Our cookbook of the week is Crumbs by Los Angeles-based food writer Ben Mims.
Jump to the recipes:chocolate-glazed Polish gingerbread, flower-shaped butter cookies and pink jam-filled cookie sandwiches.
After writing a 431-page book on cookies, Ben Mims has a new appreciation for gingerbread. The Los Angeles-based cookbook author, food writer and self-professed cookie fanatic features a dozen versions of the Christmas classic in his encyclopedic ode, Crumbs (Phaidon, 2024), including chocolate-glazed Polish katarzynki, crisp Danish “brown cakes” and thin, cracker-like Finnish gingerbread.
With the holidays on the horizon, Mims wants to have fellow “cookie nerds” over for a tasting of all the European gingerbreads in the book, cut into the same shape, so that they can appreciate the differences in spice mixes, thickness, texture and colour.
“You think they’re very similar, and some are, but they’re either slightly thicker or thinner. They all do not have the same exact ingredients,” says Mims. “I loved geeking out on the gingerbreads and figuring out where that name came from and the history. Why do we call them that? All the different permutations, what they are today, what they are in America versus Europe.”
With 300 recipes from 100 countries, gingerbread was one of many cookie categories Mims explored deeply in Crumbs. Organized geographically, he documents traditions from the “birthplace of cookies” in the former Persian Empire to Sub-Saharan Africa, where cookies such as Mauritian napolitaines remain relics of colonialism.
There are plenty of cookie books on store shelves, but Mims saw a gap. “All the cookie books that come out, they’re fun. They offer lots of new things. They’re very pretty and come up with fun, new flavours. But I wanted good, solid standards and the history of where they came from, and I found that no cookie books were doing that.”
Growing up in Mississippi, making cookies was Mims’s first kitchen project. He started with a tea cake, followed by two Christmas cookies he still makes to this day: shortbread topped with a chocolate-filled ring of salted nuts and a cocoa thumbprint cookie stuffed with melted caramels.
After studying journalism in his home state and attending culinary school in New York City, Mims immersed himself in culinary research while working for Saveur magazine. His “love affair with cookies” deepened with each recipe he developed, from Food Network to the Los Angeles Times. Even though cooking was his job, baking cookies never felt like work.
“It was just always so fun to figure out what these things were, how to make them delicious — partly because cookies are this abstract thing. Yes, they come from somewhere, but you’re like, ‘What are these things, and why are they here?’ They don’t really provide sustenance. They’re just little sweet things. And so, you can endlessly go crazy combining flavours and different references and colours, and it makes it almost like a plaything instead of food.”
Cookies have always offered a blank canvas for creativity, but writing Crumbs allowed Mims to cover ground he hadn’t before. He spent months at the library studying the origins of the world’s cookies, identifying commonalities and connections, figuring out where they came from and how they originated — not just focusing on colours and flavour combinations.
From “wedding” cookies such as Iran’s ghorabieh, which spread across the world, to Nova Scotia’s Fat Archies (a.k.a. Long Johns and Moose Hunters), “one of the first styles of cookie that came from colonial times in North America,” Mims hopes readers see their own baking traditions reflected in the book.
Figuring out the purpose of cookies helped Crumbs come together. All of the treats in the book come from a culture of being homemade. But cookies don’t stay in the home — they’re meant to be shared. From potlucks to bake sales, cookies are there, says Mims. “It’s very much a community-building food.”
Some cookies require baking knowledge, but most are so simple a child can make them — “and we all do.” That’s the joy of cookies, adds Mims.
“It’s no mistake that many of us make cookies our first recipes because they’re so simple and good with your hands. You can roll the balls and touch the creamed butter and sugar and understand how everything’s going in. They cook quickly, so it’s like instant gratification as well — I love that. And I’m hoping that a lot of people will see the first cookies they ever made from wherever they’re from in the book. Because I feel like that’s what most of these cookies are — the first things that matter to a culture and that (people) bake when they’re kids.”
CHOCOLATE-GLAZED POLISH GINGERBREAD
Katarzynki
Preparation time: 50 minutes, plus cooling and setting time
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes: About 30 cookies
For the cookies:
6 tbsp (125 g) honey
1/4 cup (50 g) white granulated sugar
2 1/2 tbsp (35 g) unsalted butter
1 tbsp water
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 tbsp sour cream
2 1/4 cups (315 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
For the chocolate glaze:
1 1/2 cups (200 g) icing sugar
1/3 cup (30 g) natural cocoa powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp whole milk, plus more if needed
Step 1
Make the cookies: Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F (180C/Gas Mark 4). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2
Pour the honey into a small frying pan and place over medium-high heat until the honey starts to bubble around the edges and is loose. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the white granulated sugar, butter, water, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cardamom until the sugar dissolves. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and let cool for 10 minutes.
Step 3
Stir in the sour cream until smooth, then add the flour and sprinkle over the baking soda and salt. Fold the mixture with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon until the dough just comes together and there are no dry pockets of flour remaining.
