182 traditional cookie recipes

Traditional Tuscan twice-baked nut cookies studded with whole almonds and hazelnuts. Crunchy, fragrant, and built for dunking in Vin Santo or espresso.

Classic hamantashen with a tender oil-based dough scented with orange zest, folded into triangles around your favorite filling. The traditional Purim cookie.

Lemony springerle, traditional German embossed cookies stamped from a wooden mold and air-dried overnight before baking. Lemon zest brightens the classic anise.

Bachelor buttons: traditional English shortbread-style cookies made with butter, flour, sugar, and a hint of nutmeg. Tender, pale, walnut-sized teatime classics.

Kolachkies are flaky Polish cream cheese cookies with thumbprint centers filled with apricot jam. A buttery holiday tradition that melts in your mouth.

Hamantaschen, the triangular Purim cookies, here filled with a rich honey-nut mixture brightened with lemon. A rum-scented dough folded into the traditional three-cornered shape and baked to a golden glaze.

Classic springerle: traditional German anise cookies embossed with intricate designs, dried overnight, and baked pale, then mellowed for a week into crisp, picture-perfect holiday treats.

Traditional German Pfeffernusse cookies with five warm spices, candied citron, and lemon. Tiny spiced rounds that dry overnight and ripen for days before eating.

Norwegian kringla are soft pretzel-shaped buttermilk cookies twisted into figure-eights. A traditional Scandinavian coffee-time treat that needs an overnight chill for flavor.

Rugelach with fruit jam are traditional Jewish crescent cookies rolled with cream cheese pastry around apricot or raspberry jam, cinnamon sugar, raisins, and walnuts. A Hanukkah favorite.

Fave dolci, Italian almond cookies shaped like fava beans with ground almonds, orange flower water, lemon zest, and cinnamon. A traditional Southern Italian sweet.

Molletes are traditional Mexican cookies made with cornmeal, butter, egg yolks, and pine nuts. Lightly sweet with a sandy, crumbly texture from the cornmeal.

Pfeffernuesse are traditional German spice cookies made with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, black pepper, rum, and candied lemon peel, finished with a white icing.

Traditional German butter cookies (Buttergebaeck) with lemon zest and an egg wash glaze. A simple five-ingredient dough that bakes golden in ten minutes.

Melomakarona, traditional Greek honey cookies made with olive oil, butter, and orange juice, dipped in warm honey syrup and topped with walnuts and cinnamon.

Halwa Shebakia: traditional Moroccan fried flower-shaped cookies soaked in honey and coated in toasted sesame seeds. A Ramadan dessert served with harira soup.