Book Review: Books for Cooks 2010

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

by Alice Medrich
Artisan, 384 pp., $25.95 (paper)

California chocolate maven Alice Medrich was one of the founding mothers of the Berkeley artisanal food movement in the Seventies with an iconic dessert shop called Cocolat. Since that time, her baking and dessert cookbooks have won multiple awards, and well-used (and chocolate-smudged) copies have an honored place in my personal cookbook library. Her new book on cookies is definitely a keeper as well, already destined for repeated use. As the title implies, Medrich provides recipes for all kinds of cookies based on texture preference. Before diving into the recipes, however, even the most accomplished baker can benefit from the book's "User's Guide." Medrich shares a lifetime of valuable baking insights into such things as understanding recipe language, choosing ingredients, the secrets of measuring flour, mixing and handling doughs, pan preparation, and actual baking. The information offered there can help to make anyone a better baker.

I'm a crisp cookie fanatic, so I spent several days on the first chapter, making crispy sticks, tuiles, and wafers. The café de olla sticks are indeed divine with coffee. Chocolate Wafers 3.0 and Maya's Lemon Thins are two of my new favorite things. Moving on to the crunchy chapter, I made cornmeal and fruit biscotti with fresh cornmeal from Richardson Farms and truly wonderful Great Grahams with Richardson's whole wheat flour and Round Rock Honey. I've yet to make any of Medrich's gluten-free recipes, but she's included a few that should satisfy the cookie cravings of celiac sufferers.

The cookie lover on your gift list is likely to treasure this book and will appreciate it even more in combination with a class with the master herself.

Alice Medrich will teach a cookie class at the Central Market Cooking School, Saturday, Dec. 11, 6:30pm.