A new look at cookies

Alice Medrich can't leave well enough alone. If a cookie is good, why not great? If great, why not magnificent? "I try not to buy into too much accepted wisdom" of what a cookie should or should not be, she said during a recent visit to Minnesota. "Sometimes you just have to take a leap."

The result of her culinary bounding about is "Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies" (Artisan, $25.95), her eighth cookbook and the one whose title she grew to regret after actually typing it a few times. Just call it "Chewy Gooey." She does.

The title reflects how Medrich groups this collection of cookies according to texture, while acknowledging that some bridge a couple of categories. Many of these recipes also tweak traditional flavors. Thus, you find garam masala in her coconut macaroons (shredded carrots, too), or pulverized freeze-dried banana slices in her meringues, or hemp seeds in her bar cookies.

"I wanted to write something that speaks to our culinary abilities now," she said, and this includes almost two dozen recipes for wheat-free cookies -- a pursuit that she found especially challenging. "But I'm not happy unless I'm discovering something."

Likewise, Medrich took a hard look at what passes for low-fat cookies. "There were some unspeakably awful things going on," she said. "I thought, 'I can do a better job with the real thing' -- with chocolate and butter -- and still come up with a cookie that can be enjoyed in moderation." She's attached Weight Watchers points to almost two dozen recipes that she calls "2-point treats."

Medrich, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., first popularized chocolate truffles in the United States in 1973, and was once referred to in the New York Times as "the first lady of chocolate." Earlier books "Cocolat" and "Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts" have both won James Beard awards for Cookbook of the Year.

In "Chewy Gooey," she revisits earlier recipes with an eye toward more adventurous, sometimes savory ingredients, but also with the mission of dialing down the intimidation factor that some people feel about baking. She devotes almost 20 introductory pages to defining terms, explaining methods (including preparing baking pans differently for different cookies), and recommending equipment.

Measuring ingredients by weight assures consistency, but Medrich also says it's faster, easier and cleaner. Yet people resist, claiming it's too complicated. "Why are we scared to use a scale?" she asked. "It's just a device, like an iPod or a cell phone, so that's not a good enough argument."

Medrich guarantees that everyone's baking skills can only improve by taking care with measurements and learning through experience the difference between, say, a fluffy and a creamy dough. This emphasis on method is what supports a baker's creativity.

"I'm a good technician," she said, "but the artist also is in there somewhere."