Cookie

The buttery, nutty cookies are dusted with powdered sugar while they're still warm from the oven.

These delicious cookies are decorated with a sprinkling of raw sugar.

A combination of ground, crystallized, and fresh ginger gives these soft, chewy cookies their intense flavor.

In this festive treat, the shortbread base is topped with dark chocolate, chopped peppermint candies, and a drizzle of white chocolate. Cutting the cookies into irregular pieces makes for a fun presentation.

These thin, elegant cookies get their flavor from dried cranberries and homemade candied lemon peel. Because the lemon peel needs to dry overnight, be sure to begin this recipe one day ahead.

Have you ever visited the marketplace of Jerusalem and noticed small wooden imprinted molds with handles? To be sure, the merchant is hard put to explain their significance. They are ma'amoul molds. Ma'amoul means "filled" in Arabic, and these molds make filled cookies eaten by Jews and Arabs throughout the Middle East, especially in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. A piece of short-pastry dough the size of a walnut is pressed into the crevices of the ma'amoul mold. A tablespoon of date or nut filling is inserted, and you close the pastry with your fingers. Holding the handle of the wooden mold, you slam it on the table, letting the enclosed dough fall out. On the top of the cookie is a lovely design. After baking and rolling in confectioners' sugar, the design stands out even more. Of course, the ma'amoul mold is not necessary to the preparation of these sweets, though it certainly adds to their beauty. The tines of a fork, tweezers with a serrated edge, or a tool of your own devising will do quite well. The following ma'amoul recipe came from Aleppo to the Syrian Jewish community on Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn. These cookies are served at Purim. A similar cookie, called karabij here (nataife in Syria), topped with marshmallow fluff, is also served at Purim. Arasibajweh—rolled cookies from the same dough and stuffed with dates—are served at the New Year or Hanukkah.

Tender and crisp, packed with delicate herbal and aromatic lemon flavors, these rolled shortbread cookies accented with a little sea salt are easy to prepare, versatile, and delicious.

Simple butter cookies with a hint of lemon are colored orange and cut like jack-o'-lanterns. Use the tip of a knife to cut the shapes freehand and your jack-o'-lanterns will have lots of personality. They take on added luster—literally!—when you crush and melt hard candies in the spaces for the eyes, nose, and grinning mouth. The stained glass effect is beautiful and surprisingly effective given the simplicity of the process. Use lemon drops for a yellow gleam and to ramp up the flavor, or, if you prefer, try butterscotch candies for an orange glow. Let your kids work off some energy crushing the candies while you prepare the dough.

Food editor Paul Grimes is used to getting ribbed by his colleagues for sneaking curry powder into his desserts—he loves the air of mystery it lends to sweets—but these cookies received unanimous acclaim. Paired with citrusy coriander, the curry keeps the sugar and butter from stealing the show.

Finikia It has been said that the Phoenicians introduced these delicious honey-dipped cookies to the people of Greece.

These "Hawks Bars" are so good, chef-owners Michael Fagnoni and Molly Hawks named them after their restaurant. Super-sweet, fudgy brownies are topped with layers of white-chocolate-flavored caramel, bittersweet-chocolate ganache, and candied pecans and served with a scoop of not-too-sweet Cacao Nib Gelato. Incredible.

Use a tablespoon to shape the dough.

You can bake the cookies to order, straight from the freezer.

My friend Melissa McDonnell is finishing up her architectural studies in Texas, but she always finds time to bake her famous ginger cookies. These cookies are chewy, hearty, and totally addictive. The dough does need to chill for an hour, so be sure to prepare accordingly. And keep a close eye on these—my husband is a ginger-cookie addict and stole almost half the batch while they were cooling.

In my house, baking cookies was a cutthroat competition among siblings, with my mother presiding, Iron Chef style, with one baby perched on her hip and the other clamped to her knee. Our approaches varied. Mary increased the sugar in an attempt to up the crunch. Patrick (ever the psycho perfectionist) altered the recipe and portion size teaspoon by teaspoon in pursuit of a product with Mom's thin and crispy edges. Bill made his backwards, just to act rad. It was never my intention to upstage your cookies, Mom—but you should know that I've never claimed a victory as great as when you tasted your first Babycakes NYC cookie and said: "These are better than mine." Slather an exceedingly generous dollop of your favorite frosting between two of these cookies and you've got your newest addiction, the Babycakes NYC cookie sandwich. Try freezing them.

These brown-sugar brownies have a lovely cakey texture. For an extradecadent dessert, top each blondie with a scoop of ice cream, drizzle with caramel or chocolate sauce, and sprinkle with peanuts.

A sprinkling of sweetened coconut tempers the tangy lime filling.