Fabulous Modern Cookies: Lessons in Better Baking for Next-Generation Treats

by Paul Arguin, Chris Taylor

Overview

With bolder-than-ever flavors and spectacularly scientific techniques, cookies have truly never been more fabulous.

One of NPR's "Books We Love" 2022

"Do we need another cookie book? As far as I’m concerned, the answer is always “yes.” Here we have the classic cookie food groups (bar, drop, rolled, slice-and-bake, etc.), but they’ve been wickedly turbocharged with unique flavor hacks. Why wouldn’t you insinuate a layer of ganache into your black-bottom lemon squares? Why wouldn’t you powder freeze-dried raspberries for your sugar cookies? And for heaven’s sake, why wouldn’t you add milk powder to your browned butter for the world’s most insanely malty chocolate chip cookies? Prepare your secret-stash cookie jar, folks – you’re gonna need it." - T. Susan Chang for NPR

"Delicious and dazzling...for cookie fanatics, this one is sure to be a hit!" - Publisher's Weekly, starred review

Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin bring fresh perspective and heaps of creativity to everything they bake. Now reinventing America’s most traditional handheld dessert—the cookie—they offer 100 reliable and exciting recipes that are sure to impress. From Pumpkin Snickercrinkles to Black-Bottom Lemon Squares, and Coffee Bean Crunchers to Bronze Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, these are next-level cookies.

Combining their passion for serious baking with their professional backgrounds as accomplished scientists, Taylor and Arguin apply new methods and modern ingredient pairings to develop novel base recipes with innovative techniques. In these pages, they share what they’ve learned in lively tips and tricks for every recipe and style of cookie. Complete with mouthwatering photos, options to make ahead, decorate, or infinitely adapt, these outside-the-box recipes are the very definition of fabulous.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682686591
Publisher:	Countryman Press, The
Publication date:	04/12/2022
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	638,038
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Paul Arguin is an accomplished scientist and baker. Alongside his husband Chris Taylor, he is the co-author of the IACP award-nominated The New Pie (2019). He lives with his husband in Atlanta, Georgia.

Chris Taylor is an accomplished scientist and baker. Alongside his husband Paul Arguin, he is the co-author of the IACP award-nominated The New Pie (2019). He lives with his husband in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Getting Started 12

Chapter 1 Bar Cookies 37

Chapter 2 Drop Cookies 81

Chapter 3 Rolled Cookies 135

Chapter 4 Slice-and-Bake Cookies 175

Chapter 5 Filled, Stuffed, and Sandwiched Cookies 213

Chapter 6 Piped, Shaped, Molded, and No-Bake Cookies 263

Chapter 7 Savory Cookies 297

Chapter 8 Fillings and Other Additional Recipes 329

Flavor Index 340

Sources 350

Acknowledgments 355

Index 356

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/21/2022

Taylor and Arguin (The New Pie), two scientists who fell in love and married thanks in part to a shared affection for baking, whip together their passion and smarts in this delicious and dazzling volume. Employing rigorous techniques and innovative flavor combinations, they offer 100 boundary-pushing takes on cookies, from dropped and rolled confections to ones shaped like mustaches and bananas. Riffs on both American and international classics rely on unconventional ingredients to boost flavor. Bronze butter chocolate chip cookies, for instance, use dry milk powder to deepen toffee notes, while the addition of red curry paste to peanut butter cookies yields a Southeast Asian–inspired twist. Insightful intros to sections feature expert ingredient and equipment guides (perfectionists will especially relish the detailed breakdown of scoop sizes and “proper portion placement” for drop cookies). To balance the seriousness, the authors sprinkle in cheeky rhyming headnotes—“The addition of fig/ Is something you’ll dig,” they declare before introducing their fig and maple nut slices—and nods to cultural touchstones, including the rye and honey–based Everybody Ryes (an homage to the late Stephen Sondheim) and heart-shaped Stonewalls that get their rainbow speckles from Fruity Pebbles. For cookie fanatics, this one’s sure to be a hit. Agent: Joy Tutela, David Black Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Do we need another cookie book? As far as I’m concerned, the answer is always “yes.” Here we have the classic cookie food groups (bar, drop, rolled, slice-and-bake, etc.), but they’ve been wickedly turbocharged with unique flavor hacks. Why wouldn’t you insinuate a layer of ganache into your black-bottom lemon squares? Why wouldn’t you powder freeze-dried raspberries for your sugar cookies? And for heaven’s sake, why wouldn’t you add milk powder to your browned butter for the world’s most insanely malty chocolate chip cookies? Prepare your secret-stash cookie jar, folks – you’re gonna need it."

NPR - T. Susan Chang

"Filled with good humor, expert instruction, and awe-inspiring creations." "

Atlanta Journal Constitution