“Cookie Love” by Mindy Segal with Kate Leahy

“Cookie Love” by Mindy Segal with Kate Leahy is a massive cookie cookbook.  From drop cookies to sandwich cookies to rugelach to biscotti to shortbread, this book has it all.  The hardcover book is very nice with the full-color pictures.  Unlike most cookbooks I review, this book has a picture of almost all the recipes it includes so readers know what the final product should look like.  That aside, there are some criticisms worth pointing out.  The bulk of the recipes are for 40+ cookies, so the average reader has to do some division to get smaller portions.  Additionally, the recipe font is a tad small, and there is no numbering system.  Rather, small paragraphs are just in order with directions on how to make recipes.  Due to the unusual layout of the recipe page (with the author’s comments on her opinions of each cookie, sometimes with a family member), the directions tend to spill onto extra pages.  This is often the case with a recipe starting on a right page and continuing onto a left page.  For average bakers who are running back and forth in the kitchen with dough-encrusted hands, it is difficult to remember where exactly on the page they were last at and then have to later flip pages on top of that.  Since most of the recipes call for fancy techniques and machinery that I do not own, I tried out chocolate chip cookies.  I figured that should be easy enough and require the least amount of technique / machinery.  The cookies did come out well and rather tasty.