Cookie

Marty Rosencranz of River Vale, New Jersey, writes: "Even though I am a professional chef — at the Valley Brook Golf Club in New Jersey — when I cook at home I make dishes that are good but fast. I took two years to perfect the recipe for my chewy chocolate cookies. They're so good that they are now a signature item on the club's menu." Butterscotch chips could easily stand in for the peanut butter chips.

Chocolate-covered raisins turn into fudgy pockets of intense chocolate and chewy raisins in these easy brownies.

These Christmas cookies are topped with white icing and silver dragées for added elegance. Look for the dragées in the cake decorating section of your supermarket.

For a curved tuile-like shape, these cookies may be draped over a rolling pin after their second baking, while they are still warm. If the cookies become too brittle to form on the rolling pin, return baking sheets to oven for a few seconds to allow the cookies to soften.

The coconut in this recipe gives a chewiness to these thin cookies.

Spritz cookies-from the German Spritzen, meaning "to squirt"- are formed into fanciful shapes when the dough is piped through a cookie press. One food editor still uses her aunt Carol's old metal spritzer to make these delicate cookie.

"These cookies have been baked by my mother, by me, and now by my daughters at Christmastime," writes Suzanne Perry of Columbus, Ohio. "The recipe was given to my mother by a Swedish friend." Active time: 1 1/2 hr Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

Sifting powdered sugar over the cooled cookies adds a festive touch. (It would also be an easy kitchen project for the kids.)

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 10 hr (includes soaking raisins)

My children like to visit my Aunt Lisl's daughter-in-law, Dorothy, the way I used to visit Aunt Lisl. Dorothy doesn't make butter cookies, but she does make brownies which she serves at Hanukkah and every Friday night, a perfect ending to a meat meal. The children help make the brownies and then take a few extra home in aluminum foil. They love them—without the nuts.

Filled Tricornered Cookies

The flavor and texture of these chewy confections are even better if they are allowed to rest overnight.