Rating: 
Summary: Informative cookbook filled with delicious recipes.
Review: I agree with the other reviewers in that if I had to pick only one cookbook devoted to cookies, this would be it. I like to "read" cookbooks in my spare time -- to get ideas, to plan, to daydream about what I'd like to do if I had the time. This book is ideal for that. The photographs are gorgeous and every cookie is accompanied by a few paragraphs that give a few choice hints or a bit of history. And the recipes! They are so delicious I have to force myself not to keep making the same one over and over. If I have time, I try to make the Chewy Chocolate Chunk Monster cookies (she gives a very good tip on studding the cookies with chips that I've carried on to other recipes) and one new recipe. Every recipe comes with directions that are very thorough and Chapter One is actually entitled: Read This: How To Make Great Cookies Every Single Time. If you follow her directions and use good quality ingredients, I can assure you that you will be more than pleased with the results.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Cookies Each Time!
Review: I bought this cookbook a year ago and it is the most treasured in my collection. Every type of cookie you would want is in this book(chip cookies to bar cookies to brownies to nut and fruit cookies). I found the introduction the most helpful - how to make the best cookies each time - and I have not made a bad batch since! There is a complete decorating section in the back, filled with techniques (color brushing to icing). Its a great book for kids too, there are cookies for every taste bud and difficulty level. It is filled with full-page, full-color pictures of mouth-watering cookies! Buy this book, you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: An American Cookie Encyclopedia
Review: I'm a cookie expert. I've been baking cookies for over 40 years. I thought I'd tried every recipe. Just for some new inspiration, I bought Nancy Baggett's book. Not only did I find new recipes, but interesting explanations of regional favorites, techniques and flavors. I included a half dozen or so of her recipes in my annual Christmas cookie baking, and my friends all raved about the new additions.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice book, but disappointing recipes
Review: I'm an experienced baker and pastry maker and really like the historic information in this book - I never really thought about how hard it must have been to bake cookies in former times. But the recipes (at least the ones I tried - Molasses Applesaucers and Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies) were disappointing: even using Ms. Baggett's measuring method, the amount of flour in the recipes was far too low and the resulting cookies were WAY TOO SWEET. The instructions are very repetitive. I'm glad I got the book at the library so I can return it.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite cookbook!
Review: If someone told me I could only keep one of my cookbooks I would select this one without hesitation. Each recipe gives you a little history of how that cookie came to be. I never had a cookbook in which I loved every recipe until now. I have made MANY of the recipes in this book and they were all fabulous! Macraroons to die for, peanut butter chocolate cookies. I originally bought this cookbook because I wanted a good recipe for black and whites (a New York staple) and this book has now become my baking bible. Whenever I am going to a party I look through this one first.Nancy Baggett's directions are so easy to follow too, so you won't get tripped up. Try it, you'll love it!!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite cookbook!
Review: If someone told me I could only keep one of my cookbooks I would select this one without hesitation. Each recipe gives you a little history of how that cookie came to be. I never had a cookbook in which I loved every recipe until now. I have made MANY of the recipes in this book and they were all fabulous! Macraroons to die for, peanut butter chocolate cookies. I originally bought this cookbook because I wanted a good recipe for black and whites (a New York staple) and this book has now become my baking bible. Whenever I am going to a party I look through this one first. Nancy Baggett's directions are so easy to follow too, so you won't get tripped up. Try it, you'll love it!!
