Each year, seemingly every food publication publishes an arresting spread of tantalizing new cookie recipes; iced, sprinkled, rolled and stamped. Marbled ones and sandwiched ones and classic ones that have been “reinvented”. It’s overwhelming, even for us, but we did the dirty work of plucking the most exciting ones from not just this year’s guides, but some favorites from past years. And, in case you’re interested in recreating the two treats we made for our first Sifted Holiday Bake Sale, we’re sharing the recipes with paid subscribers. I (Gab) baked ginger cookie cream pies, while Court made sweet, chewy black sesame rice krispies treats, so yes, you’re probably interested. Happy Sugar Season!
SO YOU’RE BAKING FOR THE HOLIDAYS?
Cultured Butter Shortbread: I believe shortbread is the superior holiday cookie. Intensely buttery and decadent, crumbly and tender. From the Walker’s biscuits in their prim tartan packaging to my best friend’s family recipe, which come out irregular in size and texture, like little shards of glass, perfectly imperfectly. No matter how you slice them (literally) shortbread cookies are delicious. These cultured butter cookies from Melissa Clark are essentially shortbread with a fancy name and a little more structure. Spring for the good stuff here; Kerrygold or another cultured, European-style butter. They have a higher fat content than the usual butter we get, and yield a better texture and richer flavor. These cookies are impeccable as written, however for the holidays, I take about half the dough and add 1-2 tablespoons of matcha for color and flavor. I find matcha is a strong enough flavor to stand out in small quantities, and complements the buttery rich shortbread quite well. It’s been approved by matcha lovers and haters alike. To swirl, I use Claire Saffitz’s technique from Dessert Person/this video.
Apple Cider Caramels: I’ve always wanted to be the type of person that made homemade candy, wrapping them in little squares of parchment paper and twisting off the ends before showering friends, lovers, and strangers in the perfect parcels of sugar. I am really not that person. Or at least I didn’t think I was. But thanks to a boost of confidence from Smitten Kitchen’s Instagram stories and a gifted candy thermometer from my neighborhood Buy Nothing group, I did it! These caramels are the perfect foray into homemade candy, and a pretty easy way to add dimension and a level of finesse to all your cookie plates and care packages this holiday season. They are intense little packets of deep apple cider flavor, cinnamon spice, buttery caramel, and a hint of salt. Best of all? They turned out perfectly on the first try and albeit for some light babysitting while the apple cider reduces (this step takes some patience and time), they’re very easy and approachable! Which candy recipe should I tackle next and how long before I open a bespoke candy factory out of my apartment?
Pignoli Cookies: I’m a freak for a lot of things, but my feelings for almond paste are unparalleled. It’s sweet, nutty, chewy, and fun — I love ripping open the shiny silver wrapper and breaking tiny pieces off the soft, sweet roll. It’s the main ingredient in pignoli cookies, an Italian cookie that you can find anywhere you’d find an Italian grandma, especially during the holidays. Each toasted marshmallow-colored cookie is rolled in pine nuts, which are the creamiest, most buttery nuts. Prove me wrong! When you bite into one, the pignoli’s thin, crunchy shell gives way to a center that's somehow even softer, sweeter, and chewier than pure almond paste. They're dense and rich, but that's never stopped me from eating the majority of the tray of them that my grandma buys from Anthony, the owner of the Italian deli she goes to almost every day. Dan Pelosi (of vodka sauce fame) has a recipe for them that yields cookies nearly identical to Anthony’s, so you can bet I’ll be following it at least once this holiday season.
Ginger Cookie Cream Pies: My ginger cookie recipe and I have been going at it for about 10 years now, with no end in sight. I was introduced to it by my best friend's mom, who once handed me a spicy, coffee-spiked cookie with wonderfully chewy middles and sweet, crunchy edges. They're absolutely perfect on their own, hence me making them multiple times a year for the past decade, but I thought turning them into a cream pie of sorts would be appropriately fun for our very first bake sale. So, they were glued together with satiny cinnamon cream cheese frosting to make what was potentially the softest, sweetest, most special treat I've ever made.
Black Sesame Rice Krispies Treats: Gab and I have participated in our fair share of bake sales in the past few years, and one takeaway I have learned is that no matter how intricate you make your desserts, how complex and wild you take the flavor profiles, Rice Krispies Treats will always sell. So for this bake sale, fueled by a fear of and lack of control over my oven’s temperature and crippling imposter syndrome in the presence of such talented bakers, I stuck to my guns. Black sesame paste is perhaps of one my favorite ingredient discoveries from the last year, especially the Japanese one, lightly sweetened with honey and nutty like peanut butter. It plays exceptionally well in these, lending an almost savory quality that is more than welcome with all the cloying marshmallowy goo.
For the ginger cookie cream pie and black sesame rice krispies treats recipes, become a paying subscriber now and they’ll fly into your inbox shortly.
TAKEOUT
We’ve scoured this year’s cookie guides and extracted what we feel are the most promising recipes. Note: that means that while these have not been vetted by us yet, the techniques, flavors, and ingredients have intrigued us enough to land on our “To Bake” lists this holiday season. Here’s the menu:
NYT: Many recipes from the New York Times Cooking cookie guide intrigued us (looking at Eric Kim’s massive M&M cookies) but the ones that immediately caught both of our eyes were Sohla El-Waylly’s brown butter toffee sandwich cookies. I don't like recipes that call for finicky, temperamental steps like rolling out dough to a specific width, brushing said dough with egg wash, moving quickly because the texture of a component will change into something unusable if you don't, etc. This sandwich cookie recipe calls for all of those things, but the toasted, caramel-y butteriness they promise makes me think they'll absolutely be worth it.
Food & Wine: This year, F&W put together an international array of cookies from The League of Kitchens, a group of immigrant women who teach online and in-person cooking classes. Many in their spread tempted me, like the dulce de leche filled alfajores and buttery Greek kourampiedes moons, but I cannot help but want to immediately add pandan flavoring to cart after seeing this recipe. I LOVE pandan and it’s lightly tropical coconut-vanilla flavor, and can’t wait to try it in these adorable, festively colored cookies
Food52: Creating cookie versions of classic holiday desserts, appetizers, and even drinks is a playful, creative take on the cookie tray. Some interpretations in this Food52 spread look more seamless than others, like the no-brainer coquito cookies. At the top of my list, though, are these are-they-mad-or-mad-genius latke cookies. As a huge proponent of salty-sweet cookies and pretzel shortbread devotee, these are right up my (and my dad’s) alley.
Bon Appétit: These florentine cookies remind me of the classic Italian lace cookies that are on my grandma's cookie tray every Christmas, but with a spicy ginger kick and a pretty white chocolate-swirled half dip. Plus, the recipe comes from Nadiya Hussain, the star of the calmest, most hypnotizing baking show I've ever seen.