Maida Heatter's Cookies: A blogger bakes

[ludja]

I ran across an interesitng blog today where a person is baking through all the cookies in Maida Heatter's Cookies book: Monday's with Maida

The blogger bakes a new cookie each Monday. She started in November 2004 and is still going strong each week! It looks like there about 30 recipes left to go! She has baked through Drop Cookies, Bar Cookies, Icebox Cookies and Rolled Cookies. She is currently baking through Hand-Formed Cookies and the last chapter is "Etcetera".

I've taken this book out of the library numerous times and have considered buying it as there are many tempting recipes. This site could be a nice reference point for getting additional comments on a recipe before trying it. She has a panel of tasters for each cookie and they give an overall rating. There are also comments from readers.

Any other with experiences or comments on the book?

Edited May 5, 2007 by ludja (log)

[nibor]

I did that. I started with her nut cookies. I quit after about a month because neither my husband nor I could quit eating them. Must have gained five pounds.

[ludja]

I did that. I started with her nut cookies. I quit after about a month because neither my husband nor I could quit eating them. Must have gained five pounds.

←

Pretty cool! (...that you cooked systematically throught the book; not the five lbs... )

One of her "strategies" seems to include having a panel of tasters from her circle of friends and coworkers!

[ludja]

Here are the Drop Cookies from the book (and the dates they were made): click

Chapter 1 - Drop Cookies

11/8/2004 - Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies

11/15/2004 - Santa Fe Chocolate Wafers

11/22/2004 - "Chocolate Street" Cookies

11/29/2004 - Big Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cookies

12/6/2004 - Key West Chocolate Treasures

12/13/2004 - Chocolate Applesaucers

12/20/2004 - Coconut Grove Cookies

12/27/2004 - Chocolate Raisin Cookies

1/3/2005 - Chocolate Banana Cookies

1/10/2005 - Chocolate Peanut-Butter Ripples

1/17/2005 - Chocolate Peanut Cookies

1/31/2005 - Whole-Wheat and Honey Hermits

2/7/2005 - Connecticut Nutmeg Hermits

2/14/2005 - Mountain-Honey Gingersnaps

2/21/2005 - Sour-Cream Ginger Cookies

2/28/2005 - Giant Ginger Cookies

3/7/2005 - Sunflower Coconut Cookies

3/14/2005 - Date-Nut Wafers

3/21/2005 - Lemon Walnut Wafers

3/28/2005 - Praline Wafers

4/4/2005 - The Farmer's Wife's Pecan Cookies

4/11/2005 - Route 7 Raisin-Nut Cookies

4/18/2005 - Nut-Tree Walnut Jumbles

4/25/2005 - 24-Karat Cookies

5/23/2005 - Indian Figlets

5/30/2005 - Hawaiian Pineapple Cookies

6/6/2005 - Pumpkin Rocks

6/13/2005 - Banana Rocks

6/20/2005 - Date-Nut Rocks

6/27/2005 - Blind Date Cookies

7/4/2005 - German Oatmeal Cookies

7/11/2005 - Norman Rockwell's Oatmeal Wafers

7/18/2005 - Oatmeal Snickerdoodles

7/25/2005 - Oatmeal Molasses Cookies

8/1/2005 - Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

8/8/2005 - Butterscotch Molasses Cookies

8/15/2005 - Poppy-Seed Wafers

8/22/2005 - Tijuana Fiesta Cookies

8/29/2005 - Vanilla Butter Wafers

8/30/2005 - My Favorite Drop Cookies

[Live It Up]

I am totally devoted to Maida Heatter's cookies...It's kinda shameful, but until recently the newest book of cookies (which I assume is the one we're talking about here) and Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts book were the only baking books that I owned. I recently bought Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies which is one of the books that the recipes in the newest book were taken from. I bought it for the lake como biscotti recipe, which I've made about 10 times in the last couple of months. Anyway, I've made dozens of recipes from these books and they have all been good to great. The pinwheel cookie that's pictured on the cover is my favorite cookie of all time...I just made some last night.

All of that said, though, I would probably buy the older books rather than the new one. Yeah, they're out of print, but they're easy to find. I've never made any of the recipes that are unique to the newer edition, and you miss out on all her great biscotti.

