cover image The Joy of Cookies

The Joy of Cookies

Sharon Tyler Herbst. Barron's Educational Series, $17.95 (220pp) ISBN 978-0-8120-5839-0

Like the six other cookbooks in the Barron's ""Joy of'' series, this is sensible, straightforward and illustrated with useful line drawings and tempting color photographs. Herbst (Tastemaker Award-winning Breads, Simply Sensational Desserts) appears regularly on television as Hour Magazine's cooking expert. She deftly utilizes her skills here, mapping out the many avenues of cookie-making: bar, rolled, drop, hand-formed, pressed, refrigerator, chocolate, chocolate-chip and holiday cookies. The lucid recipes are generally easily accomplished. Cookies have a wide appeal, spanning all ages and nationalities, making them perhaps the most universally consistent dessert. Recipes to savor include: Irish whiskey seed cakes, British Guyanan Georgetown lime cookies, Armenian nut-filled cigar cookies, Icelandic egg cookies, Russian pigtails, Swedish angels, Spanish cats' tongues, Egyptian orange flower-almond cookies and American sugar bush softies, pumpkin Halloween cookies and ``stained glass'' Christmas cookies. A variety of tips, glossary of ingredients and a trouble-shooting section are a boon to novices. BOMC and Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book Club selections; author tour. (October)