Christmas is only a few weeks away. Shopping, baking, and entertaining are all at the top of everyone’s to do list. The bakers have already been hard at work and the library just received two scrumptious cookbooks they may want to check out for new recipes and inspiration. 

 

The King Arthur Baking Company’s “The Essential Cookie Companion” has just about everything anyone could want to know about the art of baking cookies. The King Arthur Baking Company has been known since 1790 for their flours and for their high standards and expertise. 

 

This cookie cookbook opens with a chapter on “Getting Started” that explains basic techniques as well as ingredients, and tools. The next chapter looks at nine classic cookies from chocolate chip to simple sugar cookies with loads of variations. It then moves on to chapters on bar, drop, roll-out, shaped, and no-bake cookies. It concludes with a chapter on ingredients including substitutions. 

 

The recipes move from Marlita’s Chocolate-Raspberry Bars to Chocolate Whoopie Pies, from the classic Macarons to Lemon Squares. There is even a section on dips for your cookies. If you are a cookie fan, this is the perfect cookbook for you. 

 

The second cookbook that just arrived is “Taste of Home Ultimate Baking Cookbook.”  Inside there are more than five hundred sweet and savory bites including yeast breads, cakes, pies, biscuits, cheesecakes, and cookies. All the recipes were evaluated in the Taste of Home Test Kitchen and most come with color photographs. 

 

From Glazed Apple-Maple Blondies to Grandma’s Sour Cream Raisin Pie, from Quick Buttermilk Cornbread to Blueberry Sour Cream Pound Cake, this is a cookbook that makes you want to head to the kitchen to try new things. 

 

The library is closing at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 24^th for the Thanksgiving holiday and will re-open on Monday at 11 a.m. Happy Thanksgiving.