Make Great Cookies

Vanilla Crescents

These melt-in-the-mouth, buttery-nutty cookies are a favorite in Austria, Germany, and other countries.

Double Gingersnaps

These are gingery and crunchy—just like good gingersnaps should be. They keep well, too, making them great for baking in advance and freezing or for mailing.

Snickerdoodles, sugar cookies with a crackled top popular in the Midwest, are normally dusted with cinnamon sugar. Adding a bit of rum flavoring and replacing most of the cinnamon with nutmeg gives a flavor reminiscent of eggnog.

Our cookie exchange cookbook

Very Merry Cookie Party: How to Plan and Host a Christmas Cookie Exchange has just been published by Chronicle Books. Barbara Grunes and I worked very hard to make this a great book. As the title suggests, we offer suggestions

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Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the traditional sandy-crunchy peanut butter cookie. You can use all butter instead of butter and shortening, but the shortening makes a crunchier cookie.

Linzer Bars

Both gooey and elegant, with their jewel-like filling, Linzer Bars make an ideal cookie for the holidays—or any time of year.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie, Revised

This is my variation on the classic Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe. It makes a cookie that is a bit less sweet and a little thicker and softer than the original. I also like to make the cookies a bit larger.

No Bake Butterscotch Pecan Cookies

The most popular version of this recipe calls for crushed cornflakes, but I’ve always liked the combination of oats and butterscotch, so I use toasted oats cereal (such as Cheerios).

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie

There are tons of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, but it’s hard to beat the original recipe, still found on packages of Nestle Toll House Morsels. This recipe yields the classic chocolate chip cookie, crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside. I often play with the recipe just a bit to make the cookies a bit less sweet and a little thicker and softer; check out my revised version of the classic chocolate chip cookie.