411 sugar cookie recipes

Twice-baked Jewish biscotti loaded with crunchy almonds, mixed dried fruit, and a cinnamon-sugar crust. Crisp edges meet tender centers in this traditional cookie perfect for dunking in coffee or tea.

Pfefferneusse are traditional German pepper cookies with molasses, star anise, cinnamon, allspice, and black pepper, rolled in powdered sugar. This old-world recipe mellows for weeks in stoneware for the best flavor.

Buttery Italian-style shortbread cookies made with powdered sugar, vanilla, and three-quarters of a pound of real butter. Chill the dough, roll it out, cut your favorite shapes, and bake until golden.

Praline macaroons from Mississippi: chewy meringue cookies built on whipped egg whites, brown sugar, and toasted pecans, each one crowned with a whole pecan half. Crisp shell, soft center, pure Southern bakery counter.

Intensely fudgy brownie cookies loaded with chocolate chips and cocoa. Brown sugar and a short bake time keep these thick, chewy, and soft in the center. The key: pull them before they look done.

Cocanes are old-fashioned butter cookies made with brown sugar, shaped into fingers, and baked in a hot oven. No liquid needed. Just six ingredients, mixed by hand, yielding 2 dozen crumbly, buttery bites.

Buttery brown sugar bar cookies with chopped walnuts and a hint of rum extract, baked in one pan and cut into squares. Serve warm with ice cream or stash them in a tin for later.

Spells & Bells are festive Christmas cookies cut into holiday shapes and deep fried until golden and puffed, then served plain, sugared or glazed. A cream-rich fried dough that's crisp outside and tender within.

Roll-and-cut almond cookies with toasted sliced almonds folded into a buttery dough and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. Crisp edges, tender centers, and a double hit of vanilla and almond extract.

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.

Fried apples and onions with bacon: Pennsylvania Dutch skillet side of sweet onions, tart apple rings, and brown sugar cooked in bacon fat. Classic breakfast or pork-chop companion from the Amish country.