Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a recipe online is easy, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own.
I plan for this series to be a fun place to discover new voices in cookbookery—a place where I unearth some niche topics, and resurface some classics. Since this is the first week of my cookbook series, I figured I’d start with one of personal importance. The very first cookbook I ever used: Hershey’s Best-Loved Recipes.
I don’t remember who got it for me when I was a teen, but this cookbook was a Christmas gift from someone in my family. There’s a bit of irony there because it was presumably a parent, and two out of three of my parents didn’t know what I was thinking, going into the food industry. I couldn’t have guessed it at the time, but this chocolate-centric hardcover published in 2000 set me on my career path.
That winter, I couldn’t stop rifling through each recipe because they actually seemed doable. I picked Giant Peanut Butter Cup Cookies to be my first recipe, and brought the truly large cookies to my high school Drama Club bake sale. (Maybe it was for Concert Band. Listen, I was cool and it hasn’t stopped.) I walked away to go perform as a chorus member or play the euphonium, and arrived back at the table convinced no one would have purchased my cookies. Much to my delight, my cookies were the first to sell out. My first culinary ego-boost, and I’ve been riding that sugar high ever since.
Besides nostalgia, I recommend this cookbook primarily for beginners, those seeking straight-forward recipes, and chocolate dessert lovers. This book is a collection of crystal-clear recipes with approachable ingredient lists. Naturally, Hershey’s is pushing their brand in the ingredient list but it also helps the reader’s confidence to see the same recognizable ingredients recipe after recipe. Plus, I was buying their cocoa powder anyway. It has the sort of jargon-free instruction a budding baker needs because they can actually visualize the steps before breaking open the bag of flour.
Most of the recipes are complete in three to five steps, which is really notable considering how complex recipes seem to be getting. It might just be me and the particular algorithm that haunts my feed, but I constantly see recipes online for sweets that take a fair bit of skill, practice, and time to get right. Show-off culture isn’t really helpful for newcomers, and this cookbook brings it back to basics. Not in a boring way, but the way basic is supposed to be: simple, reliable, and absolutely delectable.
This is an entire cookbook devoted to dessert. Most of it is chocolate-related, but there are some recipes that focus on peanut butter, some are fruit-forward, and there's a whole section dedicated to less dense and rich desserts called, The Lighter Side. If you are looking for some dependable classics you can use time and again—a good chocolate cake, a simple brownie, a consistent cheesecake recipe. This is it.
This week, I decided to make the Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake recipe on page 10 to see if it still held up to my more experienced palate. The recipe was concise, accurate, and led to a luscious, moist, dark, chocolatey cake. The only note I have is to double the frosting recipe if you like a more substantial coating.
I hadn’t cracked open this cookbook in a while because I forever-lent it to my brother. Luckily it’s still in print. I bought a new copy for a measly $8, and a good number of folk sell it used for even less. I fully recommend this cookbook as a sweet gift, whether it's for yourself, a friend, or your nephew who seems keen on baking.
