Cookie

The coffee and toffee flavors of this crunchy dessert are heightened by the dark brown sugar and espresso powder. This version is an adaptation of Leah Reich’s recipe, which was a variation on her grandmother’s recipe.

Grapefruit and chocolate make a surprisingly delicious pairing. Star anise adds an underlying spiciness to the tender cookies.

Finally, PB&J for dessert. In this whimsical sweet, a peanut butter shortbread cookie is topped with a layer of blackberry jam. Some frozen shortbread dough is grated over the jam before baking for a nice finishing touch.

A fun take on the crowdpleasing cream cheese brownies.

The zesty lemon-cream filling for the cookies can be made one day ahead. Cover and refrigerate the filling; bring it to room temperature before using.

For chewy texture, undercook the biscotti slightly in the second baking.

Known as pepitorias, these tasty caramel-filled wafer "tacos" embellished with toasted pumpkin seeds are a regular offering at Mexican markets and sweets shops, especially in the city of Puebla, which is famous for so many confections. The wafers are traditionally brightly colored, but we chose to stick with a more seasonal white-and-gold motif. Since tinted edible wafer paper is hard to come by in the United States, we used precut white Back-Oblaten, imported from Germany, and we explain how to color them. Painting them with food coloring or water softens them enough to fold around the caramel.

Let's just say that finding yourself alone in a room with a plate of these cookies and a tall glass of milk would be very, very dangerous. The trifecta of chocolate, hazelnuts, and rum is irresistible. Decorating the cutouts with royal icing adds a festive touch.

Our love of lemon grows exponentially at the sight of these delightful melt-in-your-mouth sandwich cookies. It perfumes the tiny treats, which are put together with an easy icing that zings with zest and fresh lemon juice. Rolling them in brightly colored sanding sugar makes them sparkle like vintage Christmas ornaments.

This signature Payard treat delivers a delicious dose of heart-healthy fat and antioxidants, courtesy of the nuts and cocoa.

With their simple, homespun charm, these icebox cookies are just the nibble you'll want to have on hand as you do your Christmas gift wrapping. The thinner you can slice the dough, the crisper the cookies will be, so we freeze the dough for a bit (after chilling it in the fridge) before slicing. Plus, it will be much easier to cut through the almonds and get nice, neat rounds.

It's a holiday party—you must have cookies. We double your pleasure by offering not one but two buttery, nutty shortbread rounds in each cookie. They sandwich tart berry jam under a drift of confectioners sugar.

Inspired by the Persian fried-turnover cookies called ghotab, food editor Shelley Wiseman used a simple dough to enfold fragrant candied orange peel and pistachios. Her method for candying the peel is very straightforward, and the results—tender and fresh-tasting—are so much better than the store-bought stuff. The flaky baked pastry, generously coated with confectioners sugar, pairs nicely with the chewy-crunchy filling within.

An upscale hybrid of antipodean ANZAC biscuits and chocolate digestives from Britain, these crisp cookies are positively elegant. They were an unexpected favorite in our test kitchen, with cooks and editors descending in droves when the cookies’ warm, nutty aroma filled the air.

We dressed up this chewy classic for the holidays with a festive, to-die-for drizzle of chocolate. Oats replace part of the coconut to make this a lowfat yet still satisfying goody.

Every year, I make homemade fruitcakes for friends and family. I bake the dense pound cakes studded with dried fruits months in advance, then wrap them in muslin. These cookies are similar to my fruitcakes—only they’ll take you a lot less time. For a fun presentation, the cookies are baked in bonbon-size baking cups.

When I was growing up, everyone put out bowls of toasted pecans during the holidays. To this day, the heady perfume of toasting pecans brings me back to my childhood. To capture that memory in cookie form, I made a buttery-rich, highly addictive shortbread, then decorated it with toasted pecans.