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

I love reviewing cookbooks! It’s always so exciting to try new things, and cookbooks help me stay on track to meet my goal of 52 new recipes each year. Now, with my state’s mandatory stay-at-home order during COVID-19, it’s the perfect time to try out some new recipes. Besides, who doesn’t love a cookie?

100 Cookies is a delicious cookbook that covers all sorts of cookies, from traditional Soft Chocolate Chip and classic Fudgy Brownie to the extravagant Red Wine Cherry Cheesecake Swirl Bars and decadent Ginger Cookies with Salted Caramel Ice Cream. There are 100 recipes (each cookie is numbered, for your convenience), but counting each listed variation and the “Extras” needed (such as lemon curd), there are considerably more recipes to try out.

This book was clearly well thought out and a lot of time was spent on it. Each recipe includes: a photo, author notes (I always appreciate their reasons behind a recipe), title, approximate yield, ingredients/recipes used, and step-by-step instructions. One of my favorite parts, though, is how nearly everything is made from scratch. Does a recipe call for caramel? You can make it at home! Need marshmallows or lemon curd? Try homemade! If you’re running short on time, you can of course substitute store bought, but I appreciate this extra step.

Now, what you’ve probably been waiting for: how can I recommend a cookbook without also trying at least some of the recipes? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered - although I must mention that during my state’s current stay-at-home measures I was limited to recipes with ingredients I already had on hand. So far I’ve tried four of the recipes in 100 Cookies:

1. Chocolate Sugar Cookies: 4/5. These were quite tasty and different - I can’t say I’ve ever tried a chocolate sugar cookie before! I did use dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder (most recipes call for just regular unsweetened) and the batter ended up being quite dry. I added the dry mix by the spoonful to my mixer and used the start/stop method to incorporate, but I still ended up with flour and cocoa powder all over my kitchen.

2. Cardamon Chocolate Sugar Cookies (a variation of the Chocolate Sugar Cookies): 3/5. While they smelled fantastic, I don’t think I was able to taste the cardamom but the cookies were definitely less sweet than the regular chocolate versions. Next time, I might try this variation with regular sugar cookies.

3. Snickerdoodles: 5/5. This is perhaps the best snickerdoodle recipe I’ve ever tried - these were AMAZING. For all you cookie dough lovers out there, this cookie dough is also incredible (and I’m sharing this as a diehard chocolate chip fan).

4. Pumpkin Buttercream (used for Snickerdoodle Sandwich Cookies): 5/5. To be honest, the snickerdoodle cookies did not last long enough for the frosting to be made. So, instead of making sandwich cookies I frosted one cookie. On its own the pumpkin buttercream is delicious (and would probably be a great frosting for brownies), but I don’t know if it was my favorite thing to be paired with a snickerdoodle.

Once I'm able to get more supplies, I'm looking forward to working my way through even more of the recipes in this cookbook.

Also included in 100 Cookies are some helpful extras: a how to use this book, general baking advice, important notes (such as how she measures flour for her recipes), cookie baking tips, specific baking ingredients and reasons for using them (such as she uses unsalted butter unless otherwise noted and why), baking equipment used, music to bake to (who doesn’t enjoy finding new tunes?), common conversions, a bibliography, and additional resources (such as Penzey’s Spices and places to search for bakeware).

One final note: before receiving an ARC copy of this book, I was unfamiliar with both the author and her baking blog. I'm glad to have discovered it! Thank you again to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.