The Cookie Bible

James Beard Award winner Berenbaum (The Baking Bible) revisits her old favorites and shares recipes for new ones in this thoroughly scrumptious collection. She leaves no question unanswered, advising on how to prepare butter before making the dough (it needs to be cut into tablespoon-sized pieces and left on the counter to soften for at least half an hour for her lemon poppy seed cookies, or cubed into half-inch pieces and refrigerated for 30 minutes for the holiday cookie cutouts) and how to set up baking sheets (an aluminum foil–lined sheet is needed for the candied pineapple biscotti, while a plain sheet will suffice for the raspberry Linzer hearts), and she even includes the shelf-life for each cookie after baking (her Dream Chocolate Chip Cookies can be stored in a container at room temperature for two weeks, refrigerated for a month, or frozen for three months). Following every recipe are “baking gems” that provide tips (for the chocolate caramel candy bars, adding cream of tartar to caramel will prevent it from crystallizing) and helpful techniques (to make superfine sugar for dacquoise meringue puffs, process granulated sugar in a food processor, until it’s “the consistency of sand”). For home bakers of all levels, this is a no-brainer. (Nov.)