Simple Cooking

Stash a few of these hearty cookies into a backpack on your next hiking trip. They are packed with wholesome dried fruits and nuts. For variety, try other combinations of dried fruit and nuts: Bananas, mangoes, and macadamias lend a tropical note; hazelnuts and pecans go well with figs, pears, and cranberries.

Recipes for peanut butter cookies abound, but this one packs a particularly powerful punch. The dough is studded with whole salted peanuts for extra crunch. Sandwich a few with jelly for an afternoon snack. Or embellish them instead by piping melted semisweet chocolate into the lines of the cross-hatch pattern.

The origin of the name of these homey, drop-style cookies is unclear, but recipes for them appear in early-twentieth-century American cookbooks and newspapers. After rolling balls of dough in cinnamon sugar, give them ample room on baking sheets; they spread quite a bit.

Tropical-fruit lovers get a double dose of a favorite flavor in these bite-size sandwiches—coconut macaroons surround a creamy coconut filling. Unsalted butter can be used in place of the cream of coconut in the filling, but the flavor will not be the same.

This chunky bar cookie recipe presents a perfect opportunity for improvisation, as you can use whatever flavors of jam and granola you have on hand.

Oversized and ever-so-slightly underbaked, these cookies feature milk chocolate in two forms—melted and mixed into the dough, and chopped into big chunks.

For best results, use moist, plump dried figs.

A moist, chocolaty brownie topped with caramel and nuts brings together the classic components of turtle candies.

Like little cakes with a citrus perfume, these shell-shape treats are equally delightful as a light dessert with fresh fruit or as an accompaniment to a cup of tea. Madeleines are most often associated with the French author Marcel Proust, who immortalized them in the opening scene of the novel Remembrance of Things Past.

If you’re a fan of store-bought fig cookies, just wait until you taste these—they’re well worth the time spent making them.

The applesauce in this recipe keeps the cookies moist; maple syrup flavors the simple white icing that gets drizzled over the tops.

A hefty dose of cocoa powder makes these old-fashioned drop cookies perfect for fans of dark chocolate. The recipe is so simple, it’s a natural for preparing with children; they especially love forming the dough into balls and rolling them in sanding sugar.

These date-filled cookies get their soft texture from applesauce; wheat flour and bran add wholesome notes.

These moist, relatively thin blondies burst with gingerbread spices and white chocolate chunks.

Lebkuchen are traditional German Christmas cookies, spiced with the flavors of gingerbread, studded with candied citrus peel, and topped with a sweet sugar-and-milk glaze. To toast nuts, spread them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake in a 350°F oven for about ten minutes.

Salted cashews—both ground into a butter and chopped—give these cookies deep flavor. Soft caramel candies are melted and drizzled over the tops of the baked cookies for an easy embellishment.

Malted-milk powder, a combination of powdered milk, wheat flour, and malted barley, adds a rich component to both these cookies and their filling. A double dose of chocolate (chopped semisweet and lots of cocoa powder) makes these sandwich cookies extra decadent.

Some of the same ingredients used for hot chocolate go right into these crowd pleasers. Cocoa powder gives them their chocolate flavor, while marshmallows are the squishy centers. Slathered on top is a chocolate frosting that hides the marshmallow—creating a delightful surprise for the lucky person who takes a bite.

A variegated pattern of deep dark chocolate and pure white powdered sugar makes these crinkly cookies a striking study in contrast. Roll balls of the rich dough first in granulated sugar, then in confectioners’ sugar. The first layer ensures that the second one retains its snowy white appearance.