trots out the expected with a simple flourish, making a compact contribution to the holidays. Robbins ( The Dumpling Cookbook ) includes gingerbread menageries, springerle cookies, chocolate madeleines, brownies, ginger snaps, shortbread, lace cookies, meringues, linzer cookies, macaroons and various candies. Her directions are brief, reasonable and personable, but not indulgent. And they are interspersed, occasionally, with appropriate quotes from writers like Bette Pesetsky, May Sarton, William Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas. Robbins is aware of the uses of cookies as decorations, too. The cookies are divided into two kinds: one-step and two-step, requiring less or more preparation. While the book will undoubtedly answer pre-season needs, it would also make an appropriate Christmas gift: small, sweet and serviceable. (Sept.)