The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks)
Drawing on the same commitment to the home-baking community that has earned them hundreds of thousands of dedicated followers, the bakers at King Arthur Flour guide you through hundreds of recipes, revealing the secrets to making your own mouthwatering cookies for any occasion.
The perfect chocolate chip cookie, the versatile sugar cookie, the best chewy brownie―they’re all here, plus many more old favorites and many others you may not know. And all created and thoroughly tested by the never-fail team of bakers at King Arthur Flour.
You’ll find a thorough overview of the essential ingredients of cookie baking, along with step-by-step instructions and how-to drawings of techniques that will have you creating great-looking, incredible-tasting cookies in no time. You’ll also learn tips on substitutions and variations; measuring and weighing ingredients; instructions for making icings, fillings, and dips; and even advice on high-altitude baking. Recipes are enhanced with sidebars full of hints, shortcuts, troubleshooting advice, and recipe lore. Also, each recipe is accompanied by a complete nutritional analysis, and such baking terms as “creaming,” “docking,” and “folding” are fully explained. Finally, a comprehensive, illustrated chapter describes the key baking tools you’ll want to have on hand.
B&W illustrations throughout; color photograph insertReviews (191)
Recipes use too many artificial flavorings/ expensive specialty ingredients,
Most recipes call for flavorings. Expensive flavorings. And expensive specialty ingredients. Coconut cookies require coconut flavoring. Maple cookies require both maple sugar($$$$) and maple flavoring. Not for serious bakers who depend on actual ingredients to flavor their cookies. And cooincidentially, they happen to sell all of those flavorings and $$ ingredients on the King Arthur website. I get the feeling that this book is less about baking great cookies and more about upselling their products. Off to Goodwill with this one- don't waste your money when there are so many other excellent cookie books on the market. Think Maida Heatter or Marion Cunningham.
The best for non-professional baking
I am a professionally trained home baker and own over 250 baking books. I also have a set of 16 binders I made for various products and projects while in baking school in the early 2000s along with a ring set of master formulas and a laminated 'cheat sheet'so I can bake any product, anywhere. In fact, I am in the process of writing my own book for like-minded home bakers incorporating many of the tricks and techniques I learned in the fabulous States-side Cordon Bleu-based program I attended (a two year curriculum - now that's thorough!). So, I didn't need this book, but I was looking for a cookie book to give as a gift for my daughter -- who is a scientist and bakes on the fly -- that would present the standard variety (and hopefully more) in an accurate and easy to follow manner. None of the books I had on my own shelves fit all my criteria, so I did a little exploring on Amazon and found this one. I liked what I read enough to buy a copy for myself, first and have now given it as a gift to many people. I am very happy with it. Once you know the ratios for each baking product [after all, the same four basic ingredients make up 95% of all baking: flour (base), water/liquid ('reagent'), eggs (leavening), butter/oil (fat)] what matters are the details and particulates added along with the proportions. In culinary school students memorize these ratios so they know the difference between a pancake and a crepe, a biscuit and a muffin. The trained eye can also recognize incorrect 'recipes' and wrong proportions that mean many bookstore baking books are useless and lead to failed projects (this is not a problem in Europe where formulas are considered sacred and product names reflect a standardized version of any baked product - almost as controlled as wines and cheeses! It is more of a dilemma here in the US where anyone can publish a book and call him or herself an expert - thus the dizzying and confusing array of baking books on the market here and their cumbersome size. Recipe books in Europe are concise - a small picture, a bullet list of ingredients, a short paragraph of instruction, since most people know what goes into making a classic croissant, for example and don't need or want every author to repeat it). For that reason, when I peruse baking books, I skip the measurements and instructions and instead merely look for interesting flavors, particulates, embellishments, i.e., the creative and imaginative input of other minds. For the accurate formula for any product, I turn to professional resources. Now, having said all of that - back to the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. This is a great start for home bakers who want accuracy and a thorough range of standard US cookies without being burdened with too much technical information or formulas (recipes) that take too long to prepare. Most people do not have any time to waste. For a professional version of this kind of baking, turn to Wayne Gisslen's two introductory culinary textbooks (baking and cooking) - they are well worth the investment. Short of Gisslen, this book fits the needs of any home baker. I am particularly impressed by the amount of professional instruction and explanation that they have managed to include without its interfering with getting the project done. There are simply shaded sidebars throughout that give the kind of tips that elevate the amateur product to the professional and commercial level. For example, using Fiori di Sicilia - standard in commercial kitchens, the principle of docking, without which many products will simply fail (pizza principal among them!) and dough relaxers, among others of this genre. As for the issue that someone raised about the book failing to discuss proper ingredient temperatures, I believe this was done within the descriptions and explanations of the individual products - perhaps not emphasized as much as would be ideal, but again, too much technical information can be offputting to people who are not meticulous. The important thing is to have formulas that work even when today's hurried home bakers are a bit careless. This book provides those kinds of recipes. But, for example, the concept of eggs brought to room temperature is dealt with on page 485. Softened butter is discussed on page 484. Some cookies doughs need to be chilled and that is addressed throughout the book. Cold butter and cold eggs can be a problem when incorporating hot liquids or other hot ingredients but for the most part these are not serious issues when making cookies (in contrast, cold ingredients are key to a successful pie dough, for example). Do not expect spectacular imagination and decoration from this basic, accurate, how-to instruction reference. You can find all of that in thousands of ordinary cookie books, online, most of them through Amazon. I still buy them from time to time, myself, to stimulate my own creativity. There are a handful of professional baking books that the serious baker should have (Amendola, Gisslen, etc.). I keep them in one spot on my cookbook shelves. The rest of my baking books are just for their imaginative details - they are inspirational but little more. The reason baking seems daunting is that it is grounded in math, chemistry and biology. The challenge of all that is they are a bit difficult to master at first, but the reward is, once understood and properly employed, a correct knowledge of baking science will mean perfect outcomes, every single time and the ability to make one or a thousand items with rather simple equipment and tools, anywhere you land. If I had to throw away all my famous-name, home baking cookie books and keep just one, it would be King Arthur's.
