Cookie

Tinted white chocolate icing is used to make the festive plaid pattern that decorates these tasty sugar cookies.

"The Farm of Beverly Hills has the most incredible, delectable giant brownies!" says Cindy Grand of San Francisco, CA. "They taste more like fudge with a light, crunchy surface. Would you help me get the recipe?" These are probably the fudgiest brownies we've ever tried—in fact, they seemed too rich to serve in giant squares, so we've cut them smaller. They taste even better the day after they're baked.

You can start making these savory cookies up to three days ahead. Even easier: Serve the cheese roll with store-bought crackers. (We especially liked this roulade made with a spiced cranberry-apple chutney, but any thick chutney will work.)

You might want to begin by baking one cookie to get the hang of folding before trying two at a time. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 hr

This brownie, baked in a tart pan, gets its moistness from cream cheese and its fudginess from the best-quality cocoa and chocolate. Little puddles of ganache are poured into holes made in the brownie, after it has baked, with a the handle of a wooden spoon. Chocolate doesn't get better than this.

Sfratti means "sticks" in Italian, as well as "evicted," for at one time landlords were allowed to persuade unwanted and delinquent tenants to leave by force of a rod. A similar practice was employed to chase away Jews during all-too-frequent periods of expulsion. This nut-filled cookie, a popular Italian Rosh Hashannah treat, got its name from its resemblance to a stick, the Jewish sense of humor transforming an object of persecution into a sweet symbol.

Here's a variation on the classic raspberry-jam-filled Viennese specialty, Linzertorte. Show off these cookies in a box that's lined with lace or a linen napkin, and trimmed with wire ribbon.

Terrific with cappuccino or ice-cold milk.

These dramatic cakelike cookies are a New York City favorite — and we think they deserve a wider audience.

The honey makes these delicate cookies light and crisp. Offer them with Vin Santo (an Italian dessert wine made from dried Malvasia and Trebbiano grapes), cream Sherry, Port or Sauternes.

To get a neater slice, chill the bars first.

The pleasingly chewy biscotti are coated on one end with white chocolate. In our test kitchen, imported white chocolate, such as Perugina or Lindt, yielded the best results.

Speculoos, a specialty of Belgium in which flat gingerbread cakes are cut into different shapes, are the inspiration for this recipe. Similar cookies called speculaas are made in Holland, Germany and Austria. These are decorated with melted white chocolate and some pretty red sugar.

(Ghotab) After trying several kinds, we concluded that Iranian and Turkish pistachios* have the best flavor. Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 4 hr

The best recipe I have for brownies comes from a friend who got it from a magazine article about Katharine Hepburn. It is, apparently, her family's.

Rugelach are classic cookies in the Jewish culinary repertoire. The surprise ingredient in this version--cottage cheese--makes for tender, rich cookies.

"I have such special memories of my grandmother Mimi in the kitchen cooking and baking, all dressed up. My favorite cookies were her pecan crescents," says Barbara Hartwig of Sherwood, Wisconsin. "I am most fortunate to have her original recipe card. We still use it every year."

Vanilla ice cream is just the right accompaniment to these cookies; orange segments would be a fresh, pretty garnish.