Rating:
Summary: Good Cookie Resource
Review: In the introduction, Nancy Baggett admits to being a cookbook historian, and her scholarship shows not only in the depth of the 150+ recipes in this tome, about a third of which are "historical recipes", but also in the interesting footnotes and sidebars. For example, who knew that macadamia nuts are not native to Hawaii but Australia? It's always a good sign when a cookbook makes for an enjoyable read (and the photography alone will make you hungry). Other Amazon.com reviewers comment that some called-for-amounts in recipes may not be correct. Baggett claims to have prepared each recipe three times to check for measurement errors, and I haven't had any problems with them myself (although I do add 50% more toffee chips to the sinfully good "Toffee-Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies"). If there is a complaint about the book, it is that some recipes take up more space than necessary. Nestle manages to cram the same cookie recipe on the back of bag of chips for which Baggett spends 1 and 1/2 pages. I don't think that the book will be intimidating for novice cooks, as there are a number of simple "homemade classics", such as sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, and ginger-spice crinkles. There are also some overly complicated cookies included; I found the "Iced Cranberry White Chocolate Drop Cookies" to be an involved process, but worth the effort. The instructions are generally quite clear. Recommended recipes (other than those already mentioned): My family enjoys the "Peppermint Road Chocolate Chipsters" every December, and the "Ice Cream Sandwiches" recipe is superior to one recently published in Fine Cooking magazine.
Rating: 
Summary: So Good it Made Very Vera's Review List!!
Review: It's great to finally be understood. Sure, there are a few of us who can appreciate a crunchy almond biscotti once in awhile, a florentine or even a madeline, but come on; everybody knows that what we really crave is a genuine chocolate chip cookie! Not the kind in a tube from the grocery store, either. The real lick the bowl, fight over the beater experience. The All-American Cookie Book has the best ever chocolate chip cookie recipe and a lot more to munch on besides. For several years, author Nancy Baggett traveled the nation visiting small-town bakeries, fancy urban cookie boutiques, farmers' markets and talking with every local cookie authority she could find. She searched through dusty bookshelves for old cookbooks, sought out family heirloom recipes and set about the process of writing the definitive American cookie book. This book is the place to look for the cookie your grandma baked for you when you were a child; these are fill the cookie jar and watch them disappear recipes. Favorites from every corner of the country are represented here as well as old fashioned classics: one bite of a Caramel-Frosted Brown Sugar Drop and you'll be pouring yourself a glass of milk and feeling like a kid again. The history and evolution of cookie baking in America makes for fascinating reading and eating. Baggett has reworked centuries-old "receipts," as recipes were commonly called, so we can step back into time to taste and understand what and how our ancestors cooked.
The old saying "everything old is new again" is definitely true here. Add this one to your collection, stock your pantry and get ready for the next "it's raining outside, great time to bake cookies" day!
Rating:
Summary: beautiful pictures, but disappointing recipes
Review: The cookbook is pictorially beautiful, but now I'm afraid to try any more of the recipes!!
I made the black-bottom mini brownie cups and they were an utter failure. I've read the recipe over and over and I think the amount of flour is wrong. (needs more!)
The lemon cheesecake tassies were a lot of work. They taste fine, but not as lemony as you would expect from the amount of zest in them.
I'm disappointed to have spent so much money on a book where the recipes are questionable. I highly recommend "365 Great Cookies and Brownies". I've tried numerous recipes in that book without a single failure.
Thanks to the other reviewers who have warned me about other problematic recipes!!!
Rating:
Summary: Yummy Yummy Yummy
Review: The cookies in this book (at least the ones I have tried) are incredible. As a warning, some of them are a little on the difficult side, but some are easy as...well, not pie since pie is difficult, but easy! A couple of warnings: 1. READ THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK. Even if you're an expert, you need to read the introductory information. Nancy Baggett is very specific in the beginning about certain things like the way she wants you to measure flour, etc. This also goes for the directions within the recipes about things like the temperatures of various ingredients. If you take your eggs out of the fridge and use them in the chocolate meringues, you'll be very disappointed in the cookies! If you're careful, however, you'll find them very delicious. 2. Know your oven. My oven, for example, takes a little longer than the ovens in *any* cookbook, even though I have had it tested for temperature. If you don't bake frequently, you'll want to test your cookies so you don't either undercook or overcook them. Basically, this is an excellent book with detailed information, fascinating tidbits of cookie history great pictures and delicious cookie recipes for both the beginner and the expert.
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