Cookie recipes, baking tips and cookie decorating ideas

Lebkuchen is a German honey cookie that is traditionally served at Christmas. But you can cut the dough in heart shapes for Valentine's Day, or use an oval cutter for Easter egg-shaped cookies.

In Holland, speculaas often are molded into the shapes of windmills, people, or St. Nick figures. Similar cookies are popular in Belgium and Germany as well.

These old Polish favorites are similar to the German lebkuchen. This version, inspired by a recipe we found in an old rosary society cookbook, gets an extra boost of flavor from browned honey and a bit of rye flour.

This delicious Sicilian cookie is often served on March 19, the feast day of St. Joseph, which is an important Italian holiday. We think this traditional Italian cookie makes a nice Christmas treat as well.

Almond crescents are a traditional holiday favorite in much of Europe, but these cookies taste good anytime of year. For an extra special touch, dip them in chocolate.

Every year Mrs. Taylor makes dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies in assorted fancy shapes, and every year her daughter’s friends eat way too many of them. We especially like these pretty pastel ribbons, which are good all year long.

If you're looking for a sturdy dough suitable for making gingerbread houses and ornaments, try our Gingerbread for Building recipe.

For just plain eating, this gingerbread is delicious. It can be rolled and cut into any shapes you like, although gingerbread men (not to mention women and kids) are the traditional holiday treat.

Try serving these cookies for a holiday tea, accompanied by lemon curd.

Cream cheese gives sugar cookies a marvelous flavor. It also makes the dough softer and stickier. The dough needs to be cold when these are rolled out; if it begins to stick, return it to the refrigerator for a while.

This dough is used in Shining Star Cookies.

Both gooey and elegant, with their jewel-like filling, Linzer Bars make an ideal cookie for the holidays—or any time of year.

Toffee bars are an essential part of Ginger's Christmas cookie collection. They're easy to make, they taste great, they look good, and everyone loves them.

Marbled with chocolate and vanilla batters and filled with jam, these cookies represent the best of the Viennese pastry tradition.

These famous melt-in-the-mouth German-Austrian cookies are usually made with white flour, so we were intrigued when we ran across a German recipe for whole wheat crescents. The whole wheat flour gives the cookies a deeper, nuttier flavor. If it matters, they're also higher in fiber than usual. These cookies must sit for at least 10 days to allow the flavor of the vanilla to develop. They're worth the wait.