The Cookiepedia: Mixing, Baking, and Reinventing the Classics

cook-ie: a small flat, baked cake which is either crisp or soft but firm (often with chocolate chips, candies, or nuts mixed in); insanely delicious.

If you miss the days when snacks were simple and handmade, you'll love this homespun encyclopedia of cookies. Full of hand-drawn illustrations and gorgeous photographs, The Cookiepedia features 50 classic recipes for everything from Amaretti and Animal Cookies to Gingersnaps, Rugelach, Snickerdoodles, and dozens of other favorites--plus hundreds of ideas for adapting recipes and making them your own.

Stacy Adimando lives in Brooklyn and is the deputy lifestyle editor for Every Day with Rachael Ray. She is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education and contributor to Serious Eats.