2024 Christmas Cookies Are Here

Lemony turmeric, gingery cheesecake, boozy almond: This year’s Cookie Week has something for everyone.

Lemony turmeric, gingery cheesecake, boozy almond: This year’s Cookie Week has something for everyone.

Listen to this article · 3:14 min Learn more

Photographs by Julia Gartland

Styled by Samantha Seneviratne and Megan Hedgpeth

Sweet but not cloying, tender but not without bite, cookies are the holidays’ greatest gift — and what better time to celebrate them than Cookie Week, New York Times Cooking’s annual tradition, in which we create seven dazzling, delicious recipes and videos to accompany them. This year’s batch harnesses all of the season’s colors and flavors, like boozy almond, spicy ginger, buttery peppermint, but with a few surprises — lemony turmeric crinkles, gumdrop-studded fudge. Make one or all, but do get going. You’ve got some baking to do! (View all the cookies at NYT Cooking.)

Iced Peppermint Cookies

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Flavored with peppermint extract, Melissa Clark’s zingy treats — part black and white cookie, part candy cane — melt, then pop on the tongue, with their bright, buttery flavor echoed in the icing. Feel free to play with different colors, or even leave them plain. They’ll still shine.

VideotranscriptBackbars0:00/11:19-0:00

transcript

Iced Peppermint Cookies

“I love this. It’s like, how often do you get to hit something really hard and it to just be O.K., good even?” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi. I’m Melissa Clark. I’m a food reporter for ‘The New York Times.’ And we’re here in the NYT Cooking kitchen studio to bring you Cookie Week, the best week of the year because it’s the holidays, and it means sweet, delicious things. And I can’t wait to bake my new peppermint shortbread cookies for you. I love shortbread. They’re my favorite kind of cookies. They’re crunchy. They’re buttery. These shortbread have a peppermint flavor and a peppermint icing. So they are double peppermint shortbread cookies. What’s great about shortbread is they’re also really easy to make, and they keep for such a long time. You can make shortbreads a couple of weeks ahead. They are the most adaptable cookie, and they’re the easiest for a home cook to put their own stamp on. The most basic shortbread recipe, it’s just three ingredients, flour, butter, and sugar. If you can get really, really good, high fat butter, it’s just going to make your cookies better. But any kind of butter is still going to be delicious. Always save your butter wrappers. Just fold them in half like that. Stick them in your freezer, and next time you have to butter a cake pan, voila, you’ve got them. We’re very thrifty in this kitchen here at NYT Cooking. A note about salted butter — I’m using unsalted butter. You can use salted butter, like maybe some of that imported really amazing salted butter or salted cultured butter, so good in shortbread, but just cut down on the salt by like a quarter teaspoon if you end up using salted butter, just to balance it out. I’m going to whip the sugar and the butter until it’s light and fluffy. This is going to take a while. It’s going to take like two minutes. So we’re just going to let the mixer go. So start out slow. Wait till the sugar begins to be absorbed into the butter, and then you can raise the mixer speed. Scrape down the sides, just to make sure you’re getting everything evenly mixed. I’m just going to give it a little more. You really want it to be fluffy. So I’m going to add the egg yolk, and we’re going to save the white because we need it for the icing. And egg yolk gives a little more richness and a little more color. Now, the thing about the peppermint extract is the flavor gets milder. It dissipates when the cookies sit for a few days. So if you’re going to eat these on the same day that you’re baking them, only add about an 1/8 of a teaspoon. But if you’re going to let them sit for a couple of days, use a quarter of a teaspoon. And then in 24 hours, 48 hours, it’s going to mellow out and be perfect. So for the dry ingredients, I have my flour here. Salt, really, it does more than just season the cookies. It brings out all the other flavors, and then the baking powder. And that just opens up the crumb structure, and it makes it slightly less crisp. Because you’re going to have icing on them and the icing has a little snap to it, I want the cookie to be especially tender and melt in the mouth. I am just going to give this a stir, and then I’m going to sift it directly into the butter mixture. Sifting aerates the flour a little bit, makes it easier to mix in. It is not strictly necessary, but it’s a nice little touch. And then you just want to mix it until the flour is absorbed into the dough. So don’t overmix it. We’re going to wrap it all up and let it chill in the fridge. And then you can just use your plastic wrap to squish it together into a ball and then we’ll flatten it into a disk. And that is it. So put it in the fridge at least an hour, and you can leave it in there for five days. You can also freeze it for up to six months. I’m going to roll the cookie dough out between two sheets of parchment paper. It’s so much easier than flouring everything. And it’s better for the cookies because the cookies don’t absorb extra flour. So hitting it is not necessary. You can just really lean into it. But I find it easier than using my body weight to lean into it at the beginning. So there is a reason that I am beating this dough up with a rolling pin. And you’re going to start to feel it soften as you do it. And you see, I keep moving the paper around. That’s just to help me find the thick parts. And so what I’m looking for is I want this dough to be evenly, a quarter inch thick. This is just a little extra insurance. I’m going to dip the cookie cutter in flour. These cookies are not very wet or sticky, but just in case, you know it’ll come out with a clean cut.” “Do you have a whole box full of cookie cutters?” “I have three giant boxes full of cookie cutters. After the cookie decorating party, there is glitter in our rug for — no matter how much I vacuum, like, still sprinkles. So enough with the plain one. Let’s have fun. Let’s do some shapes. Great. Just as an insurance policy, I’m going to put this in the fridge for a few minutes. So the dough is firmed up nicely. And we can just transfer it to this baking sheet. And then you can save the scraps and reroll them. Just chill them before you reroll them. Sometimes I do this. This is one of my cheats. When I have a big thing of dough like that, I will just squish it together. Then we can get another cookie. Ha ha. These cookies don’t expand very much, so you can place them pretty close together. And I’m going to bake these at 350 for, I say, 13 to 17 minutes. But just keep an eye on them. You want them to look golden around the edges. And then they should feel nice and firm.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “I like a really simple royal icing for these kinds of cookies, because first of all, it hardens well so that you can pack it into a cookie box really easily. Royal icing is just powdered sugar, egg whites, a little bit of salt, and cream of tartar. So cream of tartar is your best friend here. It’s like an insurance policy that you’re not going to overbeat the eggs. Again, start your mixer on low. And that was our egg white that we had saved, along with two more egg whites, so three egg whites all together. I’m also I’m going to add just a little bit of peppermint extract into the royal icing just to bring out the peppermint flavor of the cookie. So you can see it’s like marshmallowy. And I am going to add a little bit of water because I want a thinner consistency because I’m going to pour it onto the cookies to decorate it. My goal is I want the icing to be able to run off the spoon. See how that’s pouring nicely. And I’m going to keep half of it white, and I’m going to transfer half of it into another bowl, and I’m going to add my food coloring. Here’s the thing about royal icing. It will start to thicken up and actually dry out on top, if you let it sit for too long. So if you’re not going to use it immediately, make sure to cover the top with plastic wrap. And if it does start to get a little crusty looking, just take a whisk and a little bit of water and just whisk it up again and it’ll be O.K. So red is one of those really hard colors to get with just regular supermarket food coloring. You keep adding it, and you keep adding it, and you’re like, it’s still pink. It’s still pink. Why is it pink? When you’re doing that, you’re going to thin out the icing even more. So if you’re using just regular supermarket food coloring, which is fine, just know you’re going to have to add a lot of it, and you should make the icing slightly thicker than what we just did. Better if you can find gel food coloring. So this is a more intense color. It will give you a brighter color without adding much liquid. See how it’s marbly right now? Know what you could do? Can I do it? Can I do it? Take a cookie and just go, boop? I’m going off script here. This is just so pretty. Look at that. Just take a cookie and just — look how pretty that is. It’s like a little candy cane kiss. So that’s an option for you. You can really have fun with this. So what we did this year for the holiday box is we made them almost like black and white cookies, except they’re red and white cookies. Take your cookie. You just draw a line with your spoon. And as your icing sits, it’s going to get a little thicker and a little bit darker. If you want to thin it out at any point, just add a few drops of water. And we’re going to do all of the red and then let it dry. And then we’re going to come back and do the white.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Make sure that these dry completely. If you can, just let them dry overnight, and that is the best. So this is perfectly dry. And you see how the icing got a little bit darker as it sat. And now, we will do the white, so same thing on the other side. Draw your little line. This did get a bit thicker as it sat. I might water it down just a little bit. Also, if I did add too much water and it got too thin, you can always fix it with a little more powdered sugar. It’s very forgiving. Yeah, that’s good. When I was developing these recipes, I was developing, really, the look of the icing. I tried many different ways. At one point, I put crushed candy cane on the white part, which looked really pretty. Another look that we tried out was once we had the darker color, just dunk in the lighter color. And these look pretty cool, too. We’re going to let them dry. And they are ready. And they are so cute. I love them. I think they’re really sweet. Do I get to eat them now? They’re so good. Peppermint is there. But it is not in-your-face. And the best part is a textural contrast. You’ve got the cookie, which is crumbly and buttery, and then the snap of the royal icing. I just love it. If you are thinking about making a cookie box, I would say leave yourself more time than you think you need. Don’t try to do it all in the couple of days leading up to when you want to give out the boxes. You can probably make the dough ahead. Put it in your fridge or your freezer. Most cookies will last for a couple of weeks if you store them airtight, and then added bonus, you will have them in your house for a few weeks before you have to give them away, which means you can exercise quality control on a daily basis. This is a good thing. This is the best part of Cookie Week, when I get my box. Thank you, Phoebe. First of all, can we just admire how beautiful this is? So when you’re doing your own cookie box, try to make it as beautiful as this one. This is gorgeous. You can find all of these cookie recipes and cookie recipes from years back. You can go so deep into our cookie archives nytcooking.com. It should be nytcookie.com. Why don’t we do that for Cookie Week? Woo. This is a party in a box.” [MUSIC PLAYING]

