Advertised as “an indispensable baking resource” the Martha Stewart Makes Cookies app is sure to keep baking fans happy for hours.
With the initial launch, viewers are greeted with a video by none other than Ms. Cheery, Martha Stewart herself, introducing the app and setting the framework for cookie fans. The home screen houses the “Cookie Runway,” a scrolling screen of drool-worthy photos of cookies, bars, shortbread… the list goes on.
For baking fans who want to choose by category, there’s an option at the top of the screen to rearrange the photos by flavor. The flavor (category) options include: caramel, chocolate, citrus, coconut, fruit, nut, oatmeal, spice and spirits. On every screen of the app, you can easily add to and view your favorites.
Clicking on a cookie will direct you to a magazine-style page with an enticing photo and a brief description of the item you’ve chosen. From there, the actual recipe page is very similar to a printed cookbook with serving size, prep and cook time and ingredients. Features you won’t see in your printed cookbook – an option to play a video that walks you through the recipe, the ability to set timers with each step, and a notes area for you to save for future reference. Think cooking network television meets cookbook meets iPad!
My favorite features of the app: the photography, videos (cooking classes in my kitchen!), the search feature designed as a spinning wheel, the ability to share recipes to Facebook/Twitter/email, the integrated shopping-list feature that allows you to add all of a recipe’s ingredients to a shopping list, and the stand-alone and recipe built-in timer option. Bonus: Suggested DIY packaging options to present your cooking creation as a gift!
For future developments, I’d like to see an option to sort by prep/cook time (sometimes you don’t have 2.5 hours). I’m also hoping that, with time, more recipes will be added. Currently there are around 50 recipes, which makes the competing apps with hundreds of recipes seem like the easier choice.