[ludja]

Great write up; thanks for the general comments as well as the mention of some of your favorites. I think I will definately need to get the older books or maybe the new "collection" which I guess includes many but not all that you would get from collecting the older books. It could drive me mildly crazy wondering if I was missing some great cookie recipe not in the collection.

Hope to hear of other people's favorite Maida Heatter cookies too...

Here is the list of Bar Cookies...

Chapter 2 - Bar Cookies

9/5/2005 - Petites Trianons

9/12/2005 - All-American Brownies

9/19/2005 - Greenwich Village Brownies

9/26/2005 - Cream-Cheese Brownies

10/3/2005 - Fudge Brownies

10/10/2005 - Chocolate Mint Sticks

10/17/2005 - Dutch Chocolate Bars

10/24/2005 - Viennese Chocolate-Walnut Bars

10/31/2005 - Supremes

11/7/2005 - Dark Rocky Roads

11/14/2005 - Light Rocky Roads

11/21/2005 - Butterscotch Brownies

11/28/2005 - Florida Cream-Cheese Squares

12/5/2005 - Florida Lemon Squares

12/19/2005 - Palm Beach Pineapple Squares

12/26/2005 - Christmas Fruitcake Bars

1/2/2006 - Hermit Bars

1/9/2006 - Brittle Peanut Bars

1/16/2006 - Hungarian Walnut Bars

1/23/2006 - Butterscotch Walnut Bars

1/30/2006 - Cinnamon Almond Cookies

2/6/2006 - Georgia Pecan Bars

2/13/2006 - Pecan Festival Bars

2/20/2006 - Pecan Chews

2/27/2006 - Aspen Oatmeal Bars

3/6/2006 - Texas Cowboy Bars

3/13/2006 - Honey Date-Nut Bars

3/20/2006 - Aspen Date-Nut Fingers

3/27/2006 - Viennese Linzer Cookies

4/3/2006 - Polish Wedding Cakes

4/10/2006 - Viennese Marzipan Bars

4/11/2006 - My Favorite Bar Cookies

Edited May 5, 2007 by ludja (log)

[apronstrings]

Love this thread!! I've just checked my cookbook and saw that I made 38 different types of cookies from it. My faves were--- sesame sticks, hazelnut rusks ( they both are just like the Italian Bakeries in Brooklyn!), rugelach (equal parts cream cheese and butter), Supremes ( great for crowds, makes a ton), Viennese Linzer cookies, cream cheese brownies, dark rocky roads, and Austrian walnut crescents. I have all of Maida Heatter's cookbooks and she's my kitchen goddess.

[ludja]

Thanks for sharing your comments, apronstrings. It really helps to hear people's impressions of the recipes!

May I ask what the Austrian Walnut Crescent are like? (Cathy from the "Mondays with Maida" Blog hasn't reached them yet.) Are they filled with a ground walnut filling or are the ground walnuts a part of the dough?

click

Chapter 3 - Icebox Cookies

4/17/2006 - New Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies

4/24/2006 - Black-and-White Coconut Slices

5/8/2006 - Wienerstube Cookies

5/15/2006 - Maxines

5/22/2006 - Cobblestones

5/29/2006 - Neapolitans

6/5/2006 - Fruitcake Icebox Cookies

6/12/2006 - Butterscotch Thins

6/19/2006 - Pecan Butterscotch Icebox Cookies

6/26/2006 - Oatmeal Icebox Cookies

7/3/2006 - Peanut-Butter Pillows

7/10/2006 - Whole-Wheat Peanut-Butter Cookies

7/17/2006 - Icebox Nut Cookies

7/24/2006 - Sesame Fingers

7/31/2006 - Caraway Crisps

8/7/2006 - Almond Spicebox Cookies

8/14/2006 - Anise Icebox Cookies

8/21/2006 - Cardamom Cookies from Copenhagen

8/28/2006 - Pinwheels

8/29/2006 - My Favorite Icebox Cookies

Besides giving newcomers to Maida Heatter's cookbooks a peek at the recipes on offer I'm hoping that seeing the list will prompt people to recall and share their favorites as apronstrings and Live It Up have so far.

