The Ultimate Minnesota Cookie Book: 100 Best Recipes from the Star Tribune’s Holiday Cookie Contest

Bakers in Minnesota take their cookies seriously, as evidenced by the Star Tribune’s annual holiday cookie contest. Launched in 2003, the contest would go on to become an annual, beloved tradition. Dean (food editor at the Star Tribune) and Nelson (Star Tribune’s restaurant critic and food writer) have now expanded and updated their 2018 collaboration, The Great Minnesota Cookie Book, adding 25 new winning recipes to the 75 collected in the original cookbook. After covering the origins of the contest and offering tips for better cookie baking, the authors divvy up recipes into chapters by type of cookie, such as sandwich, drop, and bar. Each recipe includes a friendly note from its contributor(s) and is formatted in an easily accessible style with excellent color photographs of the finished treat. Recipes, some original creations and others riffs on cookies from other sources, range from sweet holiday treats, including candy cane sugar cookies and sugar plum doodles, to biscuits with more of a savory edge, such as smoky blue-cheese cherry cookies.