An impressive book
I ordered the Flexibound edition and am very impressed. At 528 pages this book is full of information and recipes from simple sugar cookies to more complex cookies and treats. Knowing that this book was written by the makers of King Arthur flour gives me confidence that the recipes will work and will work best with that particular product. Looking forward to baking lots and lots of cookies.
The best and most comprehensive cookie book!
I make a lot of cookies,and this book offers excellent recipes, directions, and a good deal of additional information that helps any baker, new or experienced, to improve on baking skills. For example, butter and shortening are not precisely interchangeable. If you want less spreading as your cookies bake, use shortening; for a wider spread, use butter. That's just one example. Want to make your own marshmallow creme? It tells you how!
Almost the only cookie book you need
I have been collecting cookie cookbooks for decades. I'm not a professional baker, just a cookie enthusiast. this is the most comprehensive recipe & instruction book I have ever seen. the only cookie not covered are French Macarons. it does have other macaroon cookies including a brownie and an almond. there is a center section of color pictures and many diagrams throughout the book. this is a thick & heavy book because it is full of so many different cookie instructions. I may just weed out my other cookie books....except my French Macaron books. this will keep me busy for many years.
Wow, what a comprehensive list of cookie recipes.
This book has it all. I can now get rid of all the quaint, but marginally useful Christmas cookie recipe books I've accumulated over the years. This one has all I need. Additionally, it is easy to write (in pencil) in the book, my changes to the recipes that worked out. I will come back and post an index page, but the recipes include seasonal cookies, bars, brownies, and all kinds of snacks. I am cooking more with monk fruit than sugar and many require changes to the flour quantity and leavening amount to prevent hard CAKE cookies.
Buy this book!
After reading some of this book, I understand how the cookie ingredients work and how to make the cookie spread either a greater distance or a lesser distance. There is a detailed explanation on what changes to make if one is baking at a high altitude. I live in a place that is 4000 feet above sea level; that chapter alone makes buying the book worthwhile. The recipes call for common ingredients available at the grocery store. The recipes are simple and the instructions are clear. The cookies are right tasty. What more could anyone need from a cookie cookbook?
Love, love, love this cookbook!!
King Arthur Flour cookbooks have never let me down. This one is no exception. I love that this cookbook has over 500 pages of cookie, brownie, and bar recipes. Most cookie sections of a cookbook have your standard chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal cookie recipes and a few variations of those recipes. This book has all of the standard recipes plus a ton of other great cookie recipes. The book is organized into sections (i.e. no bake cookies, decorated cookies). Most of the sections have some standard recipes and then variations using those standard recieps. This book also has a lot of good information and tips. I have been making cookies for years, but I learned a new new tricks from reading this cookbook. For example, if you stagger the cookies on the cookie sheet, you can get more cookies on a cookie sheet. This cookbook is a must have if you love cookies! *Note* King Arthur Flour is a high gluten flour. There are some recipes where substituting a different all-purpose flour will not come out with the same results.
Good Recipes, but Very Few Photos
I really enjoy King Arthur recipes, but there are hardly any photos in this cookbook. It’s time for a revision! Add some photos please. If you are the kind of baker that like process shots and pics of the final product, you will be disappointed.
Great Information About Cookies
There's no dislikes with the cookbook for me. The cookbook was very informative along with great cookie recipes like the chocolate chip cookies and brownies. This cookbook will get a lot use in my collection of over 1,200 cookbooks that I have collected over the years.
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