51 french cookie recipes

Classic French almond meringue that pipes into elegant shapes and bakes crisp. Light, nutty pastry component perfect for layered cakes, decorations, or cookies.

French meringue strips with a buttery shortbread base topped with vanilla meringue, cinnamon sugar, and chopped almonds. Elegant bar cookies that yield 8 dozen.

Choux pastry puffs studded with chocolate chips and dusted with powdered sugar create elegant French-inspired cookies that look harder to make than they are.

French sables are buttery slice-and-bake cookies with a crumbly, sandy texture and sparkling sugar crust. Six ingredients, no leavener, all about the butter.

Chocolate almond crisps with almond meringue cookies piped on parchment and sandwiched with a dark chocolate ganache. A French patisserie-style confection with crisp, nutty, chocolatey layers.

French-Italian almond crescent cookies rolled in pine nuts. Just four ingredients, naturally gluten-free, with a chewy-crisp texture from an overnight rest before baking.

Orange walnut madeleines: shell-shaped French teacakes with orange zest, cardamom, and chopped walnuts, finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. Elegant holiday cookies to pair with coffee.

Lemon almond madeleines: classic French shell-shaped tea cakes with ground almonds and fresh lemon zest, finished with powdered sugar. Twenty-four buttery cookies for tea time.

Parisian hearts, a French almond cookie sandwich cut in heart shapes, filled with lemon icing and raspberry jam peeking through a cutout center. Elegant, buttery, and bakery-beautiful.

Chestnut meringues with chopped marrons glaces folded through crisp, snowy French meringue, dusted with cocoa. A delicate, old-world European cookie for tea trays and holiday gift tins.

Marinated oranges soaked in Grand Marnier and sugar for 24 hours. A three-ingredient French dessert with boozy, candied citrus flavor. Served with chocolate cookies for an elegant finish.

Chewy almond paste macaroons with crackled tops and tender centers, baked from a homemade four-day-aged paste of blanched almonds and egg whites. The classic Italian-style cookie before the French sandwich version took over.

French silk chocolate pie with whipped butter-sugar-chocolate filling and a buttery Oreo cookie crust. Classic no-bake filling that sets into a silky mousse-like slice in the fridge.

Pate sucree (sweet short pastry) made the French way with butter worked by hand into flour, powdered sugar, and eggs. Tender, cookie-like crust for tarts and tartlets that keeps for days.

Cats Tongues (Langues de Chat) are delicate French butter cookies piped into thin finger shapes with browned edges and a pale, crisp center. Made with just butter, powdered sugar, egg whites, and flour.

This recipe was inspired by Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 2. It was developed as a shrimp based filling for a small Vol-au-vent.