Bûche de Noël Cookies

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Claire Saffitz’s rugelach-inspired Yule logs pack the visual punch of their bigger brethren, but are far easier to share. Crunchy cacao nibs and coarse sugar finish the outside to give these tiny, tender treats a little bit of crunch.

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Bûche de Noël Cookies

“My favorite thing to say on camera is oh, this is a fun thing to do with kids. And I’ve never once baked with kids in any of my videos or really in real life at all.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi, everyone. I’m Claire Saffitz. I’m in the NYT cooking studio because it’s Cookie Week. And I’m going to show you my contribution to the Cookie Week lineup. It’s my Buche de Noel cookies. So Buche de Noel, meaning holiday log in French — we call them yule log here. It is basically a rolled cake that is meant to look like a decomposing log. Making an actual Buche de Noel is extremely festive and in the holiday spirit, but is also a huge pain. So I’m turning it into cookie form, which you can make a lot of them at once. I do tend to rely on cookies that are freezable. So I like cookies where you can make a whole bunch of them at once and they’re easy to portion. And then you can freeze them and bake them off as you need. Freezer cookies are like cookies on demand. It’s a lot easier, simpler. And you get all the kind of deliciousness and all the cuteness that you want. And then you can gift them versus one big Buche de Noel. So the first thing I’m going to do is make the coating. This recipe uses a food processor. You use it to make the coating and the dough. So my thing is if you’re going to get your food processor dirty and have to wash all the parts, you might as well use it as much as you can. So this is a chocolate-flavored cookie. And cacao nibs are the actual cacao plant. So they taste like chocolate. But they are not sweetened at all. So they’re really bitter. Demerara sugar then a nice pinch of salt to season everything. So we’re going to grind this until it looks like very coarse sand. This is both textural and it’s going to add a little sweetness and crunch. But it’s also part of the look of the cookie. O.K. This looks good. So I still have some slightly larger pieces of cacao nibs, but nothing bigger than a piece of bulgur wheat. I don’t if that’s descriptive for everyone. But I’m going to transfer this out of the bowl. And now, no need to clean out the bowl of the food processor. But we’re going to now use this exact same food processor to make the dough. So I’m going to start by combining my dry ingredients. I’m using all-purpose flour. You’ll need a little bit of additional flour, FYI, for rolling out the dough. My flour measuring tip is to always decant your flour into a separate container. Don’t leave it in the five-pound bag or whatever bag you buy it in. Because it gets really compacted. So I like to then scoop with a big spoon. And then something that my mom always did, which I just do out of habit because of watching her is I chop it up a little bit. And that’s kind of just to see if there’s any big air pockets. And then level. So that’s just to ensure that you don’t have too compact a cup and end up adding more flour to the recipe than you really want to. Actually, same thing with powdered sugar. I do like to put it into a different container. Also, it’s such a pain to measure from the bag. It goes everywhere. O.K., the next ingredient — 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder. So it’s not a very intensely chocolatey dough, mostly because I want the color to be a little bit more of a pale brown because I want contrast between the dough and the filling. That said, cocoa powder is a very strong ingredient. And a little bit goes a long way. So I have two kinds of cocoa powder here. You’ll often see in a recipe that calls for Dutched or Dutch-processed cocoa. So natural raw cocoa powder is super acidic. And when it’s Dutched or Dutch-processed, it is neutralized with an alkalizing agent. And it tends to give it a more round, roasted, deeper chocolatey flavor and neutralizes some the more fruity tones. Because it changes the acidity, it means it does change the way it can interact with other ingredients, like chemical leaveners, in the recipe. But the point is sometimes, it matters. And sometimes, it doesn’t. Here, it doesn’t matter. So I’m just going to use the natural cocoa powder. So — oh, then salt, a 1/2 a teaspoon of kosher salt. Any time I’m making any chocolate recipe, I always add a good amount of salt. Because it really does bring out the flavor. So I’m just going to pulse this to combine. It’s really easy when you’re adding cocoa powder because you can see when it’s combined. O.K. So this is 12 tablespoons, or a stick and a half of unsalted butter. You can see, it’s cubed up and it’s cold. It’s going to make a cold dough. And that’s going to be easier to work with. And it’s going to cool down faster in the fridge. Because we want to roll out a chilled dough. And I want to pulse it until the butter has not totally disappeared into the dough, so finer than you would go if you were making pie dough. O.K. So this is what it looks like. There’s still some bits of butter. Here’s a little piece. But you want the butter to be really well broken down into the dough. Now, I’m going to add my liquid ingredients. The sour cream gives it just a little bit of tang. And it’s also tenderizing. If you don’t have sour cream, because it’s only 2 tablespoons, so you can use Greek yogurt. The egg is really useful in this dough because it does enrich it. But it also is like a good binder. It helps to keep the dough together. And then 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. So I just want to whisk this together. So once that’s smooth, we’re going to add it to the dough. And it’s just going to go until the whole thing forms a ball of dough around the blade. You’ll see, it’s going to hydrate and turn into this chocolaty dough. All right. So now, I’m done with the food processor. And we have our dough. Here it is. You see, it’s not a very dark color. It’s a pale-ish moderate cocoa color. It’s a nice stiff dough. It’s not sticky at all, makes it really easy to work with. Now, I want to divide this into three equal portions. Of course, you could eyeball this. But just for the sake of the final cookies and how they look, it’s better to weigh so you know you’re being precise. So I’m just going to — got 211, 230, 232. Close enough. O.K. So somewhere in that 230 range, maybe a little more. So I take each portion. And again, it’s super easy to work with. You shouldn’t really need any flour on the work surface. And I just start by rolling it out into a 9-inch-long log. I would say that I use a ruler in the kitchen pretty often. I understand people that would think that feels excessively fussy. But it really is helpful. So just always good to have a $0.50 plastic ruler in your crock of kitchen utensils. So now, we’re going to wrap them in plastic. And then you’re just going to use your hands. And I’m just going to flatten it into the makings of a rectangle. One thing that I always think about is the shape that the dough is in when it goes into the fridge is the shape that it’s going to want to be when you take it out and roll it. So now that I have this shape, I’m going to use the plastic to wrap it. So you can see, I’m pressing out the air. And now, I have this little packet. I’m going to turn it over. So I take the rolling pin. And I just like to go over the dough lengthwise and crosswise. And this helps to not only even out the thickness, but it also helps to force the dough into all the edges and corners so that I’m making a really neat packet. This is going to make your life so much easier when it comes to rolling out the dough. Because you’re already starting from this really nice rectangular shape. So these should chill for at least one hour in the fridge. While the dough is chilling is the perfect time to make our chocolate filling. So the filling is a straight chocolate filling. Really, the base is melted chocolate. So it does give a very chocolatey, silky texture to the inside of the cookie. So I’m going to do this over a double boiler, which is my preferred method for melting chocolate. The idea is that basically, you have a lower piece that has a little bit of simmering water in it. So I’m going to turn this on. I have about an inch of water in the bottom of the saucepan. And then you set a heatproof bowl over top. So that’s what a double boiler is. And it’s just a very gentle way to warm or heat or melt things. Semi-sweet chocolate anywhere in the 60 percent to 70 percent cacao range, I think, is really nice. Then I have 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter. And I just want to let all that melt together. And then it has one yolk in it. And then I’m reserving the white. That’s really important. Because I do end up using that later. I do really appreciate recipes where I’m not left with random yolks or random egg whites at the end. So the yolk, it’s helping to stabilize