Review: Odd format, quirky directions - nothing worth paying for here
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 3, 2014
Collection of recipes for cookies the author makes around Christmastime - very few were actually Christmas-specific.I picked up this book free during an Amazon giveaway. It wasn't a good sign that the title was misspelled - my mother USED to make cookies, but she never made any like these heavy-on-spice-and-dates items. By and large, the recipes look like they will produce usable cookies, but the author presents them in an odd format, with "temp" and "time" at the beginning of the recipe - I assume she meant oven temperature and baking time, but she never says so. Rather than simply saying "cream butter and sugar" as every other cookbook I've ever seen does, she wrote ""With electric mixer at 'cream' (or with spoon), thoroughly mix shortening and granulated sugar until very light and fluffy." What does she think the longer version (which she repeats in nearly every recipe) adds? There were no recipes that sounded so yummy I just had to try them. Not suitable for beginners - the instructions all state "bake until done" and a novice cook won't have learned how to tell cookies are done. I can't see spending money for this half-baked effort when there are millions of tested recipes (complete with instructions that are easy to follow) available free on the Internet.