The Cookie That Changed My Life

October 1, 2023
L.A.-based culinary icon Silverton (Chi Spacca, 2020) tinkered with pastry during the pandemic, and the result is this collection of over 100 recipes, tinged with her wisdom as a veteran professional baker. Classics fill the pages, from banana bread and peanut butter cookies to Bundt cake, bread pudding and devil's food cake with fudge frosting. More inventive takes dot the collection, like marzipan cake, black sesame white chocolate cookies, pecorino and parmesan scones, and raisin brown butter tart, though Silverton's focus is on what's craveable and not simply on what's trending. Bakers familiar with Silverton's work will peruse this for inspiration, though be warned that many recipe instructions exceed two, and sometimes three, pages. Silverton owns her decades of experience in the kitchen as well as the importance of revising old formulas, like an old graham cracker recipe that she felt should be spiced up with cloves and nutmeg. This is a nice reminder to the amateur baker that everyone can use a culinary refresh on occasion.

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Starred review from November 1, 2023

Does anyone really need another recipe for banana bread, lemon bars, or carrot cake? The answer is yes, if those recipes come from James Beard Award-winning baking doyenne Silverton (Chi Spacca). In her latest impeccably crafted cookbook, which was inspired by a peanut-butter cookie and the pandemic lockdown, the Californian restaurateur and baker gathers together more than 100 of her ingenious takes on classic cakes, cookies, muffins, and pies, along with a few offerings provided by culinary friends. The recipes included here require no special culinary techniques or skills, but Silverton does take her baking seriously, and she expects readers to do so too. Fortunately for novice bakers, every recipe is broken down into detailed steps that ensure success if faithfully followed. The book delightfully illuminates Silverton's delicious philosophy of baking. VERDICT There's no shortage of excellent baking books available, including Dorie Greenspan's Baking with Dorie and Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Baking Bible, but home bakers trying to up their dessert game will find that Silverton's superbly written guide hits the sweet spot.--John Charles

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Starred review from December 4, 2023
James Beard Award winner Silverton (Desserts) found inspiration for this stellar collection in a simple but delicious peanut butter cookie she ate during the pandemic lockdown. Afterward, she set out to develop recipes for the “absolute best version of the baked goods we all know and love.” Scrumptious treats to start the day include “yum-yum” coffee cake and monkey bread. While readers may think they already have the best-ever recipes for such commonplace cookies as peanut butter, chocolate chunk, and oatmeal raisin, Silverton’s persuasive takes will cause them to rethink that notion. What makes her versions stand out are the little details absent from most recipes, such as roasting and salting peanuts before baking them and squeezing clods of crumb topping in one’s fist and dropping them on the New York crumb cake “in clumps” rather than sprinkling them. These and other subtle touches elevate Silverton’s dishes from delicious to sublime. As a bonus, most recipes are easy and don’t require sophisticated techniques, so even beginners can create brag-worthy results. Silverton also shares valuable tips from her more than 50 years of baking experience, including best practices for freezing various doughs and the best tool for sifting flour. Home bakers will find much to savor.