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I haven't really been giving cookies the respect they deserve.  Make up a batch of dough, roll it into a log, stick the log in the freezer, hack off bits and toast 'em in the toaster oven.  I'm ashamed of myself.  And yet, what interests me about cookies is flavor and texture, not eccentric shapes and whimsical decorations.  Can anybody point me to a book or two that will get me back on the right track, cookie-wise?

xxx, mcvl

I love the old-school Betty Crocker Cooky Book. It was re-released a few years ago. It's the one I grew up with.

If you want to bring all baked goods to a higher level, Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is a great option. I just made the Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunkers and oh-my-goodness they are SOOOOO good.

I also love Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home to Yours but another favorite that gets less recognition is Nancy Baggett's The All-American Cookie Book - the Death by Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies are my family's favorite cookies of all time.

You've been a bad influence on me, mcvl.  I haven't baked cookies for a while (I bake them, I eat them) but following your posts, I suddenly got an urge this afternoon to make cookies.  I tried a new recipe from Dorie's Baking: From My Home to Yours - Chocolate Malt Whopper Drops, though since I made them with Maltesers rather than Whoppers they are really Chocolate Malt Malteser Drops.  Great flavor, good texture, cakey rather than crisp, which is how I like my cookies.  Much loved by my 17 yo son who couldn't stop eating them.

Dorie Greenspan's Baking is great, although I've used it more for cakes than cookies.

The Joy of Cookies by Sharon Tyler Herbst is my most-used cookie cookbook and has a great variety of recipes.  

I also like the Cookies & Crackers volume of the Time-Life "The Good Cook" series for both the recipes and the great how-to photographs. 

I second the recommendation for "The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion." One feature I especially like is their variations on a theme. For instance, the chapeter on sugar cookies contains recipes for chewy, crunchy and crisp cookies along with other variations. When I first got the book, I made at least two recipes a week from it for several months and I can honestly say that I liked every recipe. Only my expanding waistline curtailed the experiment.

Wow.  Based on your recommendations and other people's, here's what would constitute an exceptional collection of cookie books:

Nancy Baggett: The All American Cookie Book (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001)
Rose Levy Beranbaum: Rose’s Christmas Cookies (William Morrow, 1998)
Anita Chu: Field Guide to Cookies (Quirk Books, 2008)
Linda Doeser: 1 Dough, 100 Cookies (Parragon, 2008)
Rose Dunnington: The Greatest Cookies Ever (Lark, 2005)
Gourmet: The Gourmet Cookie Book (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 2, 2010)
Maida Heatter: MH’s Book of Great Cookies (Knopf, 1977)
Maida Heatter: MH’s Brand New Book of Great Cookies (Random House, 1995)
Sharon Tyler Herbst: The Joy of Cookies (Barrons, 1990)
Jane Kinderlehrer: Smart Cookies (Newmarket Press, 1985)
King Arthur Flour: The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (Countryman, 2004)
Dolores Kostelni: Cookies by the Dozen (Warner Books, 1995)
Nick Malgieri: Cookies Unlimited (William Morrow, 2000)
Alice Medrich: Alice Medrich’s Cookies & Brownies (Warner Books, 1999)
Alice Medrich: Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt in Your Mouth Cookies
   (Artisan, November 12, 2010)
Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero:  Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar
   (Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2009)
Richard Olney, Carol Cutler, & Pat Alburey, editors: Time-Life The Good Cook:
   Cookies & Crackers (T-L, 1982)
Leslie Glover Pendleton: One Dough, Fifty Cookies (William Morrow, 1998)
Sally Sampson: Recipe of the Week: Cookies (Wiley, 2007)
Andrew Schloss & Ken Bookman: One Pot Cookies (Broadway, 1998)
Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough: The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book (Morrow, 2004)
Helen Witty: Mrs. Witty’s Monster Cookies (Workman, 1983)

Now all I have to do is install more bookshelves ... in ...?  In the bathroom?  On the front porch?

xxx, mcvl

That is an amazing list mcvl.  It's probably fairly obvious that I am cookbook obsessed but I am truly fanatical about desserts and baking books so I'm noting the ones on the list I don't have.  Whenever I go into a second hand bookstore I head straight for the cooking section and scour the shelves for any bargains.  Somehow I can justify it more to myself if I'm not paying full price.

I finally got around to making the Chunky peanut butter and oatmeal chocolate chipsters cookies from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, following your glowing recommendation, grumpybear.  They are good aren't they - as Dorie says "These are three really great cookies rolled into one" - oatmeal/raisin, peanut butter and chocolate chip.

Old thread, but a comment --

I have every book Maida Heatter wrote, and I highly recommend her recipes for you.

She is very particular about details, going so far as to tell you exactly what diameter cookie cutter to choose because she is very exacting about flavor and texture.

I am a huge fan of two of her cookies in particular --

Sour Cream Pecan Dreams

California Fruit and Nut Bars

Lemon Squares

I would not want to live without these cookies.

There is a website by a woman who made a MH cookie recipe every Monday and wrote about it -- Mondays with Maida --

http://mylittlekitchen.b.../mondays-with-maida.html

I also like the Betty Crocker Cooky Book for simple cookies.  It's the one I learned on and I still make several recipes from it.  The butterscotch brownies are really good.  Especially with the pecans.  Also like the Joe Froggers.