the filling in a way that it’s not going to leak out. So this is basically melted. I have the tiniest little bit of butter left. I am going to leave the saucepan right there with the water in it. There’s a chance that I might need to rewarm the filling ever so slightly to make it spreadable. Because it will thicken as it sits. So it just depends on the temperature of your kitchen and how fast you’re working. I am sweetening it a little bit. I’m using powdered sugar, again, for that reason that it dissolves really instantly. Then I’m going to add a tablespoon of flour. It’s also just there to fix everything and make sure that it sets as it bakes. So you can see, it starts out very, very fluid. And that’s mostly, actually, on account of the butter. And so we just want to let this sit until the mixture thickens. It’s going to thicken as it cools. You can see, it’s already starting to thicken up a little bit. So this has actually been in the fridge overnight. You can see, it’s nice and firm. I have a piece of parchment paper here. This is what I’m going to use to roll out the dough. So I’m going to start by giving it a little bit of flour right on your parchment paper and then a little extra flour on top. I’m going to start by rolling this out with anything that I’m rolling. I like to always give the dough some movement. So after several passes with the rolling pin, I like to lift it up, make sure it’s not sticking too badly. You can always give it a little more flour to prevent sticking. Now, this is a really forgiving, nice dough. So you shouldn’t have a lot of issues with sticking. Even though we’re going to trim it, you do want to take care to make the edges as straight as even as possible. The parchment is really great to have because you can see how I’m turning it to help me achieve the size that I want. It’s a decent rectangle. But I am going to trim it to make really neat sides. So you can see that I’m actually just eyeballing the straightening. You can use your ruler if you need to. This is what the filling looks like once it’s cooled. I overshot it a little bit. So now, it can just sit over here in a slightly warm spot. But it’s still spreadable. So I’m going to measure about 1/3 of a cup. This is why you don’t want it so liquid. It’s like, this is going to be much easier to contain and work over the dough. So I’m just kind of distributing the filling. It’s a fun dough to work with. It’s a fun filling to work with. This is a very satisfying motion to spread it over this rectangle. So then, using my offset spatula, I’m going to work the filling into an even layer. I just want to leave a small border on the long end that’s further away from me. And then everywhere else, you can go right to the edges. So now, I’m going to roll this up. And it’s the same way that you would roll if you were making cinnamon rolls. So I’m going to start at the long end with full filling coverage. And I like to start with my thumb and forefinger to just get the dough going. And this is where I like to try to make it as tight as possible. Because I don’t want a spiral that has a hole in the middle. It’s not sticking to the parchment. So it’s really easy to do this part. And the whole idea here is that I’m getting a really thin, long spiral. And that’s because I want them to have the kind of dimensions of Buche de Noel, which is long and skinny. So then you get to the end that had no filling. And that’s where you’re going to just let it rest on that seam. So here, you have the first piece of dough all filled, ready to go. It’s not so soft. It’s not going to lose its shape if you handle it a little bit. And this can just hang out here. And now, I’m going to repeat that exact same process with the remaining portions of dough. O.K.? Can I do that? O.K.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “You want to just chill them until the dough is firm again. And that’s going to take 20 to 25 minutes. So you can see, from that nice brief chill, that they’re nice and firm. Now, I have that cacao nib and demerara sugar coating. This part’s fun. You can just spread this right over that same baking sheet. Beat the egg white a little bit with a fork. And that’s mostly because, when you have an egg white, how it holds together like that, you want to just liquefy it a little bit. I just want to break it up. I have a pastry brush here. So I’m just using my pastry brush, starting with one of the logs, giving it a really thin but even coating. So now, this is going to go onto the baking sheet. And this part’s really fun. You’re just going to roll it and toss the filling over the log until it’s fully coated. Does this look like a tree branch that then we can cut and have it look like Buche de Noel? Hopefully. If you had a lot of excess flour from rolling, go ahead and brush it off before this step. Because you don’t really want that flour to mix with the egg white. You should have plenty of coating to get through all three logs, plus probably a little bit left over. And now, we’re very close. I realize, we’re getting up there in number of steps. There’s one final step, which is a quick freeze, just until the dough is very, very firm to the touch. So it’s 10 to 15 minutes. It’s not that long. O.K. So now, we’re finally ready to slice and bake the Buche de Noel cookies. This makes 36 cookies, which is quite a few. But because, as I was saying, the dough really holds its shape, you can actually get away with baking all of them on one cookie sheet, which is great. So I have a half-sheet pan here with a piece of parchment paper. I’m going to slice them one log at a time. And the first thing is to actually just trim off the ends. And you can see how nice that spiral looks. So you’re just cutting to expose the ends. This is actually weirdly the part where you don’t need a ruler. Because I’m just going to eyeball it. But I’m going to start by cutting the log in half. And then I’m going to cut each half into three pieces, into thirds. And you can see, the dough is very firm. So now, I have my six equal pieces. Now, I’m going to cut each piece in half again. But this time, I’m going to angle the knife at a 45-degree angle. So you’re going to start to one side of the piece and cut downwards like that. Then they’re going to rest on the rounded, coated side. But you want the spirals exposed. So you want the flat side on one end and the cut angled end facing up on the other. And I’m going to repeat that process.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “You can see, after all of that effort, actually how quickly and easily they cut. O.K. So here are all 36 cookies. They’re ready to bake. They will slump a little bit. But they’re not going to spread. And they’re going to bake until the dough is a little bit puffed. And it’s going to feel firm to the touch. So 20 to 25 minutes. So here they are. I love that when they come out of the oven, you get even more of a sense of the color contrast and the spiral, so that darker filling and then the lighter dough. They look great. And they smell so good. So now, these just have to cool. You can transfer them to a cooling rack to speed it along. I mentioned at the top about freezing after the coating and the slicing and the angle and everything. Once you have those formed cookies, that’s actually the perfect time to freeze them solid. So you can see how I arranged them on the baking sheet. Instead of putting them in the oven, put them in the freezer. Wait until they’re frozen solid. And then you can gently pack them into a container. And then you can bake them on demand. Now, in terms of storage tips for the baked cookies, once these are fully cooled, they store really well. So just store in an airtight container at room temp. They’re really great for gifting because you can pack them in a tin.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “So after all that work, at least you have 36 cookies, which is quite a lot. I also think they’re the perfect three-bite cookie. I’m going to taste. Mm, very delicate. The dough is so tender. And I love the crunch on the outside. It’s still not too sweet, nice and chocolatey. There’s something very festive about it, which I really love. Mm. My advice for the holidays — get more flour, sugar, and butter, and eggs than you think you’ll need. Use your freezer. Your freezer is your friend — frozen cookie dough, frozen butter. Take what you think you want to do for the holidays and cut it in half. And then actually do that amount. And then you’ll be so happy because it’s like, you won’t have been overly ambitious. And then maybe you’ll enjoy yourself, which is always important for the holidays. I will say, with holiday cookies, it is a balancing act between the visuals, the look, the aesthetic of the cookie and the taste. But I think this one really does both. So if you want to try this recipe or any of the other cookies from Cookie Week, you can find all the recipes on NYT Cooking. Oh my gosh, so beautiful. Oh my gosh, this is so nice. No one ever really gives me cookies. This is so exciting. Oh, my gosh. Look, so pretty. So excited. Thank you guys so much for making these.”

