101 Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was given this cookbook as a gift and since then, I have given it to 18 others. Now I am ordering 3 more to give to my kid's teachers. With 4 kids, they are always asking for cookies. My cookies were either flat or too cakey. Since I have used this book, my kids and their friends think I need to open a cookie shop. I have yet to have a recipe fail. When people ask for my chocolate chip cookie recipes, I often just buy them the book.

Since chocolate chip cookies are about the only kind that my kids ask for or will eat, I figured this was the cookbook for us. So far I have tried 4 recipes from this book. The first two came out with a rating of 'acceptable, but not as good as Mom's', the third one I tried was on page 43, Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies. At first glance, I thought they left out some ingredients, but I followed the recipe exactly, and to my surprise, the result was a very light, and very delicious NOT sweet cookie - no sugar 'high' after eating these (nice for a change). I thought this recipe made the book purchase worthwhile, although my friends still like my original recipe best. The fourth experiment, Mocha Dreams, did not appear to have any missing ingredients, so in good faith I proceeded with the recipe. I mixed and mixed and mixed with my little electric mixer, and the consistency of the batter never changed from being like sand. Finally, I broke down and added a forbidden egg white (these were supposed to be egg-less cookies) and enough vanilla to make a somewhat workable batter. Once these cookies were done, I served them to my family, and received these comments: 'wow!', 'great', 'very rich', 'delicious'. I gave this book a rating of 4 because my friends still like my original chocolate chip cookies better, and because I had to modify the Mocha Dreams recipe (I don't like having to modify baked goods recipes, it makes me nervous - it's not quite like modifying a soup or stew recipe). None-the-less, I appreciate the variety of ways that are presented in this book for making our family's favorite cookie. I will continue to try out the recipes from this book - one per week - so in two years I may be able to write a much more educated review!