Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cookie Book

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my niece who wanted to learn how to bake cookies. I chose this book specifically because I have the same one and love it. Tons of recipes for bar cookies, shaped cookies, pressed cookies and more - all with beautiful photos and easy to follow directions. Highly recommend this beauty.

My wife truly loves cooking so that makes me the lucky taste tester and I can tell you that the tastes I've tested that came out of this terrific cookbook have been fabulous!

When I was a teen, one of my mother's friends lent us a Betty Crocker cookie cookbook. Once I saw the recipes inside, I just had to copy some of them down. They sounded absolutely delightful. I am very happy that, years later, I found this cookbook which contains many of the same recipes. I excitedly bought it and couldn't wait to get it home to make some terrific cookies from it. Since then, I've made several recipes from this book. The lemon-lime cookies have a delicious icing and my husband loves them. I've also made the chocolate-cherry stripe cookies and they came out very cute. The orange madeleine recipe makes a very delicate, simple, almost cake-like cookie. I've had requests for that recipe from those who tasted it. This cookbook also has a number of charming recipes to make "cute" cookies for kids. I would recommend this cookbook to most cooks. I think it makes a great "mom" cookbook because the recipes aren't too difficult and many of the cookies would appeal to kids. If you are looking for a sophisticated cookie cookbook, you would probably find one of Maida Heatter's cookbooks more to your liking. This cookbook is fun, though, and has some very tasty recipes!

My husband got this for me after I bungled about four batches of cookies in a row. I haven't bungled one since. The recipes range from the simple and traditional: the ultimate chocolate chip, the ultimate oatmeal, and the ultimate sugar cookies, to brownies and bars (the lemon bars are PERFECT), to more unusual: specialty and holiday/party cookies. If ever I need a recipe for krumkake or orange madeleines, pizzelles or springerle, I know where I'll go. The recipes are well organized and easy to execute. The pictures are in mouth-watering color and plentiful. My little boy loves to page through it to look at all the yummy varieties. If I had one criticism, it would be that this book should really be spiral bound, for those of us who really USE our cookbooks in the kitchen!