I Love Desserts: Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy—Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

the appetizer:

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy: Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich, includes recipes like Cocoa Tuiles; Vanilla Bean Tuiles; and Chocolate Phyllo Logs.

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

by Alice Medrich

Click to Buy Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy

Alice Medrich presents Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy: Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies, her 8th cookbook, which showcases her collection of cookie recipes uniquely categorized by texture. Celebrating the physical and sensual appeal of cookies, Medrich elevates her classic and signature recipes with expansive flavors and distinctive textures. Medrich's quest for perfection explores cookies that reflect a modern culinary sensibility—a spirit of adventure, passion for flavors, and even dietary concerns—without losing their universal friendly appeal.

"I changed leavenings, baking temperatures, and pan liners to improve textures," Medrich says. "I sometimes cut sugar or butter (for more flavor!), or added more spice, or new spices...like olive oil, herbs and pepper. I adjusted salt to offset sweetness and heighten flavors". Medrich's constant mantra while experimenting with each cookie recipe: "What about this? What about that?" And in the end, she presents a personal collection of recipes that lure new bakers into the kitchen for the first time and inspire seasoned hands to ever greater heights of cookie creativity.

One of the new discoveries revealed: unbleached flour. For years Medrich insisted bleached flour makes more tender cookies. But in this book, she confronts her bleached-flour habit. After a career-long, oft-stated commitment to simple ingredients and pure flavors, Medrich has succeeded in revising her melt-in-your-mouth cookie recipes with unbleached flour. She continued in experimenting with all sorts of flours and incorporated them into her "wheat-free" cookie recipes—a tremendous example of her dedication and passion for dietary concerns. "Sometimes I used a single non-wheat flour; other times I blended flours and starches," Medrich says. "Rather than seek or rely on a one-size-fits-all blend of flours, I wanted the best taste and texture for the particular cookie at hand."

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy: Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies offers a user-friendly layout organized by cookie texture. If we're craving a chunky cookie, go directly to the "Chunky" chapter and find a full collection of delicious and unique chunky cookie recipes. The book also features a "Smart Search" section to assist in quickly finding wheat-free cookies, for example, or quick-and-easy cookies; cookies with whole grains; dairy-free cookies; less fat cookies; 2-point treats; cookies that freeze well; and cookies that will keep for at least 2 weeks. Throughout the book, loads of information and helpful tips offer a brush-up on baking skills and common cookie tasks.

In addition to the included "User Guide" Medrich offers a cut-to-the-chase "Quick Start" section. A thoughtful Q&A chapter answers 38 frequently-asked questions that sum up all one needs to know for a successful experience in creating unique and delicious cookies.

About the Author

Alice Medrich has won many "best cookbook-of-the-year" awards and best in the dessert and baking category contests. Essentially self-taught, Medrich advanced her pastry skills with brief stints at the prestigious L'Ecole Lenotre in France before and after she opened the influential dessert shop Cocolat in Berkeley, California, in the 1970s. Since then, she has devoted much of her career to learning, teaching and sharing her expansive knowledge about baking. The author of Pure Dessert and Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate, Medrich lives in Berkeley, California.