At age eleven, Kathleen King began selling her oversized chocolate chip cookies at her family's farm in eastern Long Island. As her reputation and clientele grew, she earned enough to send herself to restaurant school and, in 1980, to open Kathleen's Bake Ship in Southhampton, New York. The shop, now with an additional location in Manhattan, has become famous for its freshly baked, old-fashioned cookies, muffins, breads, pies, brownies, and cakes.

The simple recipes collected here include such traditional favorites as Molasses Cookies, Lemon Bars, Peasant Bread, Buttermilk Biscuits, Peach Crumb Pie, Oat-Bran Muffins, Carrot Cake, Blueberry Buckle, Yellow Cake with Chocolate Icing, and, of course, unbeatable Chocolate Chip Cookies. Southhampton residents have enjoyed Kathleen's kitchen wizardry for nearly a decade. Now her best recipes are available to home bakers everywhere.