[apronstrings]

Ground walnuts are part of the dough. No eggs.The dough is rolled and then formed into crescent shapes. A heavy dose of confectioners sugar is sifted over the baked cookies. I love the way they feel when I place the baked crescents on my tongue, and they don't taste too bad either. I LOVE this recipe. Oh, and they remind me lot of Mexican wedding cakes.

[Lindacakes]

I am a big fan of Maida Heatter. I have all of her cookbooks in the first edition. I started with the cakes/pies/cookies books and ended up dumping them because they didn't include recipes I was looking for. I always ask people their favorite Maida recipe and keep tabs on them -- a list follows. I've found some recipes that I was disappointed with, personally, but always from a preference standpoint, never fom technique. Maida is a perfectionist and I like that very much. I hate wasting my time on a bad recipe. I think there should be serious penalties for people who publish bad recipes.

My all time favorites are Sour Cream Pecan Dreams, Lemon Squares and California Fruit and Nut Bars. These are among my favorite cookies and I make them all the time.

You can listen to Maida interviewed on NPR:

The Queen of Desserts

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1026458

These are recipes other people have told me they love and make all the time --

Chocolate Souffle Cake

Coffee Cream Sponge Cake

Orange Chiffon Cake

Denver Brownies

Coffee and Cognac Cream Pie

Mrs. Foster's Lime Pie

Lemon Tartlets

Sour Lemon Squares

Coffee Buttercrunch Pie

Walnut Tart from Saint Paul-de-Vence

Blackberry with Scotch Cheesecake

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Blueberry Peach Buckle

Colonial Blueberries

Cranberry Grunt

Vermont Baked Apples with Gingered Creme Fraiche

Strawberry Sorbet

Amaretto Chocolate Cheesecake

Queen Mother's Cake

Chocolate Angel Pie

From the Book of Great Cookies --

Black and White Coconut Slices

Peanut Butter Pillows

Chocolate Mint Sticks

Almond Spice Box Cookies

[snowangel]

Way back in 1980 when I moved into my first apartment, my mother surprised me with an apartment warming gift -- Maida's first cookie book, cookie sheets, mixing bowls, canisters, flour, sugar, etc. Then, for Mother's Day many years later, she surprised me with a copy of Maida's brand-new cookie book.

I have loved and treasured both books, and if I'm looking for a different cookie to try, I check Maida first.

The first book is especially charming -- with the illustrations done by her daughter who died before her second book,

But, one of the things I especially loved about the first book, when I was learning to bake, were the instructions. What the dough should look like. Exactly what the cookies should look like when you remove them from the oven. And, once cooled, whether they should be crispy, soft or cakey.

Maida revamped what I put on the Xmas cookie plate. No plate at that time of year would be complete without the Sour Cream Pecan Dreams. They are the first to disappear!

Interesting that while I occasionally see her other books at Half-Price books or thrift stores, I've never seen a copy of either of her cookie books.

[ludja]

Wow, I have a feeling that Cathy's blog and this thread will be very helpful for me! I'm looking forward to following her blog and making some comments there as well!

