December is here, and for many of us that means baking. And baking cookies, specifically. Holiday cookies are a great way to connect generations of family in a task sure to create memories. When we think of holiday cookies, what comes to mind? Sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, ginger snaps, snickerdoodles? Sure. Those are all fine and have a place on the table, but maybe you want to show your cousin who the real cookie boss is in the family. Here’s where the mad genius, the rule-breaker, the one marching to the beat of her own Hobart mixer… Christina Tosi, comes in.
Listen, I know you want to recreate the holidays of your youth and create memories for your youngest family members, and that is commendable, but we can do better. “All About Cookies” is the newest book by Christina Tosi, and, as expected, it is amazing.
Every page and every recipe had me wanting to make cookies immediately. OK, well, except for the chocolate chip made in an air-fryer. I refuse to use an “air fryer” — it’s a convection oven with a fancy name. Not every recipe calls for traditional methods: air-fryer cookie, lemon curd made in a microwave, even an “icebox cookie cake” that uses pre-made cookies! (Though, the cookies used are the versions of Milk Bar cookies found in grocery stores.)
The first recipe I tried was the gooey butter cookie. I had made butter cakes in a restaurant years ago and was excited to make them in cookie form. They turned out great, I highly recommend them!
The recipes in this book are clear with easy-to-follow instructions.* Pictures are sparse and mostly of post-bake cookies and of members of her staff. To be fair, there are more than cookies in this book. There are a few pies, some bars and more.
So, after you’ve fulfilled the required quota of sugar cookies decorated with royal icing, get this book and make better cookies. I loved it so much, it’s on my Christmas wish list!
As expected, there have recently been some nice posts written on the subject of baking cookies, check them out:
* Full disclosure: I royally messed up a cookie batch by trying to follow the volume measurements. I was attempting to make “Potato Chip Shorties” and the potato chip quantity needed is written as: “potato chips, crushed 2 cups.” I took that to mean I would fill a 2 cup container with crushed chips. If I had been using the metric/weight measurements, I would have quickly seen my error. Completely my fault, I admit.
