Cookie Recipes

Greek almond pipes (Flogheres): crisp phyllo rolls stuffed with cinnamon-scented almonds and orange, soaked in hot honey syrup. A traditional Greek holiday pastry.

Glazed almond cookies rolled in sliced almonds, baked until golden, then drizzled or dipped in amaretto chocolate ganache. A festive nut cookie for cookie tins and holiday trays.

Honey almond heart cookies made with whole wheat and all-purpose flour, rolled thin and cut into heart shapes. Fill with a thumbprint of jam for a sweet, naturally sweetened Valentine's treat.

Holiday almond wreath cookies piped from a star tip and decorated with red and green candied cherries. Buttery almond shortbread in a festive Christmas-tin shape.

Ischler cookies are an Austrian classic from Bad Ischl: ground-almond shortbread rounds sandwiched with raspberry jam and crowned with espresso-spiked chocolate icing. Spa-town pastry royalty.

Jam shortbread bars sandwich a layer of cherry or raspberry preserves between two almond-rich shortbread layers. A buttery, almond-scented sliced bar for tea trays and holiday tins.

Jelly Christmas Eyes are sandwich cookies with a window cutout showing raspberry or strawberry jelly through the center, coated in sugar. A festive holiday cookie plate classic.

Lemon cream and nut cookies, buttery shortbread ovals spread with homemade lemon curd and crowned with toasted almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, prunes, rum-soaked raisins, and candied orange. A jewel-box holiday cookie.

Lemon kiss cookies with a buttery almond dough wrapped around chocolate kisses, dusted in powdered sugar, and drizzled with melted chocolate. A lemon-chocolate surprise cookie.

The colors the fruits used in the cookies suggest those of the robes worn by the four ordres mendiants, monastic orders that originally lived on charity -- the Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans and Franciscans.

Linzertorte fingers with a buttery ground almond pastry layered with raspberry jam and topped with sliced almonds. An Austrian-inspired bar cookie for elegant holiday baking.

Buttery German almond crescents dusted with powdered sugar, made with ground almonds and double extracts for a melt-in-your-mouth holiday cookie.

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.

Traditional Austrian Ischli cookies with ground almonds, sandwiched with raspberry jam and topped with mocha chocolate icing. A classic European holiday cookie worth the overnight chill.

Melomakarona are classic Greek Christmas cookies, olive oil dough spiced with orange zest and cognac, soaked in honey-cinnamon syrup, then sprinkled with toasted almonds. Holiday tradition perfected.

Mazurka cookie bars with an almond shortbread base topped with a fruity filling of apricots, figs, raisins, walnuts, and candied orange peel, finished with powdered sugar icing.