Dried Fruit

Unlike many crumbly cookies, these biscotti are sturdy enough to mail. For a holiday gift, send a batch along with a pound of your favorite coffee beans.

Oversize and dense with chocolate chips, raisins, and pecans, these chunky treats might just be the ultimate cookies. The recipe has been a staff favorite since it first appeared in Martha Stewart Living in 1990.

A glass of milk is the ideal accompaniment to these drop cookies. Besides white chocolate, the cookies are also chockablock with oats, coconut, golden raisins, and walnuts.

Toasted wheat germ and a generous amount of raisins make these cookies hearty. You can substitute an equal measure of dried cranberries, sour cherries, or chopped apricots for the raisins. To make oatmeal–chocolate chunk cookies, substitute 12 ounces good-quality chocolate, coarsely chopped, for the raisins.

These bars are more rustic than traditional dried fruit bars, since they are covered with a crumbly oat topping before baking. You can substitute chopped dried figs or dates for the raisins.

These single-serving goodies are kitchen wizardry: Blondie batter is tucked into cupcake liners, topped with a combination of coconut, chocolate chips, walnuts, and dried cherries, and baked until golden.

Stash a few of these hearty cookies into a backpack on your next hiking trip. They are packed with wholesome dried fruits and nuts. For variety, try other combinations of dried fruit and nuts: Bananas, mangoes, and macadamias lend a tropical note; hazelnuts and pecans go well with figs, pears, and cranberries.

The applesauce in this recipe keeps the cookies moist; maple syrup flavors the simple white icing that gets drizzled over the tops.

These date-filled cookies get their soft texture from applesauce; wheat flour and bran add wholesome notes.

Lebkuchen are traditional German Christmas cookies, spiced with the flavors of gingerbread, studded with candied citrus peel, and topped with a sweet sugar-and-milk glaze. To toast nuts, spread them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake in a 350°F oven for about ten minutes.

Thyme serves as a savory counterpoint to these sweet, soft, and chewy tea cookies. Cornmeal and dried currants add additional texture—and flavor.

Blondies are usually baked in a square or rectangular pan and cut into bars. Here we’ve used a springform pan to bake a round that’s then cut into wedges. The familiar flavor is made even more irresistible with the spice of candied ginger, the sweetness of dried pears, and the crunch of pistachios.

These are like tiny inside-out carrot cakes, with the signature cream cheese frosting on the inside and spiced “cake” on the outside.

These fruit-and-nut-rich cookies are like soft granola bars; they make a hearty and delicious after-school snack.

Three layers of cornmeal shortbread are separated by a chunky cherry-almond filling. Because the flavor of almond extract is so intense, only a tiny amount is needed to flavor the jam for all of the cookies.

While they’re warm, these tuiles are draped over a cannoli mold or a narrow rolling pin to give them their shape. To make edible bowls for serving scoops of ice cream or sorbet, shape the warm cookie rounds over inverted muffin tins or ramekins instead.

Flaky cream cheese dough is filled with a rich dried-fruit filling, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, and baked until golden brown to form these crescents. The prunes are soaked in brandy overnight for the filling, so plan ahead if you’re making them.

The flavor of these dense bars is reminiscent of Black Forest cake, a classic German dessert that originated in the country’s southern Black Forest region, renowned for its sour cherries and kirsch (cherry brandy).

This one’s from my co-author. Growin’ up in southeastern Pennsylvania around lots of fruit trees, she makes a mean crisp.