Cookie

These cookies are familiarly fudgey like a good brownie, cute because of the crinkles or “faults” that cut through their warm sugary surfaces, and they travel well to picnics or friends’ houses. Pile them up in a mason jar and tie them with a bow.

These playful black-and-white cookies have the simple appeal of chocolate and vanilla as well as the universally appealing symbol of Buddhist duality, yin and yang. By giving these cookies as a gift, you get the return gift of delighting the recipient. For the shortening, look for an all-natural transfat-free brand, available in many health food stores. Use Dark Chocolate Plastique (page 134) to make the chocolate side of the yin yang decoration.

These chocolate chip cookies have nuts and cocoa nibs, which give them an earthy crunch. Be sure to chill the dough before you scoop it out so the cookies will keep their shape as they bake.

You’ll get a crunchy cocoa kick and a buttery, sweet finish from these iced chocolate sugar cookies. They’re small enough that if you eat one or two, you’ll have satisfaction, not guilt. Make a full batch of dough and freeze half for later use.

No apologies here. These are dense and decadent. You’ll want to use a strong dark chocolate—something that stands up to the richness of great butter, fresh eggs, and a lot of sugar.

You’ll be happy to eat veggies for dessert when you taste these cakelike brownies. Zucchini is the surprise ingredient.

The exquisite aroma of cinnamon, apples, and brown sugar baking will make it hard to wait for this treat to come out of the oven.

These adorable little bears are exceptionally great for kids instead of less nutritious sandwich cookies. You can make plenty ahead of time and store them in an airtight plastic container for whenever they (or you) need a snack in seconds.

Ever since I created my Chocolate Chocolate Brownie cups, which are an even easier version of my brownies that Jenna Fischer from The Office raved about on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, saying, “They played no small part in my recovery [speaking of her back injury],” I’ve been particular about eating only a select few varieties of brownies. Because mine taste like they are full of fat, I don’t see a reason to eat actual fatty ones that don’t taste any better. I will say, however, that when prepared as suggested as part of this recipe, the No Pudge! Brownies are definitely worth the calories. This recipe even shocked my team—it’s truly delicious, not to mention fun! To crush the peppermints, place the unwrapped candies in a resealable zip-top bag. Using the flat end of a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy skillet, pound them until they are crushed into fine shavings. If you really want to save time, look for peppermint sprinkles near ice cream cones and ice cream toppings (brands such as Ken Craft and Wilton make them). They’re more expensive than buying the peppermints and crushing them yourself, but they’re a timesaver! If you’re not serving this pizza to your guests immediately, add the toppings to the brownie just before serving. If made too far ahead, the peppermints tend to run slightly on the whipped topping so it won’t look quite as pretty (though it will still taste delicious!).

Gina: When it comes to hanging with our girls, no place beats our kitchen. Shelbi and Spenser love to cook, have always enjoyed spending time in the kitchen, from an early age. Shelbi in particular loves to bake, and these delicate butter cookies are one of her (and our) favorites. As I often mention on our show, I am a big collector of all things piggy, and if you come for a visit in my kitchen you’ll see HOW BIG! You can cut these cookies into any shape you choose, but in our house we choose to cut them into the shape of a—oink, oink—pig (pig cutter shapes can be found online or at specialty baking stores).

Pat: We all have our vices, and mine is brownies—particularly these brownies, which have candy bars and crunchy pecans baked right in. They are some of the most decadent brownies you will ever eat. When I have one of these at two in the morning, I’m tempted to let out a loud moan, but then Gina would probably throw me out. Gina used to make them for me when we were courting hence the seductive additions. They say that chocolate is an aphrodisiac, so if you’re looking for a sweet deal to spark a little romance in your house, take my advice: Light a fire, add the Whipped Cream, fresh raspberries, and silky chocolate shavings, and you’ll be well on your way to a blissful ending!

Gina: These tart-sweet bar cookies are a variation on traditional lemon bars, and, girl, they are a vacation in a pan! The tender cookie base holds a puckery lime filling that gets a little extra kick from grated lime zest. You can use fresh limes or that bottled Key-lime juice you brought back from your last trip to the Gulf Coast. These bars need nothing more than a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, and they make an ideal dessert for barbecues, picnics, and slumber parties.

If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can still enjoy these delicious and crunchy cookies in their traditional shape: Chill the cookie dough for about 1 hour, then divide it into fourths. Roll each piece out with the palms of your hands to a rope about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the rope into 4-inch lengths and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, shaping them into crescents and leaving about 3/4 inch between them. Lightly drag the tines of a fork over the crescents to create ridges. Bake and cool them as described below

If you don’t have a baking sheet large enough to hold the two loaves of dough side by side with a little room between them, use two sheets. Position the oven racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven before preheating it, and rotate the pans from shelf to shelf and front to back about halfway through baking.

These crunchy, chewy treats are sure to satisfy any sweet tooth! Try adding dried cherries or chopped bittersweet chocolate (depending on how many carbs you’ve had for dinner).

These light cookies have the texture of brownie edges, crisp with a touch of chew and a surprisingly big chocolate flavor. They bake for five hours at 200°F (95°C) in order to achieve this texture. On the bright side, you can set a timer and forget about the cookies until they are done—although it’s hard to ignore them as the scent of chocolate slowly fills your home. Fortunately, they can be eaten as soon as you pull them from the oven.

Visiting eighty-five-year-old Aimée Beressi and ninety-one-year-old Lydia Farahat is like crawling into a cozy casbah. Friends since they left Egypt in the late 1950s, they get together once a week at Lydia’s apartment on Rue Dragon, right near Saint-Germain-des-Prés. For more than forty years, the two have been discussing recipes, current events, and the Egypt of their childhood. When Aimée was growing up in Cairo, there was no school on Thursday, so she helped her mother and aunt make the cakes and cookies for the Sabbath. The word rosquettes, which comes from the Spanish rosquillas, refers to round cookies with a hole. Aimée still bakes a batch each week to bring to her friend of so many years.