Have a Cookie

When you look through the pages of this book (our ninety-fifth, by the way), you will agree that the general definition of a cookie—“a small flat or slightly raised cake”—is inadequate and even misleading, given the fact that America’s favorite dessert has assumed so many incarnations, so many sizes and shapes and flavors.

With this book, we are helping to redefine what cookies can be. No longer are they all small, flat, and sweet. Some are made from pastry doughs like phyllo, pâte brisée, or pâte sucrée. Many are large with an abundance of ingredients, like the Kitchen-Sink Cookie in the “Giant Cookies” chapter, but a few have only four or five ingredients, like the meringues. Others are shaped into crescents, squares, or diamonds and then layered, filled, frosted, dipped, or sugared. Most are baked once, but a couple are baked twice. A number of them can even be described as “sandwiches,” such as the lime cookies and the peanut-butter ones you’ll find in the “Some Assembly Required” chapter.

It is our belief that this book will open up for you, the home baker, a new realm of cookie perfection. We hope that once you bake one—pick your favorite or start with one of mine, Molasses-Ginger Crisps—you will bake many more, and that you will experiment with flavors and ingredients, trying every recipe in this book. We would love for you to share your experiences, so be sure to post photos of your cookies on social media—it will be fun for all of us to see how you’ve used this book and enjoyed these recipes.

Happy baking!