The 15 Absolute Best Martha Stewart Cookbooks

Who in the world hasn't heard of Martha Stewart? This New Jersey native is the United States' first self-made female billionaire and one of the most authoritative lifestyle, kitchen, business, and media personalities. Naturally, there may still be some facts about her trailblazing career and personal life you're still unaware of, such as her past dabbles in the stock market or her enduring love for animals. If you'd like to fill in the blanks and learn all about her journey's exceptional milestones, you can always watch the award-winning 2024 Netflix documentary, "Martha."

One of the most inspiring gifts this hard-working, multidisciplinary mogul has bestowed upon her fans is her detailed, step-by-step recipes, not to mention other helpful tips in the kitchen, from picking seasonal ingredients to prepping meats, decorating desserts, and storing leftovers. As of this writing, Stewart and her team have released 100 books since 1982, touching on the subjects of entertaining, decorating, gardening, cooking, weddings, holidays, and crafts. Here is a roundup of her most successful, highly rated, and beautifully illustrated cookbooks — culminating in a comprehensive collection of Stewart's own favorite recipes, which was released in 2024.

Published in 2007, "The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics" highlights over 1,200 recipes compiled from the issues of "Martha Stewart Living" magazine that were published between 1990 and 2000. Every facet of home cooking is covered in a different chapter, spanning soups and stews; salads; sandwiches and savory pies; pasta, rice, and grains; poultry; breads; meatless main dishes; custards and puddings; and more. Even kitchen newbies are taken into consideration with step-by-step instruction photos, nutritional data, pantry stocking, and essential appliances.

In this timeless book (which also includes creative takes on classic recipes), Stewart stresses the importance of proper seasoning, balanced flavors and textures, high-quality ingredients, and aesthetic plating. And that's the case, be it for a simple or complex meal, a casual brunch between friends, or a formal luncheon.

Appetizers set the tone for dinner party meals. They're meant to pave the way for the much-anticipated main dish and are supposed to complement it rather than overpower it. Whether you're hosting a full-course meal or a light, small-plate get-together, "Martha Stewart's Appetizers" would definitely come in handy. Published in 2015, this 256-page hardcover book proposes more than 200 delectable nibbles, finger foods, snacks, and drinks, including variations of traditional recipes and vegan options. Chorizo, corn, and cheddar quesadillas with a fresh tomatillo salsa, for instance, are definite crowd pleasers and rather easy to prepare.

What's even better is that most ingredients are accessible and can likely be found in every pantry and fridge, from artichoke hearts and other practical canned veggies to rice paper, dried fruits, crackers, and phyllo dough. Stewart also includes her "golden rules for hosting a party," such as offering bites and sips for guests with food restrictions.

Published in 2005, "Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook" is a 416-page comprehensible dive into the world of sweet and savory baked goods, offering more than 200 mouthwatering pie, bagel, cookie, tart, bread, biscuit, scone, muffin, cracker, and cake recipes. This bestselling repertoire caters to novices and professionals alike, providing useful tips on essential steps like prepping, creaming butter and sugar, preheating an oven, lining trays and pans, and measuring and chilling key ingredients for an impeccable result.

Here's an excerpt that illustrates this nifty book's attention to detail: "When working with biscuits, scones, and soda bread, use only a small amount of flour to dust your hands and the work surface. Too much flour will cause the dough to become dry and stiff." Readers who swear by this essential guide generally rave about the overall friendly and detailed approach, the simplification of advanced techniques like laminated pastry dough, and the vivid, top-quality illustrations and photographs.

Whether you're a culinary expert looking to keep a reference book close at hand or a serious dabbler eager to perfect the art of essential home cooking, the 512-page bestseller "Martha Stewart's Cooking School" makes the ultimate foolproof guide. It's a rather accessible repertoire of useful tips and crowd-pleasing dishes (like prime rib roast, stuffed ravioli, and huevos rancheros) that was apparently the inspiration behind the eponymous PBS show.

Featuring more than 200 recipes and 500 step-by-step photographs, this 2008 release tackles each and every fundamental technique, from sauteing to roasting, broiling, blanching, steaming, and poaching. With chapters covering stocks and soups; eggs; meat, fish, and poultry; vegetables; pasta; dried beans and grains; and desserts; tasks like cleaning shellfish, making pasta and risotto from scratch, perfecting a pie crust, or puffing up a soufflé no longer seem intimidating.

Whether cookies are crunchy or soft, plain or filled with chocolate chips, oatmeal, dried fruits, cream, marshmallows, or pretzels, they're irresistible to children and adults alike and complement all celebrations. While a box mix is certainly practical and quick, nothing beats the smell and look of warm cookies baked entirely from scratch. This is where "Martha Stewart's Cookie Perfection" comes long, as it covers all the essential prepping techniques for an optimum result, from getting to know your oven to setting up the racks, lining the baking sheet, chilling, and storing.