Lemon-Turmeric Crinkle Cookies

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Full of turmeric’s warmth and lemon’s brightness, these golden crinkled cookies from Eric Kim feel (and look) like sunbeams breaking through clouds. But don’t restrict their bright, sunny disposition to a specific time of day. Pair them with a glass of milk or a cup of herbal tea and enjoy as an afternoon pick-me-up or a not-too-sweet finish to any meal.

VideotranscriptBackbars0:00/8:03-0:00

transcript

Lemon-Turmeric Crinkle Cookies

“- This is my fifth cookie. Happy five year anniversary to NYT Cooking’s Cookie Week.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi, I’m Eric Kim. I’m a cooking columnist for The New York Times and Happy Cookie Week. Today we’ll be making my turmeric lemon crinkle cookies. I love these cookies because they are so striking visually. And when they come out of the oven, they look like earthquake, tectonic plates. The yellow cookie cracks under the powdered sugar coating. We call that a self-decorating cookie. The combination of turmeric and lemon together, I think they create this third flavor. It reminds me of a donut. These are kind of cakey, very like airy and light. And I think this cookie is just optimized to be a lovely little bite of sweetness in the dead of winter. So these are what I bake at like midnight and my partner wakes up to a tray of cookies often because that’s when you want one, right? That’s when you want a cookie. You know what’s really interesting? When you don’t use butter, all the other flavors come out in a different way. And I just I love the peppery flavor of extra virgin olive oil. And I’m just going to stir in some ground turmeric. You can see the little specks of turmeric here as it sits for about 10 minutes. Those specks, I find that they expand and dissolve and become one with the oil. Watch out for white clothes. It’s going to dye your clothes super, super yellow. It’s 3/4 cups of sugar. It’s a really perfectly sweetened cookie, I think, and it’s just sweet enough. But 3/4 cup is about 150 grams. I’m going to zest directly into this because I like that the oils go down into the cookie. Cream cheese and egg, please use a room temperature egg. It really does make a difference. I say this I feel like in every cooking video you’re creating an emulsion between fat and liquid. I’m going to add some vanilla. I’m trying so hard not to get the turmeric on my clothes. This is like the one thing that doesn’t come out. It won’t mix smoothly if the cheese is too cold. But even if the cheese is too cold, it’s totally not the end of the world. It’s going to look like this in the beginning. Once you get it for the most part makes, then you really want to combine it. I like showing people that you can make an amazing dessert with just a bowl and a spoon or a whisk. You can make this in a mixer if you want. What it means is you’re not like touching the recipe as much with your hands. And I’m mixing this, and I know that I want the cheese to incorporate a little more, but I also want it to aerate a little more too. And I only know that by mixing it with my right hand and feeling the resistance. And I think the recipe will say 60s seconds. So if you really did want to count for 60 seconds, it’s longer than you think. My right arm ends up kind of hurting. I’m kind of sweating right now, but see how smooth and pretty it is now? This calls for 1/2 a teaspoon of coarse kosher salt or fine sea salt.” “Throw it over your shoulder.” “Oh, O.K. It’s when you spill it specifically?” “Yeah. Oh, did you not spill it?” “No, I did spill it. I did spill it. Another sign of growth, five years later, five cookies in every year I’ve increased the baking soda by a quarter teaspoon. This cookie actually needs it. It’s a quite leavened cake cookie. Every year I’m like, more baking soda. And then so next year, it’ll probably be a full teaspoon. But you have to wait till next year to see that. And then we’re going to do the flour. So here’s my flour trick. I like to aerate it first. You’re trying to make it not packed. You usually stick your cup right into the flour. But that packs it, and it’s just almost always going to be more flour than you need. And so it comes to this point where you’re like, why don’t recipe writers just write flour amounts to match how people actually scoop? I don’t know. I don’t know why. So use a scale, that’s really my point here. I like to fold it in a little bit. I love the streaks of yellow like that, just combining it just until it’s done. If you see a speck or two, you can stop because it’s going to continue hydrating and chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes. I say up to 30 minutes. So it depends on your fridge. Just chill it enough so that it’s scoopable. Aww, this is Melissa’s cookie. And that’s Sohla’s cookie. Sorry, I love things that touch at the edges. This has been chilling for 15 minutes, 20 minutes. All you really need is for the dough to not stick to your fingers anymore. So it’s still quite plush. It’s still pretty soft. One thing you can do, scoop them out. I usually do it on a smaller sheet pan, maybe like half of the dough, and I’ll just freeze it. It’s a good option if you don’t want to eat 18 cookies in the next three days. Today we’re just going to bake them straight from here. I don’t pack it on. I just kind of tumble it around and then rest it on the flat side. It’s like you’re making little snowballs.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “But one really important tip is, don’t let it sit too long. I’m going to bake this one right now. Sorry, yeah, right away, Adam, just kidding. They’re at 350 just for about 15 minutes. You really want to make sure they’re baked through all the way. This is a cookie that you don’t want to under bake. And the reason for that is the way they rise. It’s a very important thing to let them finish rising. Rotate it. They’re looking really good. You know your cookies are done when they’re very, dramatically crinkled. Yeah, they’re looking great. Should I make a cup of tea while we’re waiting? O.K., let’s go.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “I’ve never made tea here, actually. O.K., chamomile. I’m feeling really cozy today. I bet I’m stealing someone’s water. So cozy. I feel like I’m in a Frog and Toad story. I’m definitely the Toad in my relationship. Toad is really needy. Frog is like the more level-headed pragmatist. But Toad brings the adventure and the style to the couple, and I’m just kidding. So does the Frog. Frog is important. But it’s the balance between frogs and toads. Anyway, how cute are these? I’m really happy with just even just picking it up, holding it. It’s crusty at the edges in a beautiful way. Part of the experience of this cookie isn’t just the cookie. It’s the powdered sugar. I love the way it’s like mounted on top like snow. Cool color, right? The cookie itself isn’t too sweet. Distributing the sweetness makes for a great eating experience. But I hope you find a lot of joy in this one because it’s a little holiday treat. These cookies keep really well. I’d say the more they sit, the more the moisture from them kind of comes out. It makes them very concentrated in flavor. And I think that’s really lovely. It’s nice to be part of a group and to be proud to be in that group. You can find this cookie and many more at NYT Cooking. Happy holidays. Seven cookies — I’m really happy to be one of them.”

