Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World

by Ben Mims

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Food and Drink, Nonfiction

432 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2024

Reviews

[Miss✧Pickypants ᓚᘏᗢ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cookiephiles*, this is a cookbook for you! This densely packed book is chock full of cookie recipes from around the world. It is clear the author did their research and provides history and provenance behind every cookie recipe. The seven page bibliography is impressive (yes, there is a bibliography but good luck reading the teeniest, tinest font they used).

The range and variety of cookies is vast! Inside you will find recipes using expected ingredients like butter, vanilla and sugar along with unexpected ones like beer, wine and savoury spices like cumin. Recipes are well-written but the lovely photos, sadly, are very, very sparse.

The design of the book left something to be desired. It is a large book (as is often the case with Phaidon books) with plenty of white space yet the layout and text are snuggly packed together. The choice of layout reminded me of a newspaper column with ingredients listed in a narrower left column and headnotes and cooking instructions in a wider right sided column. This didn't lend itself to ease of readability.

The book is broken up by region and what was most interesting is how similar many recipes are to each other despite the different names and geographic location. Baking nerds and almond lovers (the number of recipes with almonds was head-spinning) are likely to appreciate this fact-filled book most.

*wasn't sure this was a real word, looked online and it isn't but it should be!

[Ambur Taft · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 2 ⭐️ are for my own cookbook organization. I appreciate the time that must have went into assembling this book! So many cookies from all over the world. There are some amazing recipes and great pictures to make you want all the cookies, but I felt like most of them are beyond my skills and there were quite a few ingredients that I would have to source online. Such a lovely book to read, and perfect for bakers looking to try a different cookie a week for many weeks!

[Edie Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.

Why was this cookbook so wonderful?

1. Hundreds of traditional cookies from all over the world.
2. Easy-to-make and well written recipes.
3. Beautiful full page color photos.
4. Alternative ingredients to replace those that may be hard to find.
5. Interesting backstories accompanying each entry.

Unfortunately my diabetic husband prevents me from keeping sweets around the house. Instead I must look through the pages and only fantasize about baking.

[Davenportbh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustingly detailed and rife with historical information. It’s a tomb of a book, for godsakes don’t drop it on your foot. Like a lot of cookbooks, it suffers from not having a picture for each recipe but where others have worked around that issue by using one photo to showcase 4 or 5 recipes in a shot this one just omits which is disheartening. This is for the hardcore cookie enthusiasts and bakers of a higher level of experience.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading through this. This book really introduces how cuisine moves around the world. Sweets and cookies have similar goals- to help people celebrate occasions and utilize the flavors of the area.

It was a little awkward in layout, and some photos would be great. It was really a great book to read, though!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting historical overview of cookies, with many recipes (although not many photos). However, I was a little annoyed by the amount of space dedicated to European countries vs. the entirety of South/East/Southeast Asia and Oceania being lumped into one small chapter at the end. This book is better viewed as a historical survey of *Western* cookie recipe traditions.

[Caitlin E. O'Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely lovely variety. Loved all of the recipes we tried!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book - so many recipes in one place showing how many cuisines are interrelated. Had to return it to the library before I had a chance to make any of the recipes.

[Dray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. Love the country and regional approach to a universal dessert/snack.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here’s the thing: if you design a book that is almost unreadable it can contain buckets of research and global knowledge galore and still be HARD to appreciate.

[E G Melby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed, great photos, extensive bibliography- taken out of library but want to buy my own copy. I love Phaedon cookbooks, I have one other one, and they are works of art

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing book. Extensive and well researched. A little overwhelming really, but worth the patience and fortitude to get through the whole thing. Ben Mims is my new cookbook crush.

[Mckynzie King · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cool book, skimmed recipes. i liked that you could get a historical context of the cookies and they were organized by geography. couldn't find any that I wanted to make though.