This ultimate cookie-baking book from 2019 will show you how to elevate your game with bold and creative flavors, striking textures, and various decorating tips. You'll find all the typical favorites, plus less-common combinations like tahini cookies, brown-butter crinkle cookies, cherry blossom cookies, and key lime sablés.

Their names are often used interchangeably, but one thing is certain: nothing beats slow cookers and Crock-Pots for tenderizing hard meats and properly simmering curries and stews at low temperatures for several unattended hours. In the aptly titled "Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker" cookbook, Stewart pays tribute to these large practical devices with 110 recipes spanning Texas-style beef and black bean chili, winter squash with shallots and dates, barley risotto with fresh mushroom, creamy scalloped potatoes, and even desserts like cheesecake and cinnamon buns.

Keep in mind, though, that some readers have found this comprehensive cookbook, which was published in 2017, a little too advanced for them. However, they've still racked up compliments from their children and their guests alike over dishes like duck carnitas, beef stroganoff, and halibut with eggplant relish. For those who wouldn't mind putting in the effort, the book's "slow cooker commandments" and how-to guide will surely give them the confidence boost they need.

Marketed as "the ultimate cookbook for the modern couple," the 304-page "Martha Stewart's Newlywed Kitchen" compiles over 100 elegant but easy-to-follow recipes. Just think of it as a straightforward, failsafe cookbook that would make a useful and fun wedding shower or housewarming gift. Every cozy and hearty occasion typically thrown by newlyweds — or couples who have recently moved in together — is covered, from quick, intimate meals to brunches and larger gatherings. 

The "Stock up" chapter alone offers many invaluable tips, such as illuminating your work surface; placing essential cooking equipment within reach; investing in a set of white dinnerware; selecting "tools that can do double duty as much as possible, instead of buying specialty ones;" imitating restaurants by establishing a hierarchy in the kitchen; and opting for a shock-absorbent, wooden cutting board. No detail is spared, from maximizing shelf space to cleaning the mess in the kitchen in between cooking steps. 

Published in 2012, "Martha's American Food" showcases 200 of the nation's most iconic dishes and desserts, arranged geographically (Northeast, South, West, Midwest, and Southwest). As for recipes that are generally beloved in every state, they can be found in the "All-American" chapter and include classics like baked artichoke dip, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, pot roast, chicken pot pie, strawberry shortcake, and brownies.

This approachable, informative, and beautifully illustrated cookbook is a riveting celebration of American tradition, diversity, and modernism — and a valuable companion for casual potlucks and annual feasts. Expect illuminating and enriching backstories; hearty nationwide favorites like meatloaf, chicken fried steak with gravy, hot crab dip, peach cobbler, and apple pie; a tribute to regional ingredients, such as Maine blueberries (strongly flavored and loaded with health benefits); and tantalizing twists like fig pizza.

Dedicated to American farmers and orchard growers, this mouthwatering baking book from 2021 features over 100 fast and easy-to-follow recipes centered on seasonal and festive fruits. "Martha Stewart's Fruit Desserts" will help you navigate the intricacies of raspberry-chocolate mousse pie, double-crust peach slab pie, apple crostata with cheddar crust, poached pear and cranberry pie, Linzer crumble pie with cranberry-raspberry jam; and many more national and international fruit-centered treats.

This cookbook is also a trip down memory lane, as it highlights some of Stewart's fondest childhood memories, thus rendering her even more relatable and endearing to her fans. "On summer trips to the Jersey shore, we stopped the car at farm stands to purchase quarts of blueberries — in my mind, the best in the nation — or pecks of white peaches for ice cream or tarts," she writes. "On family outings to Long Island, we bought ripe strawberries in June and pie pumpkins in the fall."

While appetizers are an essential part of a full-course meal in anticipation of the main dish, hors d'oeuvres (French for "outside of the work") are optional and are often served to guests before they're seated at the dining table. Those delightful snacks are typically meant to be delicately consumed by hand, with the help of a small napkin or minimal utensils. Whether you're throwing a cocktail party or a full-blown dinner, "Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook," published in 1999, is your definitive reference. It establishes the classic foundations of hors d'oeuvres-making, from layering and folding to wrapping, stuffing, threading, and skewering.

You'll be tempted to prepare simple, cost-effective bites designed to stimulate your guests' appetite. These include tea sandwiches with toasted sesame seeds; elegant combos like Parmesan-sprinkled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto on phyllo; and refreshing nibbles like jicama and green papaya summer rolls with peanut dipping sauce.

