12 french cookie recipes

Soft French buttercream cookies made with powdered sugar, cream of tartar, and vanilla. Tint the dough with food coloring and top with colored sugar for holidays or parties.

Delicate French curled cookies (tuiles) made with butter, powdered sugar, egg whites, and vanilla. Paper-thin ovals baked until golden, then rolled around a wooden spoon handle.

French lace cookies bake corn syrup, shortening, brown sugar, flour, and pecans into thin, delicate, caramel-toffee disks. Optional chocolate drizzle. Five ingredients, holiday tray classic.

Grilled vegetable sandwiches loaded with broiled eggplant, zucchini, squash, and roasted red peppers on toasted French rolls with a tangy yogurt-Dijon dressing.

Almond lace cookies, those delicate, paper-thin discs that roll into cigarettes or fans while warm. The classic French tuile-style cookie with ground almonds and orange zest.

Meringues aux noix: light, low-calorie nut meringue cookies with chopped hazelnuts, honey, and amaretto. Crisp, airy French-style cookies that crackle and dissolve.

Two-ingredient palmier cookies made from puff pastry and sugar, folded and sliced into caramelized golden crescents. A classic French bakery cookie with shattering, flaky layers and a crunchy sugar crust.

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

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.

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.

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.