|
| The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook | 
 enlarge | Author: King Arthur Flour
Publisher: Countryman Press
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $19.85
You Save: $15.15 (43%)
New (32) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $19.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 21473
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 536
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 10 x 8 x 2.1
ISBN: 0881506591
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.8654
EAN: 9780881506594
ASIN: 0881506591
Publication Date: November 9, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ** INTERNATIONL SHIPPING!!! SHIPS from 5 locations based on your Zip Code and availability! (PA TN IN OR SC) *-* Gift Quality *-* Orders Processed Immediately! - We get your book to you Very Quickly!
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A 'must' for cookie fans seeking tested, no-fail recipes March 9, 2005
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
If it's only one cookie 'bible' cookbook needed, The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook surely rates high in the competition: like the "Fannie Farmer" and "Joy of Cooking", it packs in lots of recipes tested by professionals who know how to bake - over 400 cookie recipes. Variations are offered on nine basic cookie types, from brownies and oatmeal to shortbread, biscotti and decorated cookies. Recipes are prefaced with commentary and notes by the King Arthur kitchen staff and while some come with color photos, most don't need them. A 'must' for cookie fans seeking tested, no-fail recipes in abundance!
The ONLY Cookie Book You Will Need February 20, 2005
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
If you enjoy baking cookies for your children, your church, Christmas presents or just because, then the only cookbook you will need is this one!
King Arthur Flour has been around for a very long time, and part of its philosophy is to help educate their flour patrons on how to utilize their flour best! If you enjoy what you create with their product, not only will you continue to purchase it, you will tell someone else about their product too.
This cookbook has developed over 400 cookies from nine basic processes. There are common cookies, and unusual cookies. I was very fortunate to get to review this book over the holiday season, where I could try many of the recipes and share the results. I even found a recipe for "alfajor" which is a cookie from South America. Having lived in Argentina for a time, I used to eat alfajores with dulce de leche, and here, in this wonderful book, is the recipe! My family also adored the Light Spice Cookies (a cross between a sugar cookie and a gingerbread cookie) and Magic in the Middles, a chocolate cookie with peanut butter in the middle (one definitely for the peanut butter cup fans)!
My suggestion to all is get rid of any other cookie books you have, like I did, and make room for this one as a part of your permanent collection. You will not regret it!
Outstanding recipes February 14, 2005
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
As a frequent and experienced baker I recommend this cookbook strongly. So far all the recipes I have tried have been excellent and the hints are useful for old hands and novices alike.
 Great cookbook - but new bakers beware December 29, 2004
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
I have many cookbooks with cookie recipes but this one is the best. It is a must have for both experienced and beginner bakers. The selection is very impressive and the baking tips throughout the book are great. The Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies are the best I have ever made - full of chocolate chips. Everyone at my job loved the Butter Pecan Fantasies even more.
I would have rated this book a 5 except for 1 glaring omission. There isn't one mention in the book about softening the butter or having ingredients such as eggs at room temperature. When I first noticed this, I thought I must be imagining it. They are standard instructions in any other baking cookbook. But I have searched the book from front to back and still don't see any mention of this. This is no big deal for an experienced baker but could cause problems (and discouragement) to new bakers.
I also agree with the other reviewer that it was annoying that some of the recipes included ingredients that were not readily available to most home bakers. Sure, you could order these ingredients from King Arthur Flour. But it takes away the spontaneity of making cookies to have to pre-order an ingredient.
Don't let Cookie Monster know where you live December 23, 2004
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
This cookbook is, in short, spectacular and I expect it to become a classic reference for bakers everywhere. Here's the thing. When I was growing up, my mother baked the most wonderful oatmeal cookies. They were soft and didn't flatten out much, so they stood up like little mountains of tasty goodness. Now that she doesn't cook anymore (God knows why), I have been unable to find cookies quite like them: oatmeal cookies bought in mall bakeries or baked by my colleagues at work are (inevitably) flat cookies that are either stiff and crunchy or soft and chewy. Now, I loved crunchy oatmeal cookies and chewy oatmeal cookies as much as the next guy, but I miss the old softies. Enter THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR COOKIE COMPANION!
THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR COOKIE COMPANION outlines nine "essential" cookies and oatmeal cookies are one of them. For each of these "essential" cookie types, the authors include from two to four basic recipes depending on what style of cookie you want to bake. Thus, for the oatmeal cookie, for example, there are recipes for a chewy cookie, a crunchy cookie, a crisp cookie, and (tada!) a SOFT COOKIE! My prayers have been answered.
But wait, there's more! There are literally dozens of variations on each "essential" cookie. Just choose the basic recipe that matches your preferences and then follow the additional instructions for creating the variation. Thus, each variation can be made in two to four different ways. In addition to oatmeal cookies, the other "essentials" are chocolate chip, sugar, molasses, peanut butter, shortbread, biscotti, brownies, and decorated cookies.
The "essential" cookies and all of their variations comprise less than a third of this book, so there are plenty of other cookies of all sorts included here; virtually any cookie which regularly occupies your dreams and aspirations can be found in THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR COOKIE COMPANION as well as many other you dared not dream existed. Gingerbread Houses? You bet! Hamantaschen? There is even a recipe for making your own hamantaschen filling from scratch. Mailanderli? I don't even know what that is, but it's here!
As a beginning baker myself, the part of THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR COOKIE COMPANION that I find extremely helpful is the "Getting Started" section. This generous section lays out the whole theory and practice of cookie baking from recommended equipment to technique to what makes a cookie spread out or become crunchy or burn, etc. More than just a kitchen reference, this is a book that I can curl up with and just read for pleasure (though it does make me hungry).
For the beginning baker like myself to the experienced hack to the cynical master chef, I give THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR COOKIE COMPANION my highest rating: five brownie points.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
|
|
|
| |
