Hello, my name is Emmalita (not my real name), I am lactose intolerant (true) and I love dairy (true), especially butter (sadly, very true).
I can eat very small amounts of dairy without pain, but I am not a person naturally inclined to moderation when it comes to things I love. I have spent years ignoring the effect dairy has on my body, but my body has said, “NO MORE.” I do my best to live without butter, cream, and cheese, and I’ve found a lot of ways to eat food I love without dairy. But, I love baking and I’m sorry, butter cookies are the best cookies. So, of course, I bought Sarah Kieffer’s 100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen.
If you don’t recognize the name, Sarah Kieffer is the baker behind The Vanilla Bean Blog. I’ve been visiting her site for years. I made a wedding cake with her Crème Fraiche Cake with Roasted Berries. I’ve made the Spice Cake with Cardamom Coffee Frosting for my birthday twice. I doubled the frosting because I don’t really do the naked cake thing.
Now let me tell you about her pan banging cookies. They are so good. I don’t know why, but her pan banging chocolate chip cookies are my favorite chocolate chip cookies of all time. I make them smaller than she does by a third, but they are so buttery and tender and crispy on the edges. The texture is amazing. The pan banging ginger molasses cookies were a huge hit over the holidays, but I think they are also a year round cookie.
The smoky butterscotch cookies were so good they made me cry. Fortunately, I gave away the batch after trying just one (that’s really why I was crying). I have plans to give myself a break and make the meringues for a while. I also follow an Instagram account where themercenarybaker, a home baker, is working her way through 100 Cookies. I know Sarah Keiffer’s recipes work for me, but I’m a pretty experienced baker. Knowing that they also work for folks who don’t have a food styling budget makes me more inclined to give this one 5 stars.
Am I insane for buying this cookbook when I know I can’t comfortably eat all but a few of the recipes in it? Yes, I am. Do I regret buying this cookbook, knowing that I will occasionally overeat dairy and wish I were dead? No. My friends and neighbors will be the beneficiaries/victims of my cookie largesse.