Tiz the Season for Cookies!

The Holidays are fast approaching - and at least for me that means its time to bake cookies!

On the 2nd floor we have a new pop-up display of Cookie cookbooks, and there are even more in the circulating collection at 641.8654.

I can't pick my favorite cookie book - there are just too many to choose from.  One of our newest is:

100 Animal Cookies: a super-cute menagerie to decorate step-by-step by Lisa Snyder.    The cover art says it all.  This is a book for those who love to spend time creating decorated cookie masterpieces.

The 19 page introduction includes three basic cookie recipes (vanilla, chocolate, or gingerbread) and the recipe for Royal Icing; a explanation of tools and equipment; 8 pages of techniques.  Patterns for 100 animals follow, in six sections:  Farm & Pets; Garden Critters; Woodland Creatures; Ocean & Ice Animals; and Prehistoric Animals.

Each one page pattern contains a full color picture,  list of necessary supplies and step by step instructions for creating the cookie creature.  Tips and tricks are included when needed.

An index and a list of 16 suppliers are included.

Other books you'll find on our display include:  Cookies!  Favorite recipes for dropped, rolled, and shapped cookies.  By Good Houskeeping.  If you're a fan of Good Housekeeping's cookbooks, you'll have seen many of these before.  All of the recipes in this book come from the many hundreds of recipes in the Good Housekeeping collection. \  The more than 200 cookies here are the best of the best!

COOKIES! is divided in to four sections:  Drop Cookies, Rolled & Cut Out Cookies, Shaped & Icebox Cookies, and Holiday Cookies. Just glancing through the index brings back Holidays past when I see Biscohitos, Pfeffernusse, Browned-butter Shortbread, and Sally Anns.    Seems like every woman in my family knows at least one of these recipes by heart.

Slice & Bake Cookies: Fast Recipes from your Refrigerator or Freezer by Elinor Klivans.  Refrigerator cookies are my go-too cookies. Cookie connisseur Elinor Klivans once had one of those moments that makes you say 'doh:  most any kind of cookie can be made using the slice and bake method.  It's something most experienced cookie bakers have discovered on their own...  you can stash a batch of dough in the fridge and bake them later.

Slice & Bake Cookies contains 47 cookie recipes in four categories:  Chewey cookies; Stuffed & Sandwich cookies; Crisp cookies: and Savory cookies.  She leads off with an 8 page "Ingredients, Equipment, and Techniques" section that is worth a read.   I tend to be more of a "dump it in the bowl and mix" so the mix/chill bo'kind of cookie maker - but I did learn some things by reading her introduction.

It's obvious Klivans loves her work.  Who wouldnt want to sample more than 1200 cookies wile writing a book?