Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Cookies Cook Book

This has for years been my favorite Cookbook for Christmas baking. My binding cracked and I was freaking out at the thought of losing pages. I realized I never checked to find it online, today while I was making the recipes for MOCHA SLICES! Checked it out just in time, it said there was 1 left,and it’s now mine! I am a happy girl!

This is mostly a review of a single recipe: "Basic Sugar Cutouts" on page 56. It's a basic, tasty sugar cookie recipe, and is the recipe my family enjoys the most from this book. The list of ingredients is fine, and is presented in a normal way. However, the dough mixing instructions for me do not produce a good dough. For decades I've used the method I learned at home and in my junior high school cooking class: first mix the shortening and the sugar, then add the rest of the 'wet' ingredients, then add the flour and the other 'dry' ingredients. Their method combines everything except the shortening, then adds that mix, half at a time, to the beaten shortening. The one time I tried their mixing method, I ended up with dough that was lumpy, not well mixed, and difficult to repair. Using the old mixing method on their ingredient list produced a much nicer dough. The cookies themselves, though, are quite good. This is one of my favorite cookie baking books.

Just reading the recipes makes your mouth water. I have only tried two of the recipes, but both were wonderful. The pictures are fantastic and the book, with it's spiral bound hardback, lays open easily. Several of my family members were so impressed that they had me order this book for them as well.

My grandmother always made cookies and kept some on hand for every time we came to visit. At Christmas time she would make tins full of different types of cookies. The variety seemed endless. This was one of my favorite books in her cookbook collection. All kinds of cookies have made their way into this book. Drop, Bar, sliced, shaped, cutout and no-fuss cookies are all invited into cookie heaven. One reason I especially like this book is that they have a special section called: "Helpful Cookie Hints." It helps you keep your home-baked cookies fresh and they give the ABC's of cookie storing, sending and gift giving. Banana Nut Cookies, Pumpkin Cookies, Coconut Macaroons, cake brownies, Double Almond Cookies and the more traditional shortbread recipes look divine. There is a cherry variation for the shortbread recipe. I have also been looking for a good recipe for molded cookies. You often find the molds, but there is no recipe with many of them. The recipe for "whole wheat critters" is a cookie made with whole wheat flour and is quite good. As a child, my mother helped us make "sugar bells." I wish she had let us make the "cookie pops" those are adorable. I think some of these recipes might be in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook because I remember making some of the as a child. This cookbook was originally $... so it has kept its value since 1990. The cover is tan with cookies almost falling off the cover. There are so many of them! The pinwheels and chocolate cookies with mint filling look especially tempting.~TheRebeccaReview.com

I originally got this book from the public library. After making many of the great cookie recipes and copying several others (because the book was due back), I decided I needed to have my own copy of the book. I have taken several of the bar cookies to potlucks and have been asked by others for the recipes.