click

Chapter 4 - Rolled Cookies

9/4/2006 - Swedish Rye Wafers

9/11/2006 - Whole-Wheat Squares

9/18/2006 - Whole-Wheat Honey Wafers

9/25/2006 - Wild-Honey and Ginger Cookies

10/2/2006 - Honey Graham Crackers

10/9/2006 - Swedish Honey Cookies

10/16/2006 - Swedish Ginger Cookies

10/23/2006 - Viennese Almond Wafers

10/30/2006 - Ischler Cookies

11/6/2006 - Viennese Chocolate Cookies

11/13/2006 - Tropical Sour-Cream Cookies

11/20/2006 - Caraway Sour-Cream Cookies

11/27/2006 - Rum-Raisin Shortbread

12/4/2006 - Hot Butter Wafers

12/11/2006 - Caraway Hardtack

12/26/2006 - Arrowroot Wafers from Bermuda

1/1/2007 - Uppakra Cookies

1/8/2007 - Ginger Shortbread Cookies

1/15/2007 - Dione Lucas' Sablés

1/22/2007 - Cornell Sugar Cookies

1/29/2007 - Plain Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

2/12/2007 - Chocolate-Chip Pillows

2/19/2007 - Prune Pillows

2/26/2007 - Hamantaschen

3/5/2007 - Rugelach

3/12/2007 - Danish Coffeehouse Slices

3/19/2007 - Big Newtons

3/20/2007 - My Favorite Rolled Cookies

Edited May 7, 2007 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

Ground walnuts are part of the dough. No eggs.The dough is rolled and then formed into crescent shapes. A heavy dose of confectioners sugar is sifted over the baked cookies. I love the way they feel when I place  the  baked crescents on my tongue, and they don't taste too bad either. I LOVE this recipe. Oh, and they remind me lot of Mexican wedding cakes.

←

Thanks for the info, apronstrings. That is pretty neat that she uses ground walnuts for these classic cookies. (There is another type of Austrian "walnut crescent" cookie which is why I asked for more detail.)

Almost all the cookbooks I've seen use ground almonds. The lattter are also very traditional but our family always uses walnuts for these "crescents" or Vanillekipferl. The use of walnuts is popular in the part of Austria we come from which is abundant with walnut trees. (south and easten Austria) I think the walnuts really give them that great melt in the mouth texture that you describe. They're related to Mexican wedding cakes but the I think the ground walnuts and vanilla (see below) add so much. The recipe I use has an egg yolk or two in ithe dough but it might be interesting to also try Maida's recipe.

One thing that is surprising about her recipe though is that these are traditionally drenched in Vanilla powdered sugar, hence "Vanillakipferl' or Vanilla Crescents. She may have omitted it b/c it has been more dear to get vanilla pods to flavor the sugar in the past . Another way to flavor the sugar is to add some Vanilla Sugar (the concentrated stuff in a little packet, made in Germany). Make these a week before and let them ripen. Hands down the favorite (Christmas) cookies in our family and for almost all tasters of my Mom's Christmas platter of 10-15 different Austrian cookies.

I love that Maida has such a nice selection of Austrian cookies in her collections. There are a bunch of recipes that I've not seen elsewhere.

Edited May 7, 2007 by ludja (log)

[Cookie Dibs]

It's almost impossible to get a bad recipe from Maida Heatter.

Personal favorites:

Banana Savannah Pie, which was the first time I ever encountered sweetened condensed milk carmelized into what I now know to be Dulce De Leche. To die for and addictive, and incredibly simple. Somewhere along the line (my husband was military), I misplaced the cookbook - I either lent the cookbook to someone, or it was stolen. A cookbook, stolen! I would literally check bookshelves in houses we went to, sure that someone had forgotten that they had it. But, it never turned up.

Also, Sante Fe Wafers, I think they are called, which are eggless, thin chocolate wafers are great.

[Priscilla]

Ludja, that blog is a great find.

I don't remember where I picked up my copy of M.H.'s Book of Great Cookies, but I know it caught my eye when I ran across it because all her work was commended by Craig Claiborne.

Those Chocolate Banana drop cookies I have made perhaps 8,000 times -- they were my child's very favorite when he was small. A good cookie for small children, they are cakey and mild -- I think the topical blogger describes them very accurately. The sight of a couple bananas verging on overripity in the fruit bowl can still provoke the request. Now, as then, with no walnuts.

It is inspiring to read all of these experiences and favorites.

Another Austrian reference: A while ago watching Wolfgang Puck good-naturedly hawk his merch on HSN -- I love to reckon just how incredibly much money he makes just how fast, in case his people aren't keeping track -- he got a phone call from Maida Heatter, obviously a friend, and he told her that when he saw her later that evening he would bring her one of whatever he was showing at the moment, I ferget what it was, a stick blender or a convection oven or a panini grill or something.

[janeer]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I have an ancient copy of her baking book and a first edition of her first cookie book. Both are well used. I love the rugelah recipe with the cream-cheese dough.Little Compton Mornings

[ruthcooks]

A great MH favorite of mine is from the Book of Great Chocolate Desserts: Abby Mandel's Boule de Neige (snowball). A dense chocolate mixture is baked in a small mixing bowl and covered with rosettes of whipped cream. This has been featured at many Christmas dinners at my house.

