I was impressed with Silverton’s confidence in The Cookie…! In the introduction she talks about how she took the “perfect” peanut butter cookie recipe from a former employee (Roxana Jullapat)’s yet up published book and made it even more perfect! She then took her doctored recipe to her agent and pitched a book about making the absolute best versions of “familiar baked goods we all over”. Wow! She goes to tweak other people’s recipes and some of her own from previous books to make them the absolute best. She does admit there are some recipes even she can’t improve upon! But really, she can make anything better! Don’t think you need a new banana bread recipe? You’re wrong! You will see and taste hers from this book and realize what you’ve been missing.

But don’t worry, she doesn’t believe in things like lavender in shortbread or matcha in pound cake! She says these are not craveable desserts so they will not be included. She is thrilled by the perfect dense brownie instead.

I do appreciate that she puts the whole recipe together—no sub recipes or master recipes. Except for the cheesecake which calls for graham crackers from a previous chapter (or store-bought!) but the chocolate cupcakes reprints the chocolate cake recipe in full and adds a new icing.

She calls Portuguese Custard Tarts “tarta de nata” which is another, different, dessert, what she is making is pastéis de nata. I’m not sure how that slipped though.

There is a nice variety of recipes and the recipes are very well written. Her headnotes are very good and informative—she really explains why she does things a certain way. She is always very careful to credit all sources and inspiration.

I am surprised she seems to refrigerate her baked goods—she shares what icings do not harden in the fridge. I’ve always thought desserts were best stored at room temperature.

I think she told on herself a bit in the introduction and it would have been a kindness for someone to have edited some of that out.