Holiday Rocky Road

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For her Cookie Week contribution, Sohla El-Waylly looked to Australia and Britain, where rocky road is closer to a fudgelike candy than ice cream. Packed with lots of holiday-evoking add-ins, like speculoos cookies, spice drops and pumpkin pie spice, these stunning no-bake treats welcome all sorts of bits and bobs — even gingerbread house leftovers.

VideotranscriptBackbars0:00/9:06-0:00

transcript

Holiday Rocky Road

“You have to say, ‘action.’” “I will. I will.” SOHLA EL-WAYLLY: [LAUGHS]: “(WHISPERING) Action.” “Louder, please.” “Action.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi, it’s Sohla here at NYT Cooking Studio Kitchen. And I’m going to show you how to make a Holiday Rocky Road from our friends Down Under, the Australian Rocky Road. It’s a no-bake cookie, perfect for those warm winter nights. I like this one because I wanted to make something that a kid could make totally on their own. Anyone can make this. If you’re decorating gingerbread houses and you have a lot of random scraps around this time of year, throw it all in here. You don’t have to make my recipe. Just like, be inspired.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “All right. We’re going to start by lining our loaf pan with a little parchment. This is just going to make it easier to pop out once it’s set. You don’t have to be that precise with the measurement. This is a 9’ by 5’, but you could do this with an 8 and 1/2’ by 4’. Loaf pans are very strange in the way they’re sized, and it really stresses me out. But with this recipe, you don’t have to be stressed. You don’t even have to line it very well. If you don’t have parchment, you could also use foil. The main thing is we want to have a little sling so we can easily lift the candy out once it’s set. If you want to make this to give away to folks, you can easily double it and then pop it in an 8’ by 8’ or a 9’ by 9’ brownie pan or even quadruple it and put it in a 9’ by 13’. You got gifts for everybody. Hit it with a little bit of nonstick spray or any kind of fat just to help the parchment stick. We’re like halfway done with the recipe now. Now, we begin. We got our bowl. I’m using a bag of semi-sweet chips. There’s good chips out there. But if you want to level this up, a good way is to get a bar each of dark chocolate and milk chocolate, melt that together, get that fancy chocolate vibe in here. But I love this because it’s already chopped, perfect for cooks of all levels. Now to this, I’m going to add a 1/2 a cup of Biscoff. Traditionally for Rocky Road, you just melt the chocolate and you add mix-ins. But I like the Biscoff because it kind of gives it this tender, fudge-like texture. It’s like extra creamy, melts in your mouth more easily, and you get a little bit of spice from the cinnamon that’s in the Biscoff. If you don’t like Biscoff, you could do an equal amount of peanut butter or tahini is really good. You can really get creative and have fun with this, or you can leave it out and just go chocolate. This is your Rocky Road journey. This would also be good with Nutella. If you want to go a little fancy. I don’t know. Nutella always felt fancy to me. Now I’m going to add a little bit of, for the holiday vibes, some pumpkin spice. Last year, I became a pumpkin spice believer. Something about fall, now I love it. I used to hate on it, but now I love it. And some salt, even though it’s a dessert, salt always brings out the flavors of everything. I’m going to melt this in the microwave. I like having the spices in there before I melt because it’s kind of going to bloom in the fat from the chocolate and the Biscoff. Shall we microwave?” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Wait, pause there.” “Check on it at first after 20 seconds. And then after that, every 10 to 15 seconds. Be careful. Make sure you grab your bowl with a towel because it could be hot. If you heat it until it fully melts, sometimes the edges kind of burn. So it’s better to leave it a little under melted and let it melt from the residual heat. O.K., so my chocolate is mostly melted and this is going to cool it down a little bit as well so our marshmallows don’t melt. So I’ve been spending some time on TikTok. I’m like the oldest person there. My algorithm just kept giving me videos of people making Rocky Road. So I was like, I want to get in on that fun. So that’s kind of what inspired this. So the most traditional Rocky Road was raspberry gummies, marshmallows, peanuts, like this, chewy, fluffy, crunchy. So I kind of wanted the same vibe. So I’m going to crumble in my Biscoff. You don’t want, like, too tiny chunks because it’s kind of nice when you slice into it. You want to see a cross section of cookie. So just roughly crumble them in. At home, I got some marshmallows that look like Santa Claus that I wanted to throw in here, but I forgot them. So we’re going to use the mini marshmallows. So Ham didn’t grow up here. So Ham had his first jet-puffed marshmallow because all he had ever had was like a fine dining marshmallow that you get at the end of a tasting menu. He likes these better. So 3/4 of a cup of pecans. You don’t have to be too precise. You can also use whatever kind of nut you want. No matter what you put in here, it’s going to be good because it’s all coated in chocolate. Some spice drops. So I feel like these are pretty easy to find around the holidays because they’re like one of those iconic things you decorate a gingerbread house with. So it felt really appropriate to throw these in here. We’re going to do 3/4 of a cup, So I’m just kind of folding this. It’s going to look really chunky. You could even add a little more. You can actually pack a lot in here. As long as every ingredient gets coated, it’ll come together into a bar. I did one version with some Rice Krispies in there for, like, that crunch bar vibe. It’s really nice if you have some cereal, some Chex because you’re making Chex Mix around this time of year. Whoa, guys, I can just keep going. I think it would be really good with peanut butter, Chex, a little cinnamon, marshmallows, peanuts.” “It’s like puppy chow.” “Yeah, like puppy — we should have done that. I love puppy chow. Dust it with some powdered sugar. All right, I’m going to tip this into my pan. I’m going to give you the best visual here, huh? I can cook backwards for you. Now, if you don’t have a loaf pan, you really can set this in whatever mounded up on a plate with a rim. As long as you line it with something, we’ll be able to get it out. So I’m going to just use my spatula to spread it into the corners, zhuzh it around to get it everywhere. And then I’m going to give it a firm tap to make sure the whole thing has settled.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Make sure the chocolate kind of seeps in between all the cracks, everything holds together well, so you get nice, clean slices. And then finish it off with a little sprinkle, a sprinkle that represents your holiday of choice. Now this has to set in the fridge at least an hour. Because it is just like fat, it will absorb any odors in your fridge. So it’s going to be in there for a while, give it a really good wrap, and then we’re going to slice it up. As you can see, my candy is nice and set. You should just be able to pop it out. Sometimes you need to get in there with a butter knife and wiggle a bit. You just kind of need to make a little air gap to help it along the way. Now, if you are a child, this is the point where you definitely need a parent to help you cut it, but you can do everything else by yourself, or just eat it as one block. I don’t know what the rules are in your home. Whoa, whoa. Huh? You didn’t think I was going to make that happen, huh? I saw the nervousness in all of your faces. And now you can kind of slice this up however you want, as many portions as you need. I really going just all the way across. So you get these nice slabs that are biscotti shaped. You do you, you know? And to keep those cuts nice and clean, wipe your blade in between with a hot, damp towel. Whoa, we did it. Hold on. I want to take a picture.” [CHUCKLES] “You guys got such good lighting. Everything looks good. I want this one.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “It’s kind of like truffle-y where the chocolate’s a little supple from the Biscoff. So you get this tender, melty, rich chocolate. And then a whole bunch of different textures. Little pops of crunch from the sprinkle, crispy bite from the Biscoff. I think my favorite bite is the marshmallow. Little chewy marshmallow bite, it’s really fun. It’s really easy. You can cut it up into whatever size portion you need. Have fun. If you’re baking this holiday season, I think just get organized and try and do as much as you can in advance. There’s a lot of recipes where you can make the dough in advance and have it in your freezer, roll and punch cookies out. Like, I’ve done some cookie boxes in my day, and I never do that. I do it all two days before I want to ship it, and it’s disaster. And I never have any fun. So don’t be like me. Plan, be organized. If that happens, just have some eggnog afterwards. You can get this recipe and all the Cookie Week recipes at NYTcooking.com.” “Thank you. It’s all of the cookies. Yeah, I can open the box. Whoa- Do you want to get tight on the ribbon pull? It’s like a lingerie ad. Thank you for all the cookies. I know you do this every year, but I forget every year. I’m surprised every time.”

