My Favorite Cookies from the Old Country: Loved Recipes Assembled by . . .

by Olli Leeb

Book Overview

A nice cookbook for all varieties of cookies! This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 392179997X
• ISBN13: 9783921799970
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Olli Leeb
• Length: 189 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

a charming collection of cookies that look and taste great

I am delighted with this appealing collection of European-style cookies. The recipes are precise and the cookies look professional and are delicious. There are drawings of each, and there are several color photographs that show a dozen or so of the cookies (they're labeled, so you'll know which is which). The book begins with an introduction to baking cookies: it explains baking terms and basic ingredients and tools you will need, as well as tips on storage. (By the way, the author made an executive decision not to include quantities, which alarmed me at first, but I haven't found any recipes that have made a scant or huge amount of cookies--usually about 3 dozen or so.) The book is divided into six sections: biscuits (a kind of cooky), shortbread, gingerbread, nut cookies with shortening, nut cookies without shortening, and marzipan and confections. Hidden behind these unexciting titles are wonderful little cookies with distinct personalities of their own, like Bear Paws, Swabian Buns, Pinenut Crescents, Love Letters, Little Boyfriends, Lebkuchen, Sugared Pretzels, and much more. If you're interested in making Springerle and marzipan confections, the instructions are carefully laid out for those, too.Orange Tongues, a delicate orange cookie shaped like a ladyfinger, glazed with orange icing, brought raves from both children and adults. Chocolate Kringles (piped from a cookie press, using a star tip) looked appealing and tasted great, Swirled Wreaths were equally good, and Coconut Blossoms were pretty and delicate. The good news is that the recipes all work and the instructions for decorating them make the cookies look very attractive, yet don't require more than an average amount of skill from the home baker.I need to alert you that quantities are given in ounces and grams, though. I managed to successfully convert several of the recipes to American measurements before ordering a digital conversion scale to help me.Another thing I should mention is that a few of the ingredients are hard to find, like coconut butter, beet sugar syrup, and nougat paste. But most of the recipes call for ingredients that you can easily find. This book is a treasure. I'm looking forward to my next adventure--Viennese Coffee and Nut Buns. These are circle-shaped cookies on which you spread a coffee-flavored nut paste. After baking them, you top each with a warm chocolate mocha bean. Not only will they be delicious, but they'll look wonderful, too!