American Cookie: The Snaps, Drops, Jumbles, Tea Cakes, Bars & Brownies That We Have Loved for Generations: A Baking Book

by Anne Byrn

Overview

A delicious tour of America’s favorite treats, cookies, and candies from the beloved author of the bestselling Cake Mix Doctor series and American Cake
 
IACP AWARD FINALIST • “Every recipe comes with a story as delicious as the small bite it describes. And best of all, every small bite begs to be baked.”—Dorie Greenspan, James Beard Award–winning author of Dorie’s Cookies
 
Each of America’s little bites—cookies, candies, wafers, brittles—tells a big story, and each speaks volumes about what was going on in America when the recipes were created. In American Cookie, the New York Times bestselling author and Cake Mix Doctor Anne Byrn takes us on a journey through America’s baking history. And just like she did in American Cake, she provides an incredibly detailed historical background alongside each recipe. Because the little bites we love are more than just baked goods—they’re representations of different times in our history.
 
Early colonists brought sugar cookies, Italian fig cookies, African benne wafers, and German gingerbread cookies. Each of the 100 recipes, from Katharine Hepburn Brownies and Democratic Tea Cakes to saltwater taffy and peanut brittle, comes with a lesson that’s both informative and enchanting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623365455
Publisher:	Harmony/Rodale
Publication date:	08/21/2018
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,053,292
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Anne Byrn is the bestselling author of American Cake and the Cake Mix Doctor and Dinner Doctor cookbook series. Formerly a food editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a graduate of the La Varenne École de Cuisine in Paris, Byrn lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1 Drop Cookies Past & Present
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "American Cookie"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Anne Byrn.
Excerpted by permission of Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

07/23/2018
Byrn (the Cake Mix Doctor series) turns her attention from cakes to cookies with 100 delightful recipes, many of which harken to an earlier America. Byrn begins with a “A Baker’s Dozen Cookie-Baking Tips” (e.g., “measure flour by spooning”), as well as advice on stocking a baking pantry and choosing the right pan for the job. Options include snickerdoodles, School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies, lemon squares, ginger snaps, and icebox wafers made from benne seeds and dating back to 18th-century South Carolina. President-inspired recipes abound, such as Lady Bird Johnson’s Peanut Brittle, Mrs. Nesbitt’s Honey Drops (created by the head of the White House kitchen when Franklin Roosevelt was in office), and Thomas Jefferson Savoy Cakes, which Jefferson wrote down after a trip to France. Literary fans will delight in Emily Dickinson’s Rice Cakes, “shortbreadlike cakes” that her family made in her hometown of Amherst, Mass.; and filmgoers can host a movie night and recreate Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies, which was once printed in the New York Times. Byrn also includes an adaptation of the “1922 Girl Scout Cookie,” buttery creations originally packaged in wax paper and tied with string. Byrn’s cookbook is as enjoyable to read through as it is to cook from. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

No matter how much you know about America’s favorite little sweets, you’ll learn so much more from Anne Byrn’s new book. Every recipe comes with a story as delicious as the small bite it describes. And best of all, every small bite begs to be baked.”
—Dorie Greenspan, James Beard Award-winning author of Dorie’s Cookies

“In American Bites, Anne Byrn unearths rare and prized recipes for addictive hand-held sweet treats that tell a fascinating story about our nation. In this journey-in-receipts, we trip from the Jewish bakery in Savannah known for its chocolate meringue crisps to the streets of New Orleans, where turn-of-the-century street vendors sell the yeast-risen Creole rice-fritters called calas. As in her American Cake, cooking this book isn’t just an adventure back in time; these recipes have all the sweet exactitude we’ve come to expect from “The Cake Doctor,” resulting in perfectly delicious cookies, tea cakes, and jumbles that will be the stars of any contemporary holiday—or everyday!—table.”
—Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen

“Anne Byrn has not only given us a hundred reasons to bake for ourselves and others, but she has also curated a collection of histories as rich and delicious as the treats themselves.”
—Kelly Fields, James Beard Award nominee and chef-owner of Willa Jean

From the Publisher