Ginger Cheesecake Cookies

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Samantha Seneviratne’s humble cookies have some cheeky secrets: a hidden layer of cream cheese and three types of ginger (ground, fresh and crystallized) that make every bite blissfully sweet-tart. Skip the crystallized ginger, if you like, but it really makes them sparkle, as does a finishing roll in white sugar.

VideotranscriptBackbars0:00/9:45-0:00

transcript

Ginger Cheesecake Cookies

“Should I talk? [LAUGHS]:” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi. I’m Sam. I’m here in the ‘NYT’ Cooking studio to make my cheesecake-stuffed ginger cookies. So this is a chewy ginger cookie stuffed with a set cheesecake filling. So there’s a secret special surprise inside. I think the fresh ginger, the crystallized ginger, the black pepper gives them a lot of wonderful spiciness, and then the cheesecake is creamy and rich and sort of mellows the whole thing out. It’s a good combination. It’s my favorite week. So we’re going to start by making the cheesecake filling, which has to freeze before you put it in the cookies, so that’s why we’re starting with it. You want to start with really soft cream cheese because otherwise it gets a little lumpy. Ooh, this is perf. And then we’ll add our confectioners sugar. So if your cream cheese is cold, you can take it out of the foil and throw it in the microwave on 50 percent power for 10 seconds. You don’t want to melt it, but just soften it up a little. Yeah, take the foil off. [LAUGHS] Now we’re putting in egg yolk, which will help it set and then also give it a little bit of richness. Ooh, I broke it, but it’s not the end of the world. Get in there. And then a little bit of vanilla. You could flavor it with other things if you wanted. I feel like orange blossom would be really good, or almond extract would be good. And that’s it. So now we have to scoop this onto a tray so that we can freeze little dollops. I think the easiest way to do that is to put it into a pastry bag and just pipe them out. If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can use a resealable plastic bag. And the recipe makes between 18 and 24 cookies. We’ll do 24, so we’ll do 6 times 4, right? Yeah. It doesn’t matter what they look like as long as they’re equal size, roughly.” “I thought you were going to make 24. Am I wrong?” “Didn’t I make 24?” “Yeah, that’s 5 by 4.” “Oops. Well, today we’re making 20. [LAUGHS]: All right, that’s O.K. Go on vacation for two weeks, and you can’t do multiplication anymore. What are you going to do? It’ll be fine. I said 18 to 24, so today we’re making 20. O.K., so now these have to go into the freezer until they’re frozen solid. Now we’re going to make the dough. We have to chop up some crystallized ginger. You can leave this out if you can’t find it, but I just think it adds something so nice because it’s sort of peppery in a nice way. It has a good bite to it. Fresh ginger. I’m not even going to peel it, just wash it, but you don’t ever have to peel ginger. And this is nice, too, because it’s all those different — you have ground ginger, fresh ginger, and crystallized ginger, so ginger forward in a good way. That’s about 2 tablespoons, I think. So now we can make the dough. So we’ll start with our flour. So I put black pepper in these, which amps up the spiciness of them, but I’m just going to eyeball it. Make sure you give it a good whisk so that baking soda gets well combined. Did I forget to add salt? I did. I believe in properly seasoned baked goods. I would say use salted butter if you have it. I’m a real big proponent of salted butter in baking. I think it’s great, but I don’t know what I called — what did I call for here?” “You did call for salted butter.” “Oh, I did call for salted butter? Good. I meant it. I didn’t measure that, but I think that looks like 1/2 a cup. Ooh. It’ll be fine. So if you want to make about 20 cookies, each one should be about 45 grams, which is also a 2-inch round ball. And you should form all your cookies first because you don’t want your cream-cheese mixture to soften while you’re forming them. And you can freeze these cookies. You can assemble them and then freeze them, but you want to let them thaw out a little bit before you bake them. I mean, they’ll bake fine if you bake them from frozen, but they’ll look nicer if you let them come to room temperature before you bake them. O.K. And wait, I made 20 balls, didn’t I? I’m so pleased. My mistake worked out just perfectly. So now we need our frozen cheesecake, but you want to work with just a few pieces at a time because you don’t want them to thaw while you’re filling. It’s a little annoying, but you’ve got to stay near your freezer and work back and forth. Here are my cute little frozen dollops. So then we just flatten it out a little bit. Put a dollop in the center, and then wrap the dough around. It’s totally easy, right? Oh, let’s get more dollops. It’s really satisfying. It’s like putting a baby in a blanket. A swaddle. [LAUGHS]: Little cheesecake baby. O.K., they’re all filled. If your dough is super, super soft, you can pop it in the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes before you roll and bake them, but mine is feeling pretty nice and firm, so I’m just going to go straight through. This is the fun part. Now we get to roll these in sanding sugar. White sanding sugar is nice. You can also use colored sanding sugar. I made them in fuchsia when I was developing them, and I think they looked really pretty. Sanding sugar is a coarser sugar. It’s really clear and pretty and sparkly, and it doesn’t melt when you bake. If you don’t have sanding sugar, you can roll them in demerara sugar or even granulated. The look will be slightly different, but they’ll be very pretty nonetheless. But also, you could skip it altogether and just do them naked if you wanted to too. So we’ll do about six on a tray because they are going to spread. They’re so cute. They look like donuts. [LAUGHS] All right, let’s put them in and see what happens. Everyone loves to hear that. O.K., so my first batch are out. I know that they’re done. If you look in the cracks in the very center, you can tell if the dough is wet or if it’s dry, and so you want to pull it out when it’s dry. If you want your cookie to be perfectly, perfectly round, when you take it out of the oven while it’s still warm, use a cookie cutter or a glass or a bowl like this and sort of spin them so that the edges hit the bowl and then tighten up and become perfectly, perfectly round. But you have to do it while the cookies are still hot, otherwise it doesn’t work. Ooh, they’re so cute! For the optimal crackly top, I would bake one tray at a time. When you do two trays, this is what the bottom tray looked like, which is perfectly acceptable. They’ll be delicious and lovely, but they just look a little nicer if you bake one tray at a time. Let them cool on the trays for about five minutes before you transfer them to a rack to cool completely, or for as long as you can wait. I’ll just do three because that looks so pretty. And now I get to eat one. O.K. Look at that. The cheesecake is so creamy and delicious and light. And then the cookie itself is sweet but also really spicy. They’re sort of a — you get a little back note of ginger spiciness and pepper spiciness. It’s actually a really lovely combination. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but —” “What’s happening?” “I have a surprise for you.” “You do? Oh, cute.” “It’s all the Cookie Week cookies.” “That’s a work of art.” “Ooh, these are a work of art.” “Look at that. Yay!” “These look so good.” “That one’s going to be warm.” “That one looks so good. Oh, that was thick.” “Oh, it is warm. Oh my God.” “Do you like it? [LAUGHS]:” “Oh my God. The reason why I came over here is because I was in the office, and I smelled the cookies baking. And I was like —” “[LAUGHS]: it’s a good smell. It’s a real —” “Wonder if they’re almost done. If somebody wanted to make those, where would they be able to find them?” “You can find this recipe and all the delicious Cookie Week recipes on ‘New York Times’ Cooking.” “Happy baking!” “Mm.” “Mm.” “Oh, Santa’s going to love it.”

