Martha Stewart's Cookie Perfection: Eight Tasty Recipes from Our Founder's Latest Book
For cookie bakers novice or experienced, our latest book, Martha Stewart's Cookie Perfection, is a must-have. It has more than 100 recipes—from superlative twists on classic cookies to monumental treats to share. In addition to recipes, the book includes the elements of cookie style, how to drop, roll, slice, and shape, plus icing, piping, and other embellishments. You'll also find information on essential ingredients for cookie making and the tools you'll need to get the job done. Consider it your new manual for everything cookie related.
Here we share an irresistible selection of eight recipes from the book. There are Giant White-Chocolate Pecan Cookies and diminutive Sparkly Lemon Cookies. Included are our definitive whoopie pie recipe and two other stupendous sandwich cookies—one peanut butter and one double-chocolate with hazelnuts. Triple-Chocolate Brownie Cups are as decadent as their name suggests. They're large, measuring four inches across, and intensely chocolatey thanks to a mix of bittersweet chocolate and semisweet and white chocolate chips. Simply put, they should satisfy even the most ardent brownie lover. What's more, they're extremely portable unlike most brownies.
Though we're not here to choose favorites, it's a simple point of fact that the most stunning recipe in the bunch is the Brown-Butter Honey Cookies. Brown butter adds a nutty flavor, and there's a hint of cardamom that also takes these treats to the next level, but it's the basketweave look of this distinctive cookies that catches the eye. Of course, there's a sugar cookie in the mix, and it's a simple recipe that we think lives up to the book's title. It's perfection indeed.
Recipes reprinted from: Martha Stewart's Cookie Perfection: 100+ Recipes to Take Your Treats to the Next Level, From the Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living. Copyright © 2019 by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Available October 15 wherever books are sold; to pre-order, go to amazon.com.
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Giant White-Chocolate-Pecan Cookies
So big that you bake them only two per sheet, these giant white-chocolate-pecan cookies feed a crowd. Dark-brown sugar ups the chewy factor, the nuts bring crunch, and jumbo chunks of white chocolate create pockets of melted sweetness.
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Peanut-Butter Sandwich Cookies
In this tower of power, PB is the MVP. Creamy peanut butter enriches the filling (made of butter, powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt), and also lends nuttiness to the cookies, which get their crispy bite from toasted oats and turbinado sugar. For uniform-size tops and bottoms—the key to a successful sandwich cookie—chill the dough for 20 minutes in the refrigerator, then use a two-inch cutter dipped in flour to prevent sticking when you punch out the shapes.
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Perfect Sugar Cookies
We think of sugar cookies as jacks-of-all-trades, not plain Janes. That's because our take is delicious alone or gussied up in a variety of ways. Two genius touches set this recipe apart: a scoop of sour cream for pillowy softness, and a drop-style dough, which means no rolling is required. Add sprinkles or sanding sugar before baking; then, for an even softer result, pull the cookies out of the oven when they're just golden on the edges and pale at the center. Let them cool completely so they can firm up, and if marmalade is more your jam, finish plain ones with a citrus glaze and curls of candied peel.
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Salted-Caramel Whoopie Pies
Though the rims of pink salt and coarse sugar on these knockouts may look like a flourish, they actually complete a trifecta of flavors. The puffed rounds (which achieve their tender springiness from whole milk) are jazzed up with warming cinnamon and allspice, and the velvety filling is homemade caramel buttercream—trust us, it's well worth the step of cooking sugar until it's golden brown and whisking it with cream and butter. But when you take a bite, it's the salty edge that brings this beauty together, offsetting the sweetness in the center and amplifying the spices.
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Sparkly Lemon Cookies
Talk about one-bite wonders—these pipsqueaks measure less then two inches across. Lemon juice and zest brighten their cake-like center; you can also swap in lime for a different spin. Piping the dough produces symmetrical dots (if you don't have a piping bag, snip the corner off a resealable plastic one), and the dazzling finish is a breeze: Just brush the baked morsels with a quick lemon-sugar glaze and dust with sanding sugar.
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Brown-Butter Honey Cookies
Think of these golden squares as glamorous graham crackers. Their honey-infused dough contains brown butter, cream, and cardamom, and their mesmerizing pattern comes courtesy of an embossed rolling pin. Freezing the dough before baking has clear benefits: The chill time ensures neat corners and a sharp design, since the butter is less likely to melt and cause spreading before the tiles set.
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Triple Chocolate Brownie Cups
Brownie bites grow up (and out) in these jumbo-size treats—and at four inches across, they make a major impression. Cocoa powder pumps up the pure chocolate flavor, and literal handfuls of milk- and white-chocolate chips bring on the intensity. If you like some crunch with your cocoa fix, stir chopped walnuts or pecans into the batter before setting the cups on a sheet pan to bake.
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Hazelnut-Crusted Sandwich Cookies
In these feats of physics, a cushion of fluffy chocolate buttercream is suspended between flash-card-thin wafers, which get their dark hue from Dutch-process cocoa powder. (To help prevent the dough from tearing, roll it out on a nonstick baking mat.) Seal the deal by rolling the edges in finely chopped toasted hazelnuts and chilling the sandwiches overnight—the cream will firm up as the wafers soften into it, so you can sink your teeth in without the center escaping.