60 Recipes and Techniques for Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary

by Mindy Segal

A new, edgier take on baking cookies, from a James Beard Award-winning chef and the owner of the popular Chicago restaurant, HotChocolate.

Mindy Segal is an up-and-coming chef and baker who’s serious about cookies and bars. In her first cookbook, Segal turns classic recipes into more elevated, fun interpretations of everyone’s favorite sweet treat. From Brown Butter with Hickory Smoked Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies and Crème de Violet Snickerdoodles, to Citrus, Brown Butter, and Graham Cracker Shortbread with Framboise Preserves and Hibiscus Sugar Rugelach, Segal’s recipes are inspired and far from expected. This modern twist on a traditional favorite is the perfect addition to every baker’s bookshelf.

TSG Review

A book entirely on cookies. Sounds good!

I followed all the recipes exactly as written.

Brownie Krinkles

Makes 42

Full Recipe

Truly amazing! It took me a while the first time I made these, but after making this twice more I have it down to a science. It like a cookie/brownie hybrid. A little gooey in the center with a rich chocolate flavor. What the cookie lacks in sweetness itself is made up by the confectioners’ sugar that coats the outside. One of the times I made it i had run out of the correct salt flakes so I improvised and used slightly ground sea salt instead. I unwittingly improved the recipe. The bigger grains of salt made it so the salt granules didn’t dissolve when baking. So, with each bite you got that deep chocolate and salt crystals-imagine how salted caramel taste more vibrant than standard caramel. That’s what happened here. To try this recipe from the book yourself, click the button below.

Banilla Nillas

Ug! These turned out alright but the getting there was not worth it for me. Three separate recipes to make one cookie is way to much work. This recipe took me three days to make, there was a lot of putting the different parts of the cookie sandwich in the refrigerator and then taking it back out after 2 hours-way to much of that. The nilla wafers tasted good but I am pretty sure that I didn’t make them according to the recipe directions. I had a big problem with the instructions for this cookie. After running it by some other bakers they couldn’t figure out the instructions either. At least it wasn’t just me. This is a sandwich cookie with a banana frosting in the middle that ended up looking nothing like frosting-more like large curd cottage cheese with oil poured over it. Gross right? At least when all was done and they had their banana frosting in the middle and where dipped in chocolate with a white chocolate dulce de leche drizzled over it they weren’t half bad. The idea is sound for this cookie but the instructions need to be improved and prep time needs to be shortened before I ever tried this one again. The white chocolate dulce de leche was a separate recipe in the back of the book that gave me problems too. The chocolate kept seizing up every time I made it. Went through 12oz of white before I got it right.

Butterscotch Syrup

I didn’t know this before but the only difference between caramel and butterscotch is the kind of sugar you use. Caramel uses white sugar in the recipe and butterscotch uses brown sugar. I made this recipe for another recipe in the book. This was used in the banana frosting, in the Banilla Nillas. Lots of work for something I needed only 1/2 a cup of. So I got these 5 cups of butterscotch syrup left what to do with it? Well besides giving them out to friends and family it turns out its amazing on pretty much any desert. It loves ice cream and looks sexy poured over a cheese cake. Make a caramel apple martini and garnish the glass with it. I am taking a bunch of it and I am going to make swirled vanilla ice cream.

Dream Bars

These were not too difficult. It’s a layer of shortbread covered with a thin layer of chocolate and topped with a meringue. I liked this but I still have to complain. The picture that went along with this recipe did not represent it properly. If I had not called someone who knows what a meringue should look like I would have way over cooked this. As it was I only over cooked it a bit, still good, just a bit too crumbly. In the picture they show a white meringue and you can see by my picture its brown, that is because it is a brown sugar meringue. So either the photo was edited or they made a white sugar meringue for the picture but are having you make a brown sugar one for the recipe. I never made a meringue before so I thought it would turn white as it cooked. Another problem with this book.

Summary

The recipes in this book are downright amazing and if you are an experienced baker I would recommend it. If you are new to baking I would look for a different cookie book. The ingredients are sometimes unusual and hard to find and the recipes have a tendency to be very involved and takes a long time to make. Personally I prefer cookies that I can make in about an hour not 4 days like some of these.

Cookie Love