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Wednesday 7 August 2013

Cookies for Breakfast: Review and Giveaway

Cookies for Breakfast!
The Cookiepedia is a fun cookie recipe book from Stacy Adimando with photos by Tara Striano.  The Cookiepedia features 50 classic recipes for everything from Amaretti and Animal Cookies to Gingersnaps Rugelach, Snickerdoodles and dozens of other favourites, plus hundreds of ideas for adapting recipes and making them your own.

About the Author
Stacy Adimando lives in Brooklyn and is the current deputy lifestyle editor or Everyday with Rachael Ray. She is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education and weekly contributor to Serious Eats.

About the Book
I really like the way that many of the books published by Quirk are laid out. This one is ring-bound so it lies flat, the inner cover features a 'Cookie Baker's Cheat Sheet' with a basic cookie recipe and some conversions for butter and chocolate chips.  The inside back cover features a full conversion chart and oven temperature chart which is very helpful for us European bakers.

After the acknowledgements we are straight into The ABCs of Cookie Baking, very useful if you  are new to baking.  This followed by Cookie Speak, a sort of glossary of terms, and some cookie decorating ideas.
Cookiepedia

On to the recipe chapters:
Buttery Cookies includes Animal Cookies, Sables, the enticing Everything but the Kitchen Sink Cookies, Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies and Maple Frosted Pecan Cookies.
Chocolaty Cookies includes Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, Mint Thins, Brownies and Florentines.
Fancy Cookies includes French Macarons, Black and White Cookies, Alfajores and Pinwheels.
Fruity Cookies includes Linzer Cookies, Dried Fruit Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (see recipe below) Fig Bars and Thumbprints.
Spicy Cookies includes Cardamom Cookies, Gingersnaps, Molasses Spice Cookies, Green Tea Cookies and Salt and Pepper Cookies.
Nutty and Seedy Cookies includes Peanut Butter Cookies, Sesame Crisps, Caramel Nut Bars and Pistachio Butter Cookies.

This is only a selection of the cookies there are more!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (with plenty o' raisins)
Pre-heat oven to 350F (180C)

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats or quick cooking oats
2/3 cup raisins

1. Cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed for a few minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix a bit more.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a bowl. Pour in the flour mixture and run the mixer motor on low, just to work it in.  Stir in the oats and raisins with a spoon.
3. Scoop out tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating cookie sheets half way through baking.  Let cool and enjoy.

Tip: For a taller, chewier oatmeal cookie, chill the dough for 10-15 minutes, or until a little firmer before baking.

More Mix-ins to try
Dried Cherries
White Chocolate Chips
Chocolate-covered Raisins
Toasted Almonds
Toffee Bits
Dark Chocolate chunks
Cranberries
Chopped Soft Caramels
Peanut Butter Chips


The Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies are delicious, they are not over-sweet and the combination of oats and raisins really did remind me of eating a bowl of delicious cinnamon flavoured porridge!  They are of course much more convenient to eat and seemed to improve after a few days. 

Who is it for?
Anyone who likes to bake cookies.  Particularly good for beginners but there are some good tips and interesting combinations.  More experienced bakers will like the fact that the book provides you with the means to understand how to make your own cookie recipes.

Pros
The recipes are well laid out and I really liked the tips and additional ideas.  Each recipe also has a little section for notes, ideal for trying out your own combinations or noting how many cookies you actually managed to get from the recipes, I never seem to get the same number as stated in any recipe book!

Cons
Some of the recipes are rather basic, but then it is sub titled 'Mixing, Baking and Reinventing the Classics'  however,  if you already have a lot of books with cookie recipes you might find you already have many of these recipes, although the additions are interesting. The photographs are a bit odd and not terribly appealing, they are also not next the recipe but form the first two pages of each chapter.

Worth Buying?
The real joy of this book is the potential it has for you to create your own cookies, so if that is something you would like to do, then I would certainly recommend The Cookiepedia.