Matcha-Black Sesame Shortbreads

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Toasty black sesame and bittersweet matcha doughs are pressed and rolled together in Sue Li’s impressive, colorful slice-and-bake shortbread. They’re a cinch to prepare ahead: Make and freeze the logs whenever you like in advance of the holidays, then simply thaw and bake for effortless hosting.

VideotranscriptBackbars0:00/10:12-0:00

transcript

Matcha and Black Sesame Shortbread

“The black sesames have now been toasted and cooled. So I’m going to add them in this. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll do it over again.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hey, I’m Sue Li. I’m here in the New York Times cooking studio to make you my matcha and black sesame shortbread. Why do I like to be a part of Cookie Week? I love the attention. Thank you. But I also really like making cookies. I do this a lot, just in general. I’m here to make you a shortbread once again, just like I did the year before and the year before that. Part of the reason is that shortbread dough is very forgiving when it comes to making designs. So matcha and black sesame go really well together. There’s a bit of bitterness from the matcha and a little bit of nuttiness from the black sesame. I think the colors are great together. And so obviously, the flavor is going to be great together too. O.K., it’s very easy. You just make the dough, pat it together, and you roll it. You’ll see. Let’s make the matcha dough. So you want your butter to be soft. I think this is a good indication of how soft it is. You take your finger and you press it down. It makes an indentation. Just dump it into your mixer. You want to cream it with the sugar until it’s fluffy, which is roughly three minutes. I feel like everybody should just be really good at making shortbreads by now if you’ve been following along. No? Well, this time, I toned it down. This time, it’s just a little magnetic. I’m trying to be a little more reserved. I am 42 now. Can you believe? I cannot believe I’m getting older like that. We’re going to scrape the sides of the bowl and add the egg yolk. O.K. So we’re going to make our dry mix, which is 2 tablespoons of matcha. 2 tablespoons might seem like it’s a lot of matcha. But it really helps with the color and make it really look saturated and also amplify the flavor a bit more. And salt — it’s a large pinch. I don’t think the type of matcha you use matters. You can use any matcha you want. Also, don’t use a super fancy matcha. Save that for drinking. And start beating on low. I just paddle it for maybe 20 seconds to 30 seconds until it comes together. You don’t really want to overbeat your dough. So you just want to take your spatula and mix it together. Scrape it onto a piece of parchment. I just use my hands. And I pat it into a roughly 6-inch square. It doesn’t have to be exact. We’re not taking out rulers this time. And everything’s going to be O.K. I didn’t center it. And it’s driving me crazy a little bit. And now, I’m going to put this in the fridge. And I’ll see you in two minutes. So now, we’re going to make the black sesame dough. First, you need to toast your black sesame seeds. Spread them into an even layer. We’re going to toast the black sesame seeds until they are fragrant and toasty, which is roughly seven to eight minutes. I do recommend that you buy and toast the black sesame seeds yourself. I think it’s just nuttier. It’s strong. It tastes stronger to me. Also, you don’t know when they toasted the black sesame seeds when they’re pre-toasted. I don’t know how long it’s been on the shelves. O.K., it’s now been eight minutes. They’re very fragrant, delicious, toasty. And we’re going to let it cool for about five minutes, 5 to 10 minutes before we put it in the food processor. So you don’t want them to be hot when you put them in here. Because hot seeds or nuts make the mixture become a paste rather than granules, if that makes sense. I’m not trying to make tahini. I’m trying to make broken-up sesame seeds. So it’s really important that they’re cooled down. And I’m going to pulse it with the sugar and the salt. We’re going to do long pulses, three to four seconds, maybe 20 to 30 times. If you lose count, it’s O.K. I’ll just show you what I want it to look like. So let me take a look. I’ve lost count. So you basically want it to look like wet sand. And I think the visual indicator is a very dark tweed blazer. Don’t get so close. You’re going to see my pores. We’re going to go back into the stand mixer where we just made the matcha dough. I didn’t wash anything. The black sesame sugar mix is already so dark, you’re going to end up seeing gray. Add the butter that is soft. So right now, you’ll see that it’s dark gray. Once it emulsifies with the butter, it’s going to become a light gray, a heather gray. I think this is about right. So I didn’t add an egg yolk in this dough because I think that the seeds are quite fatty. I did that on the other doughs to compensate for the fact that there’s added oils from the seeds here.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “So here’s the matcha dough we just made. I’m just going to center the dough because it was bothering me that it wasn’t centered. We all have control issues. We’re going to pat this onto the matcha dough, make a fairly even layer. I gave you a measurement in the recipe — 6 inches. It’s O.K. You don’t really have to follow 6 inches. You don’t need to get a ruler out. Everything’s going to be fine. And then you’re going to chill it for 20 to 30 minutes. So we’re going to cut this dough into four even strips. Another cut here. And then you want to alternate your dough like this. So the colors are sesame, matcha, sesame, matcha. I’m now going to take out another clean piece of parchment and roll this dough. And it just appears. And then we’re just going to pat it together. And I use my parchment to help me roll it. I use it to press it down. Now, I’m going to take out a ruler. It doesn’t have to be exact. We’re not taking out rulers this time. I take the parchment and I’m going to use it to help me make a log. And then just keep rolling. And it helps you make a nicer round log. People around me — Do you see the urge? I really want to pick up a ruler. I can’t help it. You should just — I won’t do it. I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it. This is when I think you do need to chill your shortbread right before you bake. They should not be super warm. Because you want them to hold their shape and not spread out. These are cookie logs that Rebecca prepped earlier, a couple days ago. Because truly, you do want your doughs to be chilled. And we simply have not had enough time to chill the doughs that I made. And she wrapped them in plastic wrap, which is also great. And you can do this to roll it. It’s very satisfying. Remember year 1 when I made the chocolate orange pistachio shortbread? I was like, cut it when it’s cold. I take it back. You want it to temper for just a little bit so you have cleaner cuts. If you cut it when it’s cold, it just makes jagged edges. I’m so sorry about that. So we’re going to cut this log into roughly 1/4-inch-thick slices. If you feel like your dough isn’t the perfect smooth round, because obviously, it’s flattened on this edge because I’m putting pressure on it, just put it between your hands and reshape it. Totally fine. No one’s ever going to know.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Let’s go bake some cookies. You bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes. So the cookies are done. I’m going to use the —” “What is that?” “I don’t know. It’s what I found. Now, we’re going to taste it. And you know what? It’s not even just coming up with a recipe that’s the pressure, it’s the eating on camera that’s the pressure. O.K., I’m going to do it. It’s really good. I just don’t want you guys to watch me bite into food. But O.K. It’s very nice. It’s very subtle because it’s not too sweet. But it has all the flavor components That I think you’ll really like. The dough itself frozen can last for three months. Plan ahead of time. Make all the doughs ahead. If you can make them ahead, great. Spend a whole day making dough. And then spend a whole day baking so you can really be efficient with your time. Wow, look at that. This is for me?” “Yeah, this is for you.” “Thank you. I forgot the most important tip. Go to the New York Times Cooking page to look for your cookie recipes. Do I have to eat it on camera?” “You absolutely do not.” “Cool. Thank you, guys. Happy holidays.” [MUSIC PLAYING]

Rum-Buttered Almond Cookies

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Vaughn Vreeland’s nutty, lightly boozy treats recall pillowy Italian pignoli cookies, but are made even richer with two brushes of buttered rum — once before baking and another round when they’re hot from the oven, which imbues them with even more richness.

