Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for sending me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

 

We all know cookies are one of the major food groups, and what could possibly be better than a book dedicated to expanding your variety of tasty experiences? The Cookie Bible is a detailed cookbook focused on an impressive number of cookie recipes, organized by their method of preparation (such as rolled by hand or bars). Beyond the recipes themselves, there’s also tips and tricks for every step of the cookie-making process (from things to prep before you begin baking to cookie-specific storage information), suggested recipe adaptations, and notes on specific equipment and ingredients recommended. 

 

My favorite part of this cookbook was the substantial amount of detail included with each recipe. Every recipe includes: 

However, this book is less “I want to make cookies this afternoon & need inspiration” and more of a “I’ve always wanted to make [INSERT COOKIE NAME] & need a reliable reference” kind of cookbook. Both types of cookbooks have their uses, but I don’t tend to use reference cookbooks near as much as they deserve.

There were also a couple of drawbacks for me with this particular book, starting with how the copy I received only had photos for about 70-80% of the recipes. For a book that has so much work put into it, I wish each recipe had a photo - especially for the recipes I was unfamiliar with and had trouble visualizing.
 
I’ve already mentioned how I loved the level of detail, but something that was glaringly absent for me in each recipe was the total time required. While each recipe includes a bake time (for one batch of cookies at a time in the oven), they don’t include: the total oven time for the recipe, the time commitment for preparation (such as taking ingredients out to come to room temperature beforehand), or chilling information before baking (which many of the doughs require). When I want to bake a new recipe, I don’t want to have to read each recipe to find something that fits my schedule. While you definitely should read each recipe through before you start baking, having the estimated time commitment from start to finish would make deciding what recipe to bake much easier.

Even the less involved cookies still require a hefty time commitment: I made the Peanut Butter & Jelly Buttons (with the chocolate filling variation instead of the sour cherry one), and even though this recipe was fairly quick and easy (not that many ingredients and few dishes to clean), it still required 1 hour of prep, a minimum of 1 hour of chilling dough, and 20 minutes of baking for two batches of cookies. If you’re looking for recipes you can just whip up in an hour or two, this probably isn’t the book for that.
 
On a final note - and this is entirely a personal preference - some of the recipes require half an egg. I’m really not a fan of recipes with partial ingredients to them and would rather the recipes were scaled up to begin with. If the recipe truly makes too much cookie dough (is there such a thing?), most doughs freeze quite well.
 
Overall, though, this cookbook is a wealth of information for a wide variety of cookies. Thank you again to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.