Good day, book lovers, and welcome back to the Humpback Writers, the Hump Day feature that asks the musical question: Do these writers have back disorders, or is it just named for Wednesday? To which we answer: Maybe! Here we look at every kind of book imaginable, but for just the second time since this feature began, we have a cookbook.
I received this book as a gift some years ago, and what a beautiful book it is. Cookies, it is called simply, by Australia's own Pamela Clark. And that's what it's all about -- dozens of recipes for gorgeous cookies.
Pamela Clark's Wiki page says she has been a professional baker, home economist, and writer of cookbooks since 1969, so we know she knows her cookies. Hundreds of books have been "informally" attributed to her that were published under the rubric of Australia Women's Weekly, and today's book may have been one of them. I don't really know, because it was a 2007 edition from Barnes and Noble. Anyway, she seems nice enough, and the cookies in this book look delicious.
"There's never been a cookie book like this one," says the introduction, "full of fantastic and imaginative ideas that will excite the baker as much as the taster." You may wonder if this strong claim is true. So do I. Which is to say, I haven't tried to make any of them yet.
Why is that? Well, for a start, these are cookies for all seasons, and I usually only bake at Christmastime. Here, for example, is something called Stained-glass Lollipops, a real summertime treat (which, to be fair, is when Christmas arrives Down Under):
I don't know if you've ever tried to make a stained-glass cookie, which involves melting hard candy, reforming it as you wish, and then cooling back into candy. I have. It was a hot mess. Literally a hot mess.
So yes, I am insinuating that many of these cookies are more difficult than I would like to try to make. Plus, when you make a chocolate chip cookie everyone seems to dig, it's hard to be motivated to go that extra mile for something complex, and when I am, it's for pfeffeneuse.
But there are many, many bakers more gifted and competent and determined than I who would love this book.
I hope the author and publisher don't mind, but I would like to share one Christmas cookie recipe from the book that looks beautiful. Consider it a review excerpt. (Plus the book seems to be out of print in the United States anyway.) Here we go:
You see how neat these angels are? I can't even ice a gingerbread cookie to make it look neat. All my gingerbread men come out looking like some kind of homeless gingerbread bums, living hard on the street, hammered on ginger liqueur. But please, if you try these Christmas Angels, let me know how they come out. They look awesome.
I'm not sure I'll even bake this year, since there's no one to go share them with -- no office, no big gatherings, no nothing. I do go to a few events but food is outlawed. All this because of the Chinese Death Virus. If I bake a bunch of cookies I fear I will eat them all, and then I'll have to stay home next year because my pants won't fit.
Well, thanks to Pamela Clark and her staff for a beautiful, almost coffee-table quality book. If I can't have awesome cookies in my mouth, at least I can have them in a book. They always say you eat with your eyes first anyhow.
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