Ben Mims vividly recalls the first cookie he learned to make growing up in Mississippi: a tea cake. Soft, cakey and fragrant with almond extract, “they were my perfect after-school snack.”
His cookie repertoire soon included caramel-filled thumbprints and shortbread adorned with chocolate and nuts for holiday snacking and gifting.
Only after studying journalism, working as a pastry chef, and landing a gig at Saveur magazine did he begin to appreciate the complex histories behind those simple treats. In the introduction to “Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World” (Phaidon, $49.95), he tells of the long hours of library research and meticulous experiments in test kitchens of major publications including, most recently, the Los Angeles Times, that set him on his path to “becoming the biggest, and proudest, cookie nerd in history.”
His fourth — and most ambitious — cookbook is a testament to that goal. Within its 400-plus pages are recipes for 300 sweet treats from 100 countries, organized geographically in chapters beginning with Southwest and Southern Asia (the “birthplace of cookies”) and ending in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The first recipe, for macaroon-like Almond Cookies (Ghorabieh), is a specialty of the Iranian city of Tabriz, he writes, where that style of cookie gave rise to similar crumbly special-occasion confections throughout the world known as “wedding” cookies. The last, for Pink Jam-Filled Cookie Sandwiches (Napolitaines) made of two sable-like cookies, illustrates the French influence on the cuisine of Mauritius in East Africa during colonization.
The North America chapter includes, predictably, Chocolate Chip Cookies based on the original recipe popularized at the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. But here you’ll also find a recipe for Chinese Almond Cookies — an homage to the immigrants who turned a sweet memory from their Macau home into a ubiquitous U.S. restaurant takeout staple.
As with all the cookies he features, Mims writes, “Their history is fascinating, yes, but it’s their commonality in cultures around the world — acting as small ambassadors of a culture’s most prized resources, flavors, or ingredients — that is so special.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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