Cookie

When it comes to gingerbread, I almost always find that the allspice and cloves overpower the ginger flavor. To remedy that imbalance, I created a cookie with a double dose of ginger (ground and crystallized) and a little bit of cinnamon. And although the traditional cut for gingerbread is fat, sturdy men, I thought the lightness of angel wings seemed more appropriate for these delicate cookies.

We southerners love ambrosia, a mélange of sliced juicy-sweet oranges and grated coconut. The sweet salad has been a part of southern Christmas traditions for the better part of two centuries, and I thought it would be fun to use the coconut-orange combo in a new way. I added some finely grated orange peel to classic coconut macaroons, then drizzled the cookies with bittersweet chocolate for a festive finish.

Editor's note: Lisa Loeb shared this recipe exclusively with Epicurious. To read more about Lisa and get a peek inside her kitchen, see our Celebrity Kitchen Tour videos. These are Lisa Loeb's favorite cookies, a version of Mark Bittman's "Refrigerator (Rolled) Cookies," which appeared in his seminal How to Cook Everything. She substitutes high-in-fiber whole-wheat flour for regular all-purpose flour, uses rich dark brown sugar instead of plain, and adds natural peanut butter and an extra pinch of kosher salt for a rich, nutty flavor. Before baking, she tops each cookie with a dollop of all-fruit jam, which balances out the sophisticated saltiness with the perfect hint of sweetness. If you prefer not to use jam, before baking try sprinkling cookies with good-quality sea salt, such as fleur de sel, to bring out their sweetness.

A chocolate-dipped frozen banana meets an ice cream sandwich.

These cookies should set for a while before serving. The fillings help soften the meringue—and your patience will be rewarded with a wonderfully chewy texture.

The trees of Hansel and Gretel's forest surely had bark like this, sparkling with sugar crystals and tasting of sylvan honey. Though the biscuits pair wonderfully with blueberries in gin syrup, they also make an excellent accompaniment to a cheese course—particularly with a nice triple-crème.

The recipe and introductory text below are reprinted with permission from Gameday Gourmet by Pableaux Johnson. An insanely easy-to-make candy that looks a lot like the famous nut of Ohio's state tree as well as Ohio State's symbol.The actual buckeye is a form of horse chestnut that, when eaten, might result in all kinds of unthinkable intestinal troubles. It's probably wiser to go for these sweet, bite-size globes with the famous peanut butter/chocolate flavor combo instead.

Ladyfingers may play only a supporting role in charlottes, but these delicate, small spongecakes are well worth perfecting. Folding in the egg whites requires a light but confident hand. Also, be careful not to overbake. Gaston LeNôtre's son Alain warns: "Thirty seconds too long, and it could be too late."

Dylan's Candy Bar owner Dylan Lauren created these brownie pops as a fun way to use leftover Halloween candy. To watch Lauren create these brownies, and to take a tour of Dylan's Candy Bar, check out our videos. The instructions below are just for inspiration—feel free to experiment with different kinds of candy and decorating supplies. Most of the candy can be found in the candy aisle of supermarkets or at Dylan's Candy Bar.

Serve a platter of cookies alongside the pears and ice cream. The night before you make the cookies, place the dried cherries in a small bowl of crème de cassis. The soaking will infuse the fruit with the flavor of the black-currant liqueur.

Fudgy cookies go Latin with an infusion of dulce de leche, a sweet milk caramel similar to cajeta and arequipe. These cool treats are happily portable on their crisp shortbread crusts.

Made without butter or flour, these dense, chewy cookies will satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving.

For the moistest, most intense mostaccioli imaginable, Miraglia Eriquez increased the cocoa, hazelnuts, and spices. And these little frosted cookies only get better with age, so feel free to bake them up to four days ahead of when you plan to serve them.

Olive oil is a perfect (and extra-flavorful) nondairy alternative to butter for these tuiles, which defy logic by being both gossamer (potato starch gives them a melt-in-your-mouth quality) and sublimely crisp.

Savor healthy sweets

Ultra-thin and wonderfully crisp, these cookies pack plenty of flavor into a slim package. We like to pair them with the prunes in wine or the orange tapioca pudding, but they're also wonderful on their own or with a hot cup of coffee.