Also from that book, I like the chocolate cupcakes which MH says is one of the two recipes she ususally makes for "cake sales". The glaze is especially nice, a runny ganache into which you swirl the cupcake tops multiple times. Not too sweet.

My other MH books are in storage but I remember her Raspberry-Strawberry Bavarian. (May not be the exact name, but the dust cover shows one serving in a large stemmed balloon glass.) This makes about 16 large servings if I recall, an easy dessert for a large number of people, and very good.

[apronstrings]

I made that Bavarian many times right after the book came out. People loved it. But what I remember most about that recipe is her advice to mix it with your hands. Oh man, it was sooooooo cold!

[ruthcooks]

I made that Bavarian many times right after the book came out. People loved it. But what I remember most about that recipe is her advice to mix it with your hands. Oh man, it was sooooooo cold!

←

I always bought a new pair of rubber gloves for that step--really helps and is much more sanitary.

[MaxH]

I was a fan of MH's (chocolate?) desserts book that came out 25? years ago and anticipated (or furthered) a US fashion for dense little cakes containing lots of ground-up nuts and chocolate and eggs, and a tablespoon of flour. It was one of those definitive US reference cookbooks, like Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking and More Classic Italian Cooking, and others.

But this thread raises a larger social question. Are we entering the era of people cooking their way through popular cookbooks and writing about it? There was that recent example from Julia Child's book. There are probably others. Will history remember that as a distinctive feature of this particular time, and will people tire of it? As, for instance, English-speaking people buying up old farmhouses in Latin Europe and fixing them up and writing books about it became a cliché in the 1990s, after Peter Mayle's best-selling example?

-- Max

--------

One of the most gratifying things about stews is the obstinacy with which they resist elegant trappings and endure past the life span of all food fads. They belong to that category of dishes A. J. Liebling called the "I-beam of cooking"; the kind that will never let down those whose only criterion for judging food is how good it tastes. -- Marcella Hazan (1978)

[ludja]

I just ran across this thread and checked back at the "Modays with Maida" blog. Cathy, the blogger, finished her plan to cook through all the cookies in the book in November 2007! Pretty cool and what dedication. The blog is a great resource as there are detailed tasting and baking comments on each and every cookie and cracker in the book.

[emmalish]

Resurrecting this thread with a question about one of the recipes in this book. I was thinking about making the oatmeal snickerdoodles on the weekend. I was reading through the ingredients, and it all made sense, until I got to TEN cups of oatmeal. Is that right? That can't be right! I've been googling and not finding this recipe online. And while the blogger referenced here has made the cookies, she didn't post the recipe.

Help?

[Tri2Cook]

Resurrecting this thread with a question about one of the recipes in this book. I was thinking about making the oatmeal snickerdoodles on the weekend. I was reading through the ingredients, and it all made sense, until I got to TEN cups of oatmeal. Is that right? That can't be right! I've been googling and not finding this recipe online. And while the blogger referenced here has made the cookies, she didn't post the recipe.

Help?

I'd have to look up the recipe. I know I have that book somewhere, it was in my mom's cookbook collection that I inherited. I don't know if I've ever used it though. I just remember being a tiny bit disappointed because (true story), the first time I saw it on her shelf, a few years before she passed away, for some reason I read it as "Mad Hatter's Cookies" and got excited... and then realized that it wasn't actually that. She got a pretty good laugh out of it.

[Anna N]

Resurrecting this thread with a question about one of the recipes in this book. I was thinking about making the oatmeal snickerdoodles on the weekend. I was reading through the ingredients, and it all made sense, until I got to TEN cups of oatmeal. Is that right? That can't be right! I've been googling and not finding this recipe online. And while the blogger referenced here has made the cookies, she didn't post the recipe.

Help?

If you look here http://www.imamother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=195494 you will see the 10 cups has become the more reasonable 1 1/2 cups. I leave you to judge the value of the link.

[emmalish]

If you look here http://www.imamother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=195494 you will see the 10 cups has become the more reasonable 1 1/2 cups. I leave you to judge the value of the link.

Brilliant, thank you! It's from a different book, but other than the quantity of oats, it's identical.