Cookie Craft

Beautifully decorated cookies are within reach for every home baker, thanks to the easy and practical methods developed by cookie-crafting enthusiasts Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer. From rolling and cutting to flooding and piping, you’ll find dozens of techniques to turn plain cookies into fun treats for your next special occasion. With instructions for making stand-up cookies, tips on creating icing color palettes, and advice on freezing and shipping, the cookie fun never stops!

Beautifully decorated cookies are within reach for every home baker, thanks to the easy and practical methods developed by cookie-crafting enthusiasts Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer. From rolling and cutting to flooding and piping, you’ll find dozens of techniques to turn plain cookies into fun treats for your next special occasion. With instructions for making stand-up cookies, tips on creating icing color palettes, and advice on freezing and shipping, the cookie fun never stops!

Make every Christmas a cookie craft Christmas! The holidays offer just the right combination of cold weather and family togetherness for cookie crafters to elevate their skills to showstopping new heights. With more than 60 new Christmas cookie designs, along with festive New Year’s cookies and lovely Hanukkah treats, Cookie Craft Christmas delivers colorful inspiration to cookie decorators just when they need it most. Each spread features a full-page, close-up photograph of one cookie cutter shape with detailed decorating instructions on the facing page. Some pages feature one gloriously decorated cookie, while others might feature two or three interpretations of the same shape — ornaments in complementary colors, Christmas trees decorated in varying styles, or gingerbread men wearing a rainbow of colors and patterns. Decorating instructions are as simple as tinting cookie dough green before baking Christmas trees or as intricate as piping hair on a gingerbread grandma, creating a frilly pattern for her apron, and decorating her dress using a pretty feathering technique. Techniques are described in full in a Decorating Glossary, and cookie and icing recipes are included. Fresh inspiration and fabulous decorating ideas fill the pages of this handy little sourcebook. It’s the perfect gift for anyone who has ever picked up a pastry bag.

Directions for creating forty-five party favors and decorations from commercially prepared cookies.

Take your holiday cookie decorating to impressive new heights! Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer will have you sprinkling powdered snowflakes onto cheery snowmen and adding a sugary glimmer to multicolored strands of licorice lights. With more than 60 fabulous designs for Christmas cookies, plus festive delights for New Year’s and Hanukkah, Cookie Craft Christmas gives you the inspiration and simple instructions you need for batch after batch of deliciously show-stopping holiday cheer.

Teddy bear shop manager Sasha Silverman must step fast to find a murderer before an upcoming Scottish festival . . . It’s springtime in Silver Hollow, Michigan, and Sasha is looking forward to the village’s inaugural Highland Fling weekend. Plans are underway for a Kilted 5K, athletic competitions, dancing, live music, and even a Hurl-the-Haggis contest. Meanwhile, Sasha’s staff is busy crafting custom teddy bears in kilts for the Silver Bear Shop’s vendor booth. But trouble’s brewing behind the scenes, as the obnoxious Teddy Hartman, former owner of a rival teddy bear company, sows seeds of discord about town, targeting Sasha’s family and their business. Things go from plaid to worse when—just a week before the festival kicks-off—the disgruntled gossip is found murdered with an ax buried in his back. Sasha’s dad is arrested, since he’s a champion ax-thrower. But she doesn’t give a dram what it looks like—Sasha knows that despite the old business rivalry with Hartman, her father is innocent. So with a spot of help from her friends, Sasha must bag the real killer before her first Fling also becomes her last. Praise for BEARLY DEPARTED “You’ll fall in love with this delightful debut mystery.” —Victoria Thompson, bestselling author of Murder in Morningside Heights “The first in a new series features a complex plot awash in red herrings, a perky heroine . . . and everything you ever wanted to know about teddy bears.” —Kirkus Reviews “The appealing, impulsive amateur sleuth, dedicated to the family business, will appeal to fans of character-driven cozies.” —Library Journal “Entertaining . . . inhabited by quirky, fully developed characters and good dogs and cats.” —Publishers Weekly

Who doesn't love cookies? Milk and cookies evoke memories of childhood treats. The delicate cookies served with coffee in so many restaurants provide a small indulgence without excessive guilt. Chocolate chip cookies are as American as apple pie. In The Complete Cookie, veteran authors Barry Bluestein and Kevin Morrissey present home cooks with a single-source reference for producing the best-ever cookies of every kind: filled, rolled, drop, bar, shaped, pressed, and molded. There are chapters highlighting decadent holiday cookies, as well as those of the healthful persuasion (sugarless, flourless, nonfat, and low-fat). Sidebars offer hints and tips galore on decorating, frosting, cutting, and storing, as well as instructions for homemade fillings, flavorings, and candied fruit. Special sections provide a wealth of essential information on ingredients, equipment, and techniques. Illustrated with eight pages of glorious full-color photographs, The Complete Cookie is an up-to-the-minute guide for modern cooks. You'll find recipes not only for the classics, including big, chewy chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies, but also novel twists on old-time favorites -- such as chocolate rugalach (out of this world!) and ginger biscotti (divine!) -- to suit sophisticated tastes. Just reading these pages will be enough to have even timid bakers reaching for the nearest sack of flour.

Take your holiday cookie decorating to impressive new heights! Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer will have you sprinkling powdered snowflakes onto cheery snowmen and adding a sugary glimmer to multicolored strands of licorice lights. With more than 60 fabulous designs for Christmas cookies, plus festive delights for New Year’s and Hanukkah, Cookie Craft Christmas gives you the inspiration and simple instructions you need for batch after batch of deliciously show-stopping holiday cheer.