When you find yourself dealing with a little stubborn extra weight or battling health problems typically associated with the excessive consumption of fatty and processed foods, it's perhaps time to take more serious measures. This is also when Martha Stewart's "Clean Slate: A Cookbook and Guide" comes long. Published in 2014, this bestseller intends to motivate its readers to slow down and detox by exclusively consuming fresh, clean, lean, and whole ingredients that are loaded with vitamins and nutrients.

It's an encouraging companion featuring more than 160 healthy, cleansing recipes for smoothies, juices, savory snacks, light dishes, and desserts. You'll find them categorized by intent, under sections like "Replenish," "Reenergize," "Restore," and "Relax." Banana-apple buckwheat muffins, honey-caramelized figs with yogurt, broccoli-spinach soup with avocado toast, ginger-scallion chicken breasts, and mixed berry sorbet are some of the proposed options. And as is typical with these types of cookbooks, "Clean Slate" caters to different dietary preferences and needs, like gluten-free, plant-based, vegetarian, and protein-centered.

Whether simple or decadent, cupcakes are colorful, crowd-pleasing treats for all ages, seasons, and happy occasions like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, bachelor parties, baby showers, and potlucks. In "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes," you'll find both basic and elaborate recipes for baking and decorating every type of cupcake you can think of, spanning tried-and-true and inventive fillings, sprinkles, frostings, glazes, toppings, and displays.

For instance, the "Swirled and Sprinkled" chapter covers zucchini-spice, tiramisu, yellow buttermilk, and ginger and molasses cupcakes, while "Dipped and Glazed" includes pumpkin-brown butter, triple-citrus, and coconut rum-raisin, and "Filled and Layered" highlights flavors like German chocolate, amaretto-pineapple, and Martha's Meyer lemon. Thanks to this popular baking book, which was published in 2009, you'll also be able to impress your guests with spooky Halloween specials and Fourth of July-themed cupcakes featuring blue buttercream stars and red licorice stripes.

Published in 2013, "Meatless" caters to both diehard and flexible vegetarians, while tossing various gluten-free, vegan, and low-fat options into the mix. These 200+ recipes cover soups, salads, stews, casseroles, chilis, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, pastas, side dishes, and more. It all essentially boils down to this: just because a meal is meatless, it doesn't make it any less substantial, flavorful, creative, and filling. Surely, Spanish egg dishes; sweet potatoes with coconut, pomegranate, and lime; lentil and cashew hummus; and summer rolls with carrot-ginger dipping sauce sound appetizing enough.

"Our more frequent trips to the farmer's markets and organic sections of the grocery stores will be more productive if armed with a recipe or two from these pages," Martha Stewart puts it. "With a recipe such as French lentils with caramelized celery root and parsley, for example, you will not pass by those knobby, weird celeriac roots ever again wondering, 'What could I possibly make with one of those?'"

This compilation of the most successful Martha Stewart books wouldn't be complete without a nod to her various publications that celebrate Christmas, a family-favorite holiday all over the world featuring a wide array of colorful treats. The mogul has covered every aspect of this joyful occasion extensively, from crafts to gift wraps, glassware, linen, tree decorations, and hosting intimate and large parties.

For its part, the 464-page "Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook" — published in 2003 — is a comprehensive collection of over 600 beautifully illustrated hors d'oeuvres, main dishes, cocktails, and desserts suitable for Christmastime. This precious companion will entice you with both simple and elaborate recipes, from a heartwarming eggnog to sauteed leeks and potatoes and a whole roasted and glazed salmon. Moreover, it will help you lay out a full menu (catered to your preferences) for a memorable and heartwarming celebration.

Here's another milestone in Martha Stewart's brilliant career. In November 2024, her 100^th book, "Martha: The Cookbook," hit the shelves and became an instant bestseller. It's a compilation of her absolute favorite recipes and indispensable cooking and baking tips. In short, this book, lovingly dedicated to her daughter and grandchildren, condenses her inspiring contributions to the world of home cooking and entertaining in 304 pages. Other than her tips on the perfect pantry, the chapters span breakfast and brunch; soups and salads; cocktails; hors d'oeuvres; dinner; garden sides; and desserts.

Every recipe is a peek into Stewart's lifestyle and personal anecdotes. For instance, artichokes with poached eggs, smoked salmon, and hollandaise reveals that fresh artichokes are her favorite veggies and teaches newbies how she prepares them from scratch. Stewart also swears by her daily green juice, and she only cooks omelets in a heavy aluminum pan — a habit she picked up from an upscale restaurant in the 1960s. In her own words: "There are those everyday dishes that I eat consistently; those delicious ones that I serve my friends when entertaining; and those truly spectacular recipes I reserve for special events." Stewart adds, "Also sprinkled throughout the book, within each chapter, I have included photos from my archives that are dear to me and shared stories related to them." 

Now that you're all caught up, which one of the aforementioned Martha Stewart books will you be adding to your personal collection?