Dog-Eared Books’s Cookie Showcase Showdown
Something you may not know about our store is that we have a bounty of passionate cooks and bakers. Because of this, our cookbook section is always filled with baking guides and recipe collections we love and cannot wait to share with our community. We thought a fun way to explore some of these books would be to have some of our bakers actually try them out in a good ol’ taste test. We hope to inspire some of you to try out some of these delightful baking books yourselves to have something warm, sweet, and homey during these cold, wintery days.
First things first are the tasting notes for each of the cookies from the staff that gleefully devoured the baked goods. After will be a writeup each of the bakers provided about their general experience, as well as baking notes with some specific insight about the recipes themselves. If one of the cookies sounds like it might be up your alley, come on in and grab the book it came from!
Tasting Notes
Our tasters consisted of whatever staff happened to be in on the Monday we brought all of the cookies in—Jess, Mariah, Ellyn, Amanda, Rachel, Bailey, and Nayeli. Most of these notes were taken verbatim, so you can read genuine, off-the-cuff reactions
Lime Squiggles
The first cookie tasted was the Lime Squiggles from What’s for Dessert. These are a buttery spritz-style cookie filled with lime flavor and topped with lime icing.
Bookseller Jess said “presentation-wise, they are a squiggle” [if you reference the photo, this is indeed true]. She said they were “soft but not too soft” and that “the frosting on the top (or icing or whatever it is) gives the squiggle a nice complement of texture”. Ultimately, she said “they indeed do taste like lime, so I am very happy.”
Owner Ellyn chewed these thoughtfully and said “Yeah” and “Mhm” and concluded that they were, in fact, “squiggley and limey.”
Baker Bailey was very thoughtful as she tasted these, saying they were “kind of buttery and tart” and had “good texture.” She went on, saying “I like the zing, but damn…I feel really positive about those ones.”
“If I were a pirate, I would eat this to prevent scurvy”
Social Media and Merchandising Manager Rachel said “the squiggles were delightful” and that they tasted “like a mojito cookie” and that they had “just the right amount of frosting.” Ultimately, she decided “If I were a pirate, I would eat this to prevent scurvy.”
Bookseller Nayeli declared, “Wow this is really lemony… I kept eating it and thought this was good” and said she “love[d] the texture.”
Owner Amanda said, “I love lime so much, so I really loved the zing of lime. I loved the shape and the softness.” She also said “the frosting element was a little too sweet, a little too powdered sugary.” Overall she said, they “reminded me of kringla.”
Bookseller Mariah said “I love the amount of lime. The squiggle shape is so fun and the texture has just the right amount of crumble.”
Funfetti Cookies
The next cookie tasted was the Funfetti Cookie from The Essential Book of Vegan Bakes—a sugar cookie base dotted with sprinkles throughout.
Jess said of these “they are indeed funfetti” and that “they’re edible.” She concluded by saying they were “better than what I [could] make.”
Ellyn said they had “A li’l crunch, a li’l chew, a li’l pop pop.” Her final statement was “I had fun eating it.”
Bailey said these were “firm and chewy” and that “there is definitely sugar in them.” She concluded by saying “tastes like a cookie, y’know?…I love how dense they are.”
“A li’l crunch, a li’l chew, a li’l pop pop.”
Rachel said they were “good but chewy” and had “a nice subtleness of sweetness.”
Nayeli said “I love funfetti” but “I wish they were more airy.” She continued, “I like the sweetness, but it needs more vanilla.”
Mariah said these “have potential. I think they would be really lovely warm.”
Amanda was…not the hugest fan. She said these funfetti cookies were “not fun. They were bland and dry.”
All-In Shortbread
Next up were the All-In Shortbreads from What’s for Dessert. These are a pretty standard shortbread filled to the brim with chocolate, pumpkin seeds, pecans, and pretzels.
Jess was maybe forced or coerced into trying these despite the fact that she doesn’t like nuts. She said the cookie “tastes good despite the fact that I hate everything in it.”
Bailey said these would be “really good with coffee” and “I feel like I could take it hiking with me.”
Rachel said these were “Fine” and that she “just preferred chocolate to the nuts.”
Nayeli could not stop talking about these cookies. She said they were her “favorite” and that they were “beautifully buttery [and] incredibly crumbly in the way you expect a shortbread to be.” She said they had a “great sweetness” and that with “so many salty things, [it] really blends well in your mouth when you take a bite.”
Mariah thought these “somehow lack[ed] a depth of flavor.” She thought “they’d be better with browned butter. Or maybe more vanilla.”
