Introduction

FOR MY SISTERS, who know (and may never let me live down) the truth that I wasn’t a natural-born baker but ate my experiments anyway. There’s no one I’d rather be in the kitchen with. And for my brother, who’s always the first in line to taste the results.

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.”

HELLO! On a conscious level or not, all bakers HELLO! know that when their plate of cookies, their tray of chocolate croissants, or their fat slice of five-layer cake hits the table, they will be the most popular person in the room. And that’s only half of the fun: It’s hard to beat a cozy afternoon in the kitchen, mixing, baking, and reinventing recipes, with the smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through the house.