Taste: Cookbook: Chewy Cookies



I KNEW WE were in trouble when my wife, nearly nine months pregnant, asked me to pick up a roll of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies. We have a KitchenAid stand mixer, a Cuisinart and a digital scale, and she asks for Pillsbury. I complied, as any self-preserving father-to-be would, and after downing a few gooey circles fresh from the oven, she remarked, “See, your cookies aren’t chewy like this — they crumble apart.” She was right. But pre-fab cookies are now banished from our kitchen thanks to Chewy Cookies (iUniverse; $22.95). Author Eileen Talanian, of Laverock, offers more than 125 cookie recipes — chewy cookies. I was skeptical, so I tried a few recipes. Talanian doesn’t specifically reveal what makes a cookie chewy, but she does deliver. I’m really not interested in Papaya Paradises or Squash Gems, but I can attest to the pleasures of the more traditional Chewy (of course) Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Peanut Butter Dreams and Oatmeal Maple Chews.