This is the time of year when bakers both amateur and professional tend to find themselves in the kitchen surrounded by pounds of butter and mountains of chocolate chips. For those of you with plans to channel your inner pastry chef over the next couple of weeks, here are some of our favorite holiday cookies.
"We take the insane amount of candy canes my mother sends to the bakery," says Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, "break them up, and fold them into a corn flake-chocolate chip-marshmallow cookie dough with a little mint extract for some serious holiday flair."
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
David Leite of Leite's Culinaria set off a national cookie-baking frenzy after this recipe for the ne plus ultra in chocolate chip cookies appeared in the New York Times in 2008.
Pistachio Shortbread Cookies with Raspberry Preserves
Mindy Segal of Mindy's Hot Chocolate in Chicago grinds shelled pistachios with flour to give these buttery cookies a subtle nutty flavor.
Chewy Chai-Spiced Sugar Cookies
A riff on the snickerdoodle, this soft sugar cookie captures the warm, slightly spicy taste of chai tea. The exact yield depends on how big you make the cookies (and how much of the delicious dough you snack on during the process).