Amanda really enjoyed these as well. She said they were “Perfect. I loved their shape and the shortbread texture. I loved the bits in it. I could eat a whole plate and not feel guilty. Appropriate for munching on and very good with coffee”
Lil’ Motivators
The final cookie tasted was the Lil’ Motivator from All About Cookies. These were a rich, coffee-enhanced chocolate cookie studded with walnuts.
Nayeli said “It’s good…overall good” and “a little bitter, but in a good way, like a bitter chocolate.” And that it “reminds [her] of a brownie.”
Mariah said these had a “lovely, chewy, cakey texture” and that they were “nice and rich.” She believes these “would be good with milk.”
Rachel said they were “too walnutty and would be better with chocolate chips.”
Jess said the “chocolate and coffee complimented [each other] nicely.”
Ellyn said they had the “perfect amount of walnut to cookie” and that they were “chewy in the middle with a nice flakiness on the top.” She enjoyed the “nice walnuttiness.”
Emily’s brain only emitted one sentiment: “mmm, oh yeah. Chocolate.”
Cooking Process
Now that you’ve read all about how delicious (or not, depending on the taster’s preferences) these cookies are, here are some of the baker’s thoughts about the recipes specifically and the cookbooks in general, written in their own words.
Emily: The Essential Book of Vegan Bakes by Holly Jade, Funfetti Cookies
I made funfetti cookies from The Essential Book of Vegan Bakes by Holly Jade of “The Little Blog of Vegan” in an effort to expand my baking horizons in a more animal friendly direction. They’re essentially a sprinkle-infused sugar cookie that’s delightful to look at if you avoid my mistakes.
What mistakes might those be, you might ask? Well, I’ve listed them below.
User Error : It was surprisingly difficult to find vegan sprinkles. There are plenty of amazing varieties online, but by the time I realized I’d need those, shipping them would have taken too long. Instead, I hit the good old brick and mortar stores. It was the local co-op that finally offered some vegan sprinkles, and they were so pale that they didn’t show up in the final product. Naturally flavored sprinkles tend to lose their vibrancy as they bake anyway, but these were never all that vibrant. They were, alas, my only option.
“They’re essentially a sprinkle-infused sugar cookie that’s delightful to look at if you avoid my mistakes.”
Recipe Quirks : The recipe does tell you how to measure out your cookies, but I wish the author also included an idea of how many cookies it makes. I wasn’t sure and ended up doubling the batch just in case. That resulted in too many cookies, and now I’m trying to shove them off on strangers that walk by the store. Whoops.
Next time I make these, I’ll adjust the amount of ingredients a bit. While others disagreed, I found the cookies a bit too sweet for me, so I’ll cut the sugar a bit. The recipe makes clear you might have to adjust the amount of non-dairy milk to get the right texture, and I did end up needing more than it called for. (I used oat milk.)
The worst of these mishaps come down to me and my susceptibility to environmental distractions (a loving dog and a friend). I liked plenty about this book. Here are some highlights.
Simplicity : When I checked out this recipe, the first thing I thought was “Wait, really?” It seemed so simple. The author makes an effort toward accessibility, listing readily available and unintimidating ingredients such as dairy-free milk and butter rather than unfamiliar, difficult-to-find, or time intensive ingredients. Even the superfine sugar, which I had never used before, was easy to locate. The directions were easy to follow as well. In these ways, the recipe (and probably the entire book) is good for anyone wanting to try out vegan baking.
Personality : The author dedicates the book to her cat, who passed before it was published. It’s really sweet how he keeps popping up as you read, and it made me want to like the book right from the start. The author also contributed all of the photography herself and provides many baking tips and tricks, with at least one per spread.
I’m glad I was able to try out this cookbook and will give another of its recipes a go sometime in the future. Maybe after I’ve stocked up on vegan sprinkles.
Mariah: What’s for Dessert by Claire Saffitz, “Lime Squiggles” and “All-in Shortbreads”
I made both the “Lime Squiggles” and “All-In Shortbreads” from this second of Saffitz’s cookbooks. Back in the day, I used to be a huge fan of the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen (before their less-than-stellar workplace culture was revealed to the world) and always enjoyed watching Claire bumble around during the Gourmet Makes series, so I figured I would also love her cookbook. I was right that I loved the results, but let’s get into the paint about my baking experience.
On the whole, I would say I’m a relatively experienced baker, especially when it comes to cookies. However, there were certain aspects of Saffitz’s recipes that made them a little difficult.
The Lime Squiggles are basically a spritz cookie that you don’t need a spritz press to make, and thus Saffitz has you pipe them into their titular squiggle form. However, they were so freaking difficult to pipe. I busted three piping bags trying to squeeze these buggers into shape, and that was with me straining at maximum grip capacity—and I have a pretty firm grip! What was meant to make these cookies easier to make and without special equipment left me annoyed and frustrated with the baking process—not ideal. In the future, I am going to use my new spritz press instead.
