Cookie

Walkers Shortbread comes as close to a homemade cookie as anything you'll find in a supermarket aisle. It's made with the same pure ingredients—flour, butter, sugar, and salt—that you would use yourself. And when you dip these cookies in chocolate and coat them with nuts and toffee, well, you can imagine how tempting they are. Sometimes you can find Walkers Shortbread discounted at the warehouse clubs or at Target. If you do, grab as many boxes as you can (Walkers says its shortbread will stay fresh, unopened, for more than a year). That way you'll be prepared for any cookie swap invitation that comes along.

These buttery cookies would be fantastic with a cup of tea.

To serve cleanly cut cheesecake bars, dip a sharp knife into a tall glass of hot water. Wipe the knife dry with a thick kitchen towel, then cut the bars in the pan. Repeat dipping the knife and wiping it every few cuts. (This works for slicing cheesecake, too.)

This is the easiest cookie you will ever bake. It is made as one large cookie that you cut after baking. Sablé means sandblasted, which describes the grainy texture of these cookies perfectly. I saw cookies like these during my travels around Brittany in the northwest region of France, where they use enormous amounts of butter in everything they bake. For a Sephardic twist, I like to add orange blossom water to this parve version of the famous French cookie.

Many a copy of JOY has been sold on the strength of this recipe. One fan says her family is sure these are the cakes St. Peter gives little children at the Gates of Heaven, to get them over the first pangs of homesickness. The lemon glaze should be spread on warm cakes or Christmas cookies. It has a fine consistency for embedding decorative nuts and fruits.

These intense, ultra-rich cookies are a dark chocolate lover's dream.

The "cream" flavor in this blueberry-muffin-inspired cookie comes from one of Tosi's favorite inventions—Milk Crumbs (a streusel made from dry milk powder). The key to the soft center and crunchy edges? Scooping the dough onto the baking sheets and letting the cookies rest in the fridge overnight. Timing note: You'll need to make the Milk Crumbs before you start preparing the cookie dough.

A thin ganache topping puts these brownies over the top. The key to perfectly moist, fudgy brownies is not to overcook them. As soon as the tester comes out with moist crumbs attached, remove the pan from the oven.

If you don't have a 9-inch-diameter tart pan, use a buttered 9-inch glass pie dish. Cool the tart in the dish, then cut it.

Dulce de leche, a rich caramel sauce popular in Latin countries, flavors the filling and also serves as a soft glaze for the bars. A sprinkling of sea salt turns this dessert into a craveable salty-sweet treat.

Natural no-stir peanut butter is a special boon for those who like to bake with peanut butter. It's made without trans fats, yet stays smooth and doesn't separate, as most natural peanut butters do.

At a dinner at an Italian vinoteca, on the dessert menu was something I'd never seen before: ricotta-stuffed eggplant with candied orange and chocolate sauce. My curiosity piqued, I placed an order with the waiter, only to have him come back with "You won't like it. Order something else." Not one to be easily swayed from ordering an intriguing dessert, I ordered it in spite of his admonition, and you know what? I liked it—quite a bit, in fact. With that experience in mind, when I saw a fresh fennel cake on a dessert menu at a fancy three-star Michelin restaurant, I didn't hesitate to order it. I had high hopes and was ready for anything. But so was the waiter, who informed me as he set it down that if I didn't like it, he'd replace it with something else. He saw my expression after I took my first bite, and he briskly returned to the table to make good on his offer. Still, I do believe in giving a chance to things that are out of the ordinary, otherwise, how would we discover new flavors and tastes? I haven't gotten around to trying to come up with my own version of an eggplant dessert (and I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to come up with a fresh fennel one, either), but I've made these tomato jam-filled cookies many times and not once have I had to rush over to offer guests anything in their place.

My Nana was quite a baker, as I found out while I was writing Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times. But these simple, delicious cookies became a staple around my house precisely because I'm not a whiz in the kitchen! They're a perfect "basic" cookie—they're easy to make and great with tea at mid-morning or in the afternoon, or as dessert. Around the holidays, they make a lovely, inexpensive gift when you put them in a pretty tin.

Biscochitos are the best thing to get with your coffee when you eat breakfast at a Mexican bakery. Mi Tierra makes my favorite version of these rich Mexican cookies. Sorry, there is no substitute for the lard—it's the secret ingredient!

Deeply chocolaty shortbread cookies get a kick from chipotle chile powder (left over from Pork Spice Rub . If you can restrain yourself, wait a day before serving the cookies—their flavor improves over time.

Shape some tuiles into cups, then use the remaining batter to make cookies to serve alongside.