Janice Fryer - Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions

Cookie Craft

From Baking to Luster Dust

DESIGNS AND TECHNIQUES
FOR CREATIVE COOKIE OCCASIONS

Valerie PETERSON & Janice FRYER

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Margaret Sutherland and Elaine M. Cissi
Art direction and cover and text design by Alethea Morrison
Text production by Jennifer Jepson Smith

Photography by Ellie Miller Photo
Food styling by Sara Neumeier
Prop styling by Karen Quatsoe
Color illustrations by Sophie Blackall
Black-and-white illustrations by Alison Kolesar

Indexed by Andrea Chesman

2007 by Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the authors or Storey Publishing. The authors and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

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Printed in Hong Kong by Elegance
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fryer, Janice.

Cookie craft / by Janice Fryer and Valerie Peterson.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-58017-694-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Cookies. 2. Cake decorating.

I. Peterson, Valerie. II. Title.

TX772.F79 2007

641.8654dc22

2007023516

DEDICATION

To our moms,
Rowena and Mildred,
for teaching us the craft

And to our dads,
Robert and Gordon,
who were always willing to eat our efforts!

Our thanks to Pam Art for warmly welcoming us to her house, and to Walter Wentz for making the auspicious introduction. Were grateful to Margaret Sutherland, a very smart cookie, for pulling us in and pulling it all together; and to Deborah Balmuth for her always-calm support.

The concept of Cookie Craft was brilliantly illuminated by Alethea Morrison and her creative team, including Ellie Miller, Sophie Blackhall, Alison Kolesar, and the exceptionally talented and persevering Sara Neumeier. Our thanks to all.

We are indebted to the many, many behind-the-scenes people whose hands helped take the book from proposal to bookseller and beyond. Special shout-outs to Elaine Cissi, Elinor Goodwin, Stephanie Long and her team, Wes Seeley, and the members of the Storey and Workman sales forces, who welcomed this book with great enthusiasm we dont think it was just because we brought cookies!

Our deepest appreciation to our agent, Jennifer Griffin, for easing our transition to the other side, and for always helping us to see the big cookie when we were only looking at the crumbs.

To our especially tireless advisors Saschas mom, Scott Dare, and Liz Harwell a thousand thanks for your time and palates. To our creative guinea pigs, Sarah Durand, Sharon Gamboa, the McGowan family especially Jane, Henry, Patrick, Madeleine, Charlotte, and John Gemma Nedelec, Keith Pfeffer, and Mary Beth Thomas: our gratitude for your willingness and, always, for your good humor.

We are fortunate to have family, friends, and colleagues who made available their wisdom, advice, hands, shoulders, and taste buds. Thanks especially to Nanci Andersen, Rose Arlia, Steve Atinsky, the Bauers, Sandy Bell, the Bogdanovics, Rachel Bressler, Sandra Carey, Diana Cisek, Linda Dickey, Mary Dunn, the Finns, the Firstenbergs, Debbie Fryer, Jennifer Fryer, Mildred Fryer, Marge Ginsburg, the entire gang at ICE, Virginia Jenkins, David Latt (whose cookbook were waiting for), Emily Loose, the Lyngholms, Maryann Manelski, Leigh Marchant, the McSpedons, Sydney Miner, Eileen ONeill, the extended Peterson family especially Beverly, Lisa, Robert, and Rowena Julia Pinto, Carolyn Rostkowski, the Tedeschis, the Tonons, the Towers, Paul and Lisa Von Drasek, and Diane Weingarten. For the innumerable others who have expressed their unflagging and enthusiastic support, please know how much we appreciate it.

Valerie would like to acknowledge the many colleagues and authors with whom shes worked, and from whom shes learned especially her first cookies, Kevin Morrissey and the late Barry Bluestein. Her unwavering thanks go out to Janice, whose energy, quest for knowledge, and bakers soul made this book possible.

Janice would like to thank Karen Daley, who started her on this journey; and Valerie, whose creative mind is truly amazing. Without her, this book would still be just a great idea.

Thanks to our moms, Mildred Fryer and Rowena Weenie Peterson, we each have always been comfortable in the kitchen. Janice has memories of baking under Mildreds tutelage and to this day remembers the first lesson she learned: Baking is an exact science and measurements must be precise. This was frustrating to young Janice when it came time to lick the beaters because Mildred would scrape every last bit of batter from them for fear the recipe wouldnt turn out right if she didnt. Although Mildred and Weenie both made plenty of cookies in their day, neither had much time for royal icing, so we each looked elsewhere for that part of our cookie education.

As friends and colleagues with a common interest in baking, we coincidentally realized one holiday season that we were looking for the same thing: a cookie decorating book to instruct and inspire us. We didnt find exactly what we envisioned, but we happily shared information and resources with each other and were able to take our cookie decorating to the next level. From making delicious, uniform sugar cookies that dont spread during baking to designing cookie decorations and preparing the ever-temperamental royal icing, we came by our knowledge with plenty of research and perfected our techniques with our own trial and error.

As we became confident in our cookie decorating, we found ourselves stretching the boundaries of what wed learned and exploring techniques we hadnt seen anywhere to indulge our inner artists for example, imprinting designs on cookies before baking to make a simple cats face, or layering unbaked cookies to create a Thanksgiving turkey, or even building cookie structures to hold more cookies, like our Santas sleigh centerpiece. Sometimes we felt more like crafters than bakers, but the results of our efforts are as delicious to eat as they are beautiful or fun to look at.

Over the years, as we were learning a lot the hard way, we kept saying, Someone should write a book. One day we looked at each other and realized we could be the someones. We hope you find what you need in