For the All-in Shortbreads, I found them to be basically like any other shortbread cookie, except when it came to rolling and cutting them. Saffitz calls for you to basically make them into rectangles before chilling, and then after they emerge from the freezer, she asks that you roll them in demerara sugar and slice. No matter what I did, the sugar did not stick to the outside of the dough logs,. When it came to cutting, they crumbled very easily. Saffitz warned about the crumbling issue but I found the rectangular shape made it even worse.
My mom’s geriatric schnauzer, Micki, who was my baking assistant
With regards to difficulty level, I would call the Lime Squiggles medium difficulty. None of the actual dough-making was particularly odd or cumbersome, but the effort it took to shape them moved ratcheted that up. My mom and I were both working on these, and it took all of our ingenuity to make these turn out. For example, Saffitz says to pipe these cookies with a star tip, but neglects to mention what size. We tried three different sizes before arriving at the one that worked—I think more guidance would have definitely been welcome. The recipe also said they may be hard to pipe because of the temperature of the butter. I baked these at my mom’s, and her house is a pretty standard 72 degrees. Yet we kept having to rest the bag of cookie dough on top of the warming oven to melt the dough just enough to form the cookies, only making two or three before having to warm the dough again. This was discouraging and annoying, and I think newer bakers would really struggle.
The All-in Shortbreads were much more beginner-friendly, with their simple dough base (which you could easily add or subtract add-ins to customize to your taste and experience level). I think the only hiccup with these could be the amount of time they have to spend in the freezer.
“...I felt that she framed things as simple, easy, or not too much trouble when in reality, they were particular, difficult, and more than a little extra.”
I love Saffitz as on online personality, and I think her voice is very strong throughout the book. My only quibble would be a tendency I felt that she framed things as simple, easy, or not too much trouble when in reality, they were particular, difficult, and maybe a little extra. Still, I couldn’t help but be endeared by every part of the recipes and how they took familiar cookies and gave them a fresh, new spin that didn’t feel gimmicky. I can’t wait to bake more from this book (Emily is eager to bake some cakes, which is more her territory than mine) and I’m remaking the Lime Squiggles this weekend (but with an actual spritz press, which a kind aunt gifted me after hearing my struggles over Thanksgiving).
Bailey: All About Cookies by Christina Tosi, “Lil’ Motivators”
I made the “Lil’ Motivators” from All About Cookies by Christina Tosi, famed baker behind the Milk Bar dessert franchise. I picked these because I love coffee flavored things and also Ellyn wanted them [Mariah’s editor’s note: Owner Ellyn very much wanted this to be a competition instead of just a celebration of our lovely cookbooks and our passion for baking. Several cookie choices were swayed by Ellyn’s flavor preferences due to this]. They’re very tasty, rich lil’ morsels, and would probably be even more-so if you used all the fancy ingredients they call for.
I knew pretty much instantly that I would be subbing out some of the add-ins, so the response to the cookies might depend on that. Walnuts all the way!
1) I neglected the pecans for the sake of my budget
2) I forgot to buy instant coffee so I ground up regular coffee beans very finely.
3) Also, it uses chocolate chips in it and melted for the dough. I had the requisite amount for the melted part and then some of the add-in chips, but not all. I weep.
Overall, the instructions were really easy to follow.
One note about this recipe is that the dough felt different than most cookie doughs I’ve made, though it might be because I don’t usually make cookies with so many things in them. It bordered on a batter, which concerned me, but they turned out pretty tasty, so if you are making these, forge ahead! It’s probably because of the addition of the melted chocolate, which was delicious.
“These feel to me like a cookie a dad would really like”
If I were going to make these again, I would probably increase the ratio of dough to add-ins - perhaps even doubling the dough (maybe 1.5x) to the amount of add-ins. I just really love the cookie part of a cookie, though, so that’s personal preference.
These feel to me like a cookie a dad would really like.
I made these and another recipe from this book, which were Dulce de Leche cookies, and they were amazing and basically a sugar cookie stuffed with dulce de leche. They felt like U.S. alfajores. I would definitely make more of the cookies in this book in the future because I feel like they’ve got a good thing goin’ on. Great doughs, great flavors.
Overall, we hope you enjoyed reading about our baking odyssey, and that you have fun baking and making holiday treats with your loved ones all throughout the holiday season. What are your favorite treats to make? Do you have a go-to cookie recipe we need to know about? Let us know in the comments below!
