Dessert, Cookie Recipes

These rich chocolate-toffee bars from Mary Lueke of Menasha were our top pick in the bar category.

Sugarplum cookies with dried or candied fruit hidden inside each ball of vanilla sugar cookie dough. Topped with creamy frosting and colored sugar for Christmas cookie trays.

Cindy Schweitzer of Muskego offered this cherry twist on melt-in-your-mouth finger cookies.

Authentic Scottish shortbread is a four-ingredient classic of unsalted butter, sugar, flour, and cornstarch baked low and slow into pale, sandy wedges. The traditional petticoat tails for tea time.

Chewy chocolate cookies made with cocoa powder, corn syrup, and egg whites for a fat-free treat that's soft, fudgy, and guilt-free.

Peanut butter puffs made with phyllo dough folded into crispy triangles around a sweet peanut butter filling, then drizzled with melted chocolate and chopped pecans.

A cookies and cream layer cake made with white cake mix and crushed Oreos folded right into the batter. Easy enough for beginners, impressive enough for birthdays.

Warsaw chrusciki, the crisp Polish bow-tie cookies known as angel wings. An egg-yolk-rich dough spiked with rum, rolled paper-thin, twisted, fried light, and dusted with powdered sugar.

Pillowy soft almond cookies made with almond filling for intense flavor, topped with sliced blanched almonds. Lightly golden, tender, and fragrant. Makes 2-3 dozen.

Moravian sugar cookies rolled paper-thin and baked until crisp at the edges. Buttermilk keeps the dough tender while an overnight chill makes it rollable to 1/16-inch thickness for that signature wafer-like snap.

Lemon and pistachio Italian style biscotti, perfect with tea or coffee.

A classic oatmeal cookie recipe yielding chewy, golden treats with warm cinnamon notes. Optional add-ins like raisins or chocolate chips make it versatile.

Chewy oat bran raisin cookies made with egg whites instead of whole eggs and vegetable oil instead of butter. A lighter oatmeal cookie with nuts and fiber.

Ranger Joe cookies pack everything but the kitchen sink: rolled oats, Rice Krispies, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips into one chewy, crunchy, candy-bar-of-a-cookie. The classic Texas ranch-house cookie that bakes off four dozen at a time.

Classic lemon squares with a buttery shortbread crust topped with a bright, tangy lemon filling and powdered sugar glaze. The bake sale favorite everyone fights over.

These are the best good and chewy chocolate chips cookies I've ever made.