Step 4
Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/2 inch (13 mm) thick. Using a 2 1/2- to 3-inch (6.5- to 7.5-cm) round or heart-shaped cutter, cut out cookies and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, spaced 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Reroll the scraps to cut out more cookies.
Step 5
Bake until the cookies are risen, golden brown at the edges, and give just slightly when pressed on top, 15-20 minutes, switching racks and rotating the baking sheets front to back halfway through. The cookies will firm up considerably upon cooling, so err on the side of underbaking them.
Step 6
Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks. Let the cookies cool on the pans for 1 minute, then transfer them to the racks to cool completely.
Step 7
Make the chocolate glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the icing sugar and cocoa. Add the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of the milk and stir until a thick paste forms. Add another 1 tablespoon milk and stir until the glaze is pourable and smooth but not too runny. Add more milk if needed to reach the consistency you want.
Step 8
Balance a cookie on the tines of a fork and position it over the bowl of glaze. Use a spoon in your other hand to spoon glaze over the cookie, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Once the glaze stops dripping, return the cookies to a rack or a baking sheet. Repeat, glazing the remaining cookies. Let the glaze dry until set before serving.
FLOWER-SHAPED BUTTER COOKIES
Canestrelli
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes: About 24 cookies
1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (105 g) potato starch or cornstarch
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 hard-boiled egg yolks
1 stick (4 oz/115 g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (65 g) icing sugar, plus more for dusting
1 tsp pure vanilla extract or almond extract
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Step 1
Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F (180C/Gas Mark 4). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch and salt. Place a fine sieve over a large bowl and use a silicone spatula to press the hard-boiled egg yolks through the sieve, scraping the back of the sieve to ensure you get all the egg yolk. Add the butter and sugar, and beat on medium speed with a hand mixer until pale and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. Add the dry ingredients and stir until the dough forms and there are no dry patches of flour remaining. Gather the dough into a ball.
Step 3
Working on a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin to 3/8 inch (1 cm) thick. Using a 2 1/2-inch (6.5-cm) flower-shaped cutter, cut out shapes of dough. Reroll the scraps to cut out more cookies. Transfer the shapes to the prepared baking sheets, spaced 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart. Using the end of a narrow-handled wooden spoon or a 1/2-inch (13-mm) round piping tip, punch out the centre of each dough flower. Reroll the centres to make more cookies or discard them.
Step 4
Bake until golden brown at the edges and dry to the touch on top, 10-15 minutes, switching racks and rotating the baking sheets front to back halfway through.
Step 5
Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let the cookies rest on the pans for 1 minute. While they are still hot, dust the cookies with sugar and then transfer directly to the racks to cool completely.
VARIATION
Castagnese: Substitute the same weight of chestnut flour for the potato starch.
PINK JAM-FILLED COOKIE SANDWICHES
Napolitaines
Preparation time: 40 minutes, plus chilling, cooling and setting time
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes: About 30 cookie sandwiches
1 1/2 sticks (6 oz/170 g) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 3/4 cups (245 g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (80 g) thick-set raspberry or strawberry preserves
1 1/2 cups (205 g) icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Pink gel food colouring
Step 1
Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 325F (160C/Gas Mark 3). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2
Place the butter in a large bowl and sprinkle evenly with the salt. Add the flour and use your hands to rub the flour and butter together over and over until they become a soft, pliable dough. Scrape the dough onto a clean work surface and flatten into a disc 1 inch (13 mm) thick. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Step 3
Unwrap the dough and transfer it to a lightly floured work surface. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. Using a 1 1/2-inch (4-cm) round cutter, cut out the rounds of dough. Reroll the scraps to cut out more cookies. Arrange them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart.
Step 4
Bake until the edges of the cookies are light golden brown and the cookies are dry to the touch in the centre, about 20 minutes, switching racks and rotating the baking sheets front to back halfway through.
Step 5
Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks. Let the cookies cool on the pans for 1 minute, then transfer them to the racks to cool completely.
Step 6
Flip half the cookies over and spread about 1 teaspoon of the jam over each. Top with another cookie to create a cookie sandwich. Place the rack of cookies over a sheet of parchment paper or a baking sheet.
Step 7
In a small heatproof bowl, combine the sugar, water, vanilla and lemon juice and stir until it forms a stiff paste. Stir in a few drops of the food colouring until the paste is uniformly coloured. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water to warm the paste, stirring until it loosens to a pourable, smooth icing. (Alternatively, microwave the paste in 15-second bursts until smooth.)
Step 8
Pour a spoonful of the icing over each cookie sandwich so it covers the top, letting all the excess drip over the sides. Scrape up any icing that falls below the rack and reheat if needed to coat the rest of the cookies. Let the cookies stand until the icing hardens before serving.
Recipes and images excerpted from Crumbs ©2024 by Ben Mims. Photography ©2024 by Simon Bajada. Reproduced by permission of Phaidon. All rights reserved.
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