Cookie

With its cloak of pure chocolate, this buttery cookie is sublime. For the best flavor, use a high-quality pure vanilla extract and the best chocolate you can find — preferably Valrhona. Melting the chocolate in two stages helps keep it at an even temperature — insuring that it will set evenly.

Imagine peanut brittle that is as delicate as lace, with the familiar buttery crunch.

These squares practically explode in the mouth with silky, fudgy chocolate and cool mint ganache.

The richness of almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, and pistachios embodies the generosity of the season. A kiss of honey and brown sugar adds a sweet touch.

These small muffin-shaped cookies deliver a brown-sugar-infused crunch, followed by an intensely fruity burst of blueberries and lemon.

For variety, dip half of the biscotti in melted white chocolate and the other half in dark chocolate. Or, drizzle the melted chocolate over the biscotti instead.

This is a miniature version of a New York favorite: A cakey cookie with sweet half-moons of vanilla and chocolate icing.

For a pretty presentation, dust these cookies lightly with powdered sugar.

The recipe for these tender, rich cookies came from a cook who worked for my great-grandmother. They were always a family favorite. Decorate them with sanding sugar or nonpareils.

Loaded with dried fruit, toasted almonds, and bittersweet chocolate, these blondies combine the best of a brownie with what you wish fruitcake could taste like. A terrific addition to any holiday cookie platter, they are also a satisfying stand-alone dessert.

The intricate swirls are attained with a specific kitchen skill: slice and bake. You'll get a little sweet pastry and a little fig filling in every bite.

"You really have to wait," says Barbour. "After a couple of days, the cookies' texture becomes lovely and melting. Earlier, they are good, but later, they're transcendent. Honest." Barbour likes these best with half strawberry and half cherry preserves.

This recipe makes a lot of dough. If you don't need all of it, freeze the extra. For impromptu entertaining, you can slice the still-frozen dough into cookies and pop them in the oven for a quick dessert.

The key to delicious Linzer cookies is striking just the right balance of the tart raspberry jam filling with the thin, tender, and slightly sweet cookies. We think we've hit it with these — and they only get better after a few days.

These golden-brown cookies sprinkled with flaky sea salt contrast nicely with the sweetness of the glaze on the blancmange .

As great as the original, but with a lot of crunch, too.

These rich cookies, a little like freestanding brownies, are the creation of Chris Gargone, the talented pastry chef of Remi, one of New York's most popular Italian restaurants. Before you start, a word of caution: chews are addictive.

While this calls for four herbs, just one or two—rosemary and thyme, for example—would be fine.