Fabulous Modern Cookies: Lessons in Better Baking for Next-Generation Treats

With bolder-than-ever flavors and spectacularly scientific techniques, cookies have truly never been more fabulous.

One of NPR's "Books We Love" 2022

"Do we need another cookie book? As far as I’m concerned, the answer is always “yes.” Here we have the classic cookie food groups (bar, drop, rolled, slice-and-bake, etc.), but they’ve been wickedly turbocharged with unique flavor hacks. Why wouldn’t you insinuate a layer of ganache into your black-bottom lemon squares? Why wouldn’t you powder freeze-dried raspberries for your sugar cookies? And for heaven’s sake, why wouldn’t you add milk powder to your browned butter for the world’s most insanely malty chocolate chip cookies? Prepare your secret-stash cookie jar, folks – you’re gonna need it." - T. Susan Chang for NPR

"Delicious and dazzling...for cookie fanatics, this one is sure to be a hit!" - Publisher's Weekly, starred review

Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin bring fresh perspective and heaps of creativity to everything they bake. Now reinventing America’s most traditional handheld dessert―the cookie―they offer 100 reliable and exciting recipes that are sure to impress. From Pumpkin Snickercrinkles to Black-Bottom Lemon Squares, and Coffee Bean Crunchers to Bronze Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, these are next-level cookies.

Combining their passion for serious baking with their professional backgrounds as accomplished scientists, Taylor and Arguin apply new methods and modern ingredient pairings to develop novel base recipes with innovative techniques. In these pages, they share what they’ve learned in lively tips and tricks for every recipe and style of cookie. Complete with mouthwatering photos, options to make ahead, decorate, or infinitely adapt, these outside-the-box recipes are the very definition of fabulous.

100 color photographs

Paul Arguin is an accomplished scientist and baker. Alongside his husband Chris Taylor, he is the co-author of the IACP award-nominated The New Pie (2019). He lives with his husband in Atlanta, Georgia.

Chris Taylor is an accomplished scientist and baker. Alongside his husband Paul Arguin, he is the co-author of the IACP award-nominated The New Pie (2019). He lives with his husband in Atlanta, Georgia.