Foreword

This book is enhanced by my collaboration with Woody Wolston. We dedicate it to our wonderful bloggers, who have formed a baking community that brings us the world.

I was browsing in a bookstore the first time I encountered Rose Levy Beranbaum’s name on a big display of Christmas cookie books. Intrigued by the ecumenical cooking spirit of a Jewish woman writing about Christmas cookies, I picked it up. The very next weekend I had to bring three different kinds of cookies to a Christmas exchange. I picked Mahogany Buttercrunch Toffee, Cranberry-Chocolate Chippers, and Chocolate-Orange Paradise Bars. With all due modesty, I have to say that my cookies outshined the rest. When I tasted them, I knew I had just bought a book by a master, and every Rose recipe I’ve tried since then has confirmed this knowledge. There is simply nobody on earth who writes a better cookbook. There are at least four reasons why.