The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando
Photographs by Tara Striano
Published by Quirk Books
Distributed in the UK by PGUK
Price at popular online bookshop Ā£12.97

Win a copy of The Cookiepedia from Quirk Books and make your own signature cookies.  Just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below. Giveaway ends on Saturday 7th September, 2013.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to Mat at PGUK for providing me with a copy of The Cookiepedia for review and for the giveaway.  I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own.

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27 Comments:

At 7 August 2013 at 07:12 , Blogger emma walters said...

double choc chip, the more chocolate the better :)

 
At 7 August 2013 at 11:07 , Blogger Helen Dickinson said...

I love chocolate chip cookies :)

 
At 7 August 2013 at 20:39 , Blogger maxineflossy said...

peanut butter cookies for me!ii

 
At 7 August 2013 at 20:40 , Blogger Elizabeth said...

Chocolate Chip :)

 
At 7 August 2013 at 22:32 , Blogger Gemma said...

Chocolate Chip

 
At 8 August 2013 at 00:10 , Blogger buchanl said...

chocolate chip

 
At 8 August 2013 at 00:31 , Anonymous Miss Messy said...

I love butterscotch cookies :)

 
At 8 August 2013 at 01:07 , Blogger Unknown said...

Chocolate Chip !

 
At 8 August 2013 at 01:11 , Blogger mellysocks said...

Double choc chip

 
At 8 August 2013 at 11:40 , Anonymous Craig - The Usual Saucepans said...

Definitely Chocolate and raspberry!

 
At 8 August 2013 at 23:09 , Anonymous Camilla said...

White Chocolate and Raspberry.

 
At 9 August 2013 at 09:51 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

My most favourite cookies are white chocolate and cranberry :) Yum x

 
At 9 August 2013 at 12:00 , Blogger happyfox said...

Choc chip for me

 
At 9 August 2013 at 18:51 , Anonymous Lauren aroundtheworldin80bakes.com said...

Oatmeal and raisin!

 
At 10 August 2013 at 07:12 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

what better than chocolate cookies for breakfast, absolute yumm :-)

 
At 10 August 2013 at 23:39 , Anonymous Janey L said...

Double chocolate chip! :)

Janey x

 
At 11 August 2013 at 18:28 , Blogger lozzle said...

double choc chip

 
At 11 August 2013 at 22:03 , Blogger Janice said...

So choc chip is a definite favourite then - ha ha!
But love the sound of peanut butter cookies, butterscotch cookies, chocolate and raspberry or even white chocolate and raspberry, more chocolate with cranberry this time and then more...chocolate!

Thanks for entering!

 
At 11 August 2013 at 22:05 , Blogger Buttaz said...

Favourite cookie just has to be oatmeal and raisin.

 
At 12 August 2013 at 21:32 , Blogger Unknown said...

I love chocolate chip cookies!

 
At 15 August 2013 at 23:28 , Anonymous Vohn said...

Thanks for posting the oatmeal & raisin cookie recipe - my fave! Vohn x

 
At 22 August 2013 at 22:55 , Blogger Unknown said...

chocolate chip

 
At 29 August 2013 at 16:02 , Blogger Jean Bolsover said...

Has to be chocolate chip!

 
At 31 August 2013 at 05:04 , Blogger Pam OLeary said...

My favorite is homemade chocolate chip.

 
At 1 September 2013 at 18:07 , Blogger Lynne said...

Sultana and cornflake cookies

 
At 6 September 2013 at 16:48 , Blogger Unknown said...

Triple chocolate chip

 
At 6 September 2013 at 22:21 , Blogger olivia280177 said...

white choc and macadamia

 

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I love to read your comments and try to reply when I can. I have had to enable comment moderation due to high levels of spam, so it may take a little time before your comment is visible. Please let me know if you make one of my recipes or if you have any questions I will try to answer them. Janice

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