Cookie

These brownies are extra chocolaty: Each one has a caramel- or cappuccino-filled chocolate square in its center. You can also use filled truffles or an assortment of chocolate bars with soft fillings. For an even more decadent dessert, serve the brownies with vanilla ice cream.

Deliciously sweet, savory, and salty.

The crisp edge and pillow-soft, chewy middle of these cookies will be the first things that strike you when you bite into them. But it's the faintly peppery traces of ginger that will make you crave more.

They look like the loaded chocolate-nut cookies of your youth, but a bite will reveal their luxurious upgrades: chewy sour cherries that play off the crunch of chopped pecans and the creamy sweetness of milk chocolate chunks. Your adult palate will appreciate the complexity.

This recipe makes plenty of cookies, so bundle up extras (with green ribbon, of course) to send home with guests.

This recipe makes lots of big cookies, but don't even think of saving half the dough for another day, because you won't want to stop eating them. Food editor Paul Grimes, who tested the recipe, has already slipped it into his personal recipe file. "Next time I need a peanut butter cookie," he says, "I'm turning to this." Happily, the recipe works with either conventional or natural creamy peanut butter.

Cornmeal gives these crisp rounds a sandy texture that makes them an ideal cookie for ice cream sandwiches. They're also delicious all by themselves, or with a tall glass of iced tea or lemonade.

These chewy oatmeal cookies are spicy with ginger and not too sweet. Look for candied ginger that's cut into cubes and is not dusted with sugar — it'll be more tender and easier to chop.

Use one, two, or all three toppings.

Two adored classics come together in this dessert lover's superbrownie.

All over Switzerland, tiny macaroons in every color and flavor fill the bakery windows, like rows and rows of candy dots. Almond is one of the classic flavors of these sandwich cookies — and it's particularly nice with the poached apricots and zabaglione.

Cornstarch is one of the secret ingredients behind this traditional crumbly Brazilian cookie. Ground cashews are the other, contributing their distinct brand of richness and nutty sweetness.

A buttery crust is topped with caramel, then a layer of chocolate ganache. The recipe is Granger's take on a traditional Australian dessert. "I used to buy a version of this at school fairs," he says.

Their sweetness tempered by the tang of lemon zest, these little macaroons are the ideal dessert when you're short on time and still craving a fast, fresh ending to dinner.

Ready in under an hour, these shortbread cookies call for all purpose flour, sugar, salt and chilled unsalted butter. These tried-and-true ingredients yield a cookie that's a classic for a reason. 

A dollop of chipotle-cherry whipped cream adds a sweet and spicy note to purchased brownies.

These have a finished, pastry-shop look but require astoundingly little effort. The stacks need to chill at least six hours, so get started early in the day — or the night before.

Crystallized ginger makes these a little different. It's available, already chopped, in the spice section of many supermarkets.