VideotranscriptBackbars0:00/9:38-0:00

transcript

Rum-Buttered Almond Cookies

“If you were a glass of chardonnay and you were, like, within 10 feet of my grandma, you better run because she would destroy you.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “I’m so excited to be back here for Cookie Week 2024. It’s pretty wild that this is the fifth iteration of Cookie Week, and surprise, surprise, I made another cookie that is based off of a drink. I’m going to be making rum-buttered almond cookies today. They are fabulous. First of all, fabulous, darling. They have toasted almonds on the outside that are coated in a rum butter topped with little flaky sea salt that yields to this really pillowy, almost cloud-like interior that is very fragrant and is just kind of a textural and flavor journey when you bite into it. These are a few of my favorite things. This is a cookie that Julie Andrews would sing about. You can’t make rum-buttered almond cookies without rum butter, so that’s the first thing that we’re going to do. I’m going to go ahead and just melt my stick of butter. And I’m actually going to use the butter wrapper and just cover this in case we get any explosions in the microwave. Now I’m going to add my powdered sugar and my rum. Pirates would go crazy for this cookie. And give it a nice little stir. So throughout the process of this cookie, this butter will probably resolidify at some point. If that’s the case, either blitz it in the microwave for a second, or just really stir it. But for the purposes of — brush? For the purposes of — ah. But for the purposes of spreading it on the parchment — ooh, this one’s wet. Oh, that’s the one I liked too. For the purposes of spreading — [LAUGHS] For the purposes of spreading it on the parchment, having it be nice and warm and loose is perfect. And I’m just going to give it a brush. I feel like Bob Ross. So now that your sheet trays are prepped and your rum butter is made, you’ve got really the hard part done, and you can continue with the recipe. Spoiler alert. It’s very easy. One of the other great things about this recipe is that you really can go from mixing bowl to cookie in your mouth in about 30 minutes, and that’s usually the kind of cookie that I like to make. So I have here superfine almond flour. You don’t want to get the almond flour that has remnants of the skins on them. I’ve baked with that before, and I find that it creates this weird consistency and almost kind of dries out whatever you’re baking with it. I just don’t like it. So if you can find superfine, blanched almond flour, that would be great. And we’re going to whisk this, so don’t worry about a little lump here or there. Now, I like the powdered sugar in this recipe. I found that because powdered sugar is milled superfine but also has cornstarch in it, it kind of creates for this even-softer-yielding cookie, which I love. Because this is made with almond flour, it is a gluten-free cookie, which is really exciting. I feel like this might be our first gluten-free Cookie Week cookie. Do not quote me on that. I think especially around the holidays, you don’t want anybody to feel left out, so make them these cookies. They’re gluten free. It’s got a nice teaspoon of salt because it needs it. The first time I made these cookies, they were whoa, very sweet. And I’m just going to whisk this together. My powdered sugar is a little lumpy. I’m not going to do it, so I’m not going to ask you to do it. Sift? In this economy? I’m just going to try to take care to get most of those lumps out, and anything that’s really large that my whisk isn’t breaking up, I can honestly just go in there and break it up with my hand. The cut on my finger makes me so fancy because now everything I have to do pinkies up. So this recipe calls for 1 egg and 2 egg whites. The egg whites really provide a nice structure to the cookie, and I like that 1 yolk in there just to give it a little bit more fat. Make it a little bit more unctuous. Oh, I said — oh, doh. I meant to do that in that bowl. Oh lord. Meep. Is there a trash can in the house? Now I’ve got my full egg in there. So to this I’m going to add my flavorings. I don’t have a tiny whisk, so I’m just going to take a fork and break this up and mix it really thoroughly. Just make a little well, just for my wet ingredients to land in the center of my bowl. And I’m just going to use a spatula to bring it all together. You don’t really run the risk of overmixing it because it’s almond flour and has no gluten in it. So at this point, I’m going to go ahead and scoop these and roll them in my slivered almonds. If you wanted to make these ahead of time, you could actually just refrigerate the dough like this, honestly, because it’ll still be super easy to scoop it. At this point, choose your own adventure. But if you’re looking for instant gratification, then, honestly, scoop them now. Bake them now. You don’t have to be super precious with this. The dough is a little soft at this stage, but it’s not unworkable. If you’re finding that it’s too soft, by all means, go ahead and pop it in the fridge for, like, 30 minutes. But, honestly, it doesn’t bother me to get my hands a little dirty. These don’t really spread. You could probably fit at least eight or nine cookies per tray. I wasn’t being very precious with my scoop, so I did get 13 instead of the 14 to 16 that you would get. No big deal. The last step before we bake them is to brush them in the rum butter. The top of my rum butter did kind start to solidify. Just it’s a little cold in here. So I’m just going to give it a nice little mix. All right, bath time, angels. It’s like I’m putting on moisturizer before they go to bed. O.K., these are going to go in the oven for about 20, 22 minutes. Basically what you’re looking for is the tops are going to get nice and kind of golden brown. Those almonds are going to start to toast. It’ll be really fragrant. All righty, night, night. Should we learn how to make a hot buttered rum? Ooh, they are looking toasty and absolutely gorgeous. I made these so much bigger than those. That’s funny. So I did blitz the butter for, like, 20 seconds, and I’m going to brush the tops of these with the rum butter once more. Ooh, you hear that sizzle? They look so toasty and delicious. And this acts as a glaze, but it also soaks into the cookie itself. It just gets really extra rum butter. So the last step is to just top these with a little flaky sea salt. Fun! They’ve been cooling for probably about five minutes on the baking sheets, and now they’re ready to be transferred to the wire rack. It’s taking every ounce of willpower to not just like ‘huh.’ Yeah, those look cute. The willpower is just not willpowering today, so I’m just going to — I’m just going to bite into one of these. Let’s see. I think I want this one just because it’s got nice, toasty almonds all over it. It smells so good. I’m very excited. They are so warm on the inside, but I don’t care. Wow. You have that fragrant, toasty almond. As you’re biting into it, you do get a little hit of the salt right away and that kind of luscious coating of the rum butter. And that just makes way for this interior that’s fluffy. Gift them to your friends. Gift them to your family, cookies to say I love you. As soon as I bit into that cookie, I was like, it’s a hug. It’s a hug in a cookie. Click the link below. You know you’ll find this cookie. You’ll find all the other Cookie Week cookies, which are fabulous, so I hear. You can also access my newsletter that I’ve written about Cookie Week. If you want more unhinged ramblings, go to cooking.nytimes.com. I’ll see you there. Oh my God. Wait. Wait. This is so exciting. I did know this was coming, but it doesn’t make it any less special. Oh, oh no. Knots have never been my thing. Wow. I feel like I’m staring at the sun. This is so pretty. Oh my God.” “O.K.! Bye.” “Bye. Oh my God. I’m going to sneak off with my cookies now.”