I’m not a gambling person—unless you count a friendly wager on who will win The Bachelorette—but good money says this recipe will become one of your favorites. Made with just four simple ingredients, these wafers may sound plain, but don’t let them fool you—they’re a 100/10. Completely crushable on their own, used in place of ladyfingers in your next tiramisù, or rolled thin for cutout cookies, these wafers are endlessly usable, though it won’t surprise me if they never quite make it into your pantry, because they’re so darn delicious right off the sheet pan.
If you’re feeling more playful than functional, ditch the round and use any shape cookie cutter. Adjust the bake time: longer for larger shapes and shorter for smaller shapes.
When a recipe requires four sticks of butter and five cups of almonds, can there possibly be a downside? No. Charlotte Midthun of Granite Falls encountered this recipe in First for Women magazine and had a hunch it would be a hit. “I took these to a party, and everyone loved them,” she said. “I’ve been making them ever since. They’re such a nice contrast to all the chocolate cookies and sugar cookies at Christmas.” They sure are.
The final version of the cookies has a very special mix of sweet, salty, buttery, crunchy, chewy, and earthy. Taste for yourself.
These cookies most resemble Italian baci di dama (recipe, page 120) in appearance, and their diminutive size is part of the appeal. You can, of course, fill them with dulce de leche, chocolate-hazelnut spread, or any other fruit jam, but the softness and florality of the classic guava paste works wonderfully to contrast with the crunchy, buttery cookies.
A Basque cheesecake is traditionally served crustless and with no berry adornments, but I promise you’re going to fall in love with this rebellious version. I layer it with a cookie crust; I really like the spice in the Speculoos (Biscoff-ish) cookie and bright berries, which just make the mahogany top and lusciously smooth texture sing. You’ll notice the ingredients— like the cream cheese— are cold rather than at room temperature, so it won’t overbake in the hot oven as the top browns.
The first stop on my coffee cart treat quest (second stop, Raspberry Mazurkas, page 108) is the elusive Pink Cookie. Uncle Seth’s Pink Cookies are palm- size cookies scented with cardamom and topped with a pink- tinted cream cheese and almond frosting. Here, I’ve made them into a pat- in- the pan cookie bar with a layer of perfectly pink cream cheese frosting scented with a bit of almond extract.
A good molasses cookie should achieve a harmony between the sweetness of brown sugar, the bitterness of molasses, and the gentle heat of spices. This cookie does all that, but where it really delivers is the texture: perfectly soft and chewy. The dough can be portioned and frozen ahead of time, making these your all-purpose holiday cookie.
Some of my most memorable recipe breakthroughs are a result of error, mistakes, and happenstance. I try to reframe even the most upsetting accidents as a potential victory or chance for growth: Does it help me examine a recipe or dish from another angle? Is there something I can learn from my failure? Can I repurpose my mistake in some way? The answer is yes!
In the process of revising my favorite biscotti recipe, I accidentally doubled the amount of butter and sugar. Butter isn’t even a traditional ingredient in biscotti, so what happens when you add twice as much? In the oven, the log spreads like inching lava, finally settling into a flat, bronzed disc. Once the disk is cooled, sliced into thin spears, and baked again, the result is a super-crisp cookie, studded with toasted fennel seeds, dark chocolate, and whole hazelnuts.
A small tumbler of vin santo or espresso for dunking would be a heavenly accompaniment. Cheers to happy accidents and faux biscotti.
INGREDIENTS
A Ritz cracker smeared with cream cheese and hot pepper jelly is the holy trinity of snacking. The cooling richness of the cream cheese balances the sweet spiciness of the pepper jelly, while the buttery crunch of a Ritz cracker holds it all together. It’s the ultimate combination of hot, cold, smooth, and crisp. These festive thumbprint cookies borrow that same flavor profile.