2,807 baker cookie recipes

Authentic Chinese almond cookies made with lard for that traditional sandy crumb. Each cookie gets a whole blanched almond pressed in the center and a glossy egg yolk wash before baking. Includes sesame variation.

Koala Kookies are buttery walnut shortbread balls dusted in powdered sugar. Five ingredients, no eggs, and a melt-in-your-mouth texture that puts these in the same family as Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, and Greek kourabiedes.

Twice-baked anise biscotti: long crisp Italian cookies flavored with star anise, perfect for dunking in espresso, vin santo, or a strong afternoon tea.

Molasses whoopie pies: cake-like ginger molasses cookies sandwiched with a sweet ginger-molasses buttercream filling. The Pennsylvania Dutch lunchbox classic with a warm-spice twist on the chocolate original.

Spiced applesauce cookies with cinnamon and cloves bake into soft, cake-like drops sweetened with thick unsweetened applesauce. Makes 3 dozen tender old-fashioned cookies in 30 minutes.

Mandel-Halbmonde are German almond crescents: buttery shortbread cookies shaped like half-moons, baked pale, then rolled twice in powdered sugar. The kind of melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookie every German bakery puts on the holiday plate.

Spiced almond macaroons: gluten-free five-ingredient cookies with crackly tops and chewy almond centers, lifted with warm cinnamon. Bake on greased sheets and finish with a scatter of sliced almonds.

Date drop cookies studded with chopped dates and walnuts and warmly spiced with cinnamon and cloves. A drop-and-bake batter with no chilling or rolling, ready for the cookie jar in well under an hour.

Cookies in a jiffy use a box of yellow cake mix plus oats, butter and an egg for fast, chewy drop cookies you can load with chocolate chips, butterscotch or M&M's. Five ingredients, ready in about 20 minutes.

Pecan crescents, buttery melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies rich with finely chopped pecans and a hint of nutmeg, shaped into little crescents. A cornstarch-tender holiday cookie in the wedding-cookie family.

Pepparkakor, the thin and snappy Swedish spice cookies layered with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg over deep molasses. Sliced from chilled logs and baked crisp. A classic Scandinavian Christmas treat.

Soft, cakey persimmon cookies made with ripe persimmon pulp, warm cinnamon, plump raisins and crunchy nuts. An old-fashioned drop cookie and a great way to use up overripe persimmons in autumn.

Fancy spritz cookies are tender, buttery pressed cookies enriched with ground almonds and almond extract for a marzipan-like flavor. Shape them with a cookie press into pretty holiday wreaths and stars.

Applique cookies stack contrasting chocolate-pepper and sugar cookie doughs, cut in different shapes and glued with egg white before baking, then drizzled with chocolate. A striking two-tone decorating technique.

Homemade fig newtons: a tender brown sugar and sour cream cookie dough wrapped around real homemade fig jam, baked in logs and sliced into soft bars. So much better than the boxed kind.

Decadent chocolate mint melt-aways: tender piped mint shortbread topped with white chocolate mint ganache and dipped in bittersweet chocolate. Three layers of cool mint and rich chocolate in one cookie.