The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Holidays show ‘ Cookies Are Magic’
Bar cookies can be packed for shipping or left on porches.
“I heard a doctor talking on television about the dangers of stress. The doctor listed ways of coping with stress. Exercise. Diet. Yoga. Take a walk. I yelled, ‘ Bake cookies.’”
That’ sfrom the very first page of “Cookies Are Magic” by Maida Heatter ( Little, Brown and Co., $ 28).
Heatter died in 2019 at age 102. We could speculate on how much of her longevity can be credited to her love of baking, but her philosophy about the benefits of baking cookies is the reason why, during a pandemic, I turned to her cookbook to relieve any upcoming holiday cookie stress.
This year, many of us are thinking about packable holiday cookies—the ones we can ship in boxes to people we haven’t seen in way too long, and the ones we can leave on the porches of lucky local family and friends.
My requirements: no fussy frostings; sturdy enough to travel well, including holding up when packed in layers; and enough variety to satisfy the peppermint fans, the gingerbread lovers, the fruitcake contingent, and those who just have to have nuts in their cookies. And, since there were no holiday cookie swaps in my plans for this year, I wanted cookies that would freeze well, so they could be do led out in batches as needed.
Bar cookies turned out to be the answer.
“Maid a Heat te r’ s Book of Great Cookies” ( Knopf Doubleday, out of print) was my guide as a first- time baker, and I still pull my well- thumbed copy off the shelf many times a year.
But, now we have “Cookies Are Magic,” a compilation of nearly 100 recipes published over Heatter’s almost 50- year career.
That’s where I turned to find cookie recipes that would meet my 2020 holiday requirements.