Customer Reviews

Cookies Unlimited

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A beautiful looking cookbook, certainly. I was very excited to try the recipes after receiving the book for Xmas. But what a disappointment. Tried 14 different recipes with fellow baking friends over the course of a week. They weren't bad, but we six bakers let out collective "ho-hums" with each.

I am a professional pastry chef and I found that most of Mr. Malgeri's recipes are avaiable in many other books ...in other words they are neither unique or unusual ...and many of the recipes are just not very good representatives of their "TYPE"...I would not recommend this book. I would recommend "The Good Cookie" by Tish Boyle...better recipes and better writing!

Don't take Nick Malgieri and his bad behavior personally. He is a miserable human being and everybody in the industry knows this about him. You were not the first and certainly not the last to be dissed by him. However, being a former professional student of his, I can tell you that he really knows his stuff and his recipes are great. I graduated his cooking school with high honors, yet he made me and my classmates feel like complete imbeciles during the time he personally instructed us. Ironically that was the "cookie" part of our petit four training.
So take heart in the fact that you are not alone and actually among the numbers of many professionals who suffered the same experienced. His recipes are great - so get back at him by using them! And if we all send him a little prayer every time we do, perhaps he will become a little kinder, which i'm sure will drive him crazy!

I took a cooking class that he gave in my area. I was really exicted to meet him. I was looking forward to baking the cookies in his book and then reporting to you all how some of them turned out. When it came time to buy books, I readily bought one so that he could sign it. When it came time for him to sign my book, he signed it as he was looking away talking to somebody else. He never said a word to me or thanked me for buying his expensive book. Not only was that rude, but I was extremely hurt. You know how some cookbook authors you really want to meet? Well, I wish I had never wasted my time at the class or wasted my money on the book. I have never been able to bake any of the cookies he has in the book because I was so hurt. I will throw it away someday if I ever find it. I conveniently lost it. I have more than 600 cookbooks, love to cook, but never with his books ever again. If he comes to your town, don't waste your time. Go see somebody nice that will appreciate that you are spending your hard-earned money to buy their book and taking your time away from other things you could be doing to see them. Also, during the class he complained about Martha Stewart when he was on her show how mean she was to her employees. What a tattletale. That's the thanks she gets for having him on her show. Hope he never gets his own show. I wouldn't waste my time. Save your money.

I had high hopes for this book and was impressed by the variety of recipes it contained. However, the four recipes I've tried so far have been disappointing: Jan Hagels (Dutch slice-and-bake almond cookie), icebox chocolate chip cookies, sour cream drops and the gingersnaps (not very flavorful). I wouldn't make any of them again.

I love Nick Malgieri, his recipes, his way of explaining step by step what to do.
This book is no exception... every recipe is great, it's filled with pictures and illustrations when necesary.
I truly recommend it.

The contents of the book are:
Bar cookies (like chocolate brownies and much more)
Drop cookies (the Pennsylvania Dutch soft cookies are delicious!)
Refrigerator cookies
Rolled cookies
Piped cookies
Macaroons
Molded cookies
Biscotti
Fried cookies
Filled and sandwich cookies
Wafers
Crackers and Savory cookies
Fillings, icings and glazes
Decorating projects (gingerbred houses)

I tried several recipes from the book and was a little disappointed. They tasted good, but not great. The variety in the book is great, and the recipes are well laid out and easy to follow. But so far I'm going to stick to foodnetwork.com for cookie recipes.

Among all my cookie books, this is the one i choose in terms of frequency or something extraordinary or something ethnic to please the average cookie monster. Even my mother, who doesn't care for baking, couldn't resist this book. Its a real encyclopaedia of cookies, listing the various cookies in terms of preparation and with the author's clearcut instructions, every recipe tried turns out to be a crowd-pleaser.

Nick Malgieri is just fabulous. He has been at the pastry business so long, and he's been teaching for so long, that he knows just what to tell us, and simply, so that we make a superb cookie every time.

He also has great taste. The selection of cookies ranges from down-home and familiar to slightly exotic. None of these recipes is very difficult, but there is a little bit of variation in skill level required throughout the book. This will satisfy a craving to try something new and that will stretch your pastry skills. But there are plenty of quick cookies, too, for when you need a cookie NOW.

Try these wonderful cookies: golden coconut macaroons, Syrian & Lebanese date-filled cookies, cheesecake brownies, Venetian carnival fritters and chocolate chocolate sandwich cookies.

The full-color photographs are beautiful, too!

This cookie book provides a great way for even the mediocre baker to get outstanding results and impress friends. It has beautiful, large, detailed photos which show how the results are supposed to look. Clear, precise instructions assist the baker along the way. Hints are included which help ensure even greater baking success. (I like the idea of lining pans with foil. It helps prevent cookie breakage and makes clean-up time so much easier).

The recipes are fabulous. After just making a few of them, I've decided to bake my way through the entire book. Fortunately, I have enough receptive snackers in my family to make this an eventual possibility!

I'd suggest that even if you don't want to get this book for yourself, present it as a surprise to someone who likes to bake. I guarantee that it will be appreciated for many years to come.