Cookies of the World
Germany was baking spiced Lebkuchen in the Middle Ages, Scotland had shortbread and Tuscany had twice-baked cantucci. Immigrants brought every one of them to America, and in 1938 a Massachusetts inn added chopped chocolate to a butter cookie and changed the whole idea of a cookie. Here is every style, step by step.
Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
The recipe that started it all: a butter, white sugar and brown sugar drop cookie loaded with semisweet chips and walnuts, baked hot and fast until just golden.
Scottish Shortbread (Petticoat Tails)
Butter, sugar, flour and a little rice flour rubbed together cold, pressed into a round, scored into 16 wedges and baked low and slow to a pale biscuit color.
Cantucci (Biscotti di Prato)
Tuscany's twice-baked almond cookies: a lightly sweet egg dough packed with whole unpeeled almonds and a hint of orange, baked as logs, sliced on the diagonal and baked again until crisp.
Nuremberg Elisenlebkuchen
Nuremberg's soft spice cakes: whipped egg whites, sugar and honey folded with ground hazelnuts, almonds, candied peel and Lebkuchen spice, spread on wafers, dried overnight and glazed with chocolate or sugar.
Moravian Spice Cookies
North Carolina's paper-thin holiday cookies: a molasses, brown sugar and shortening dough with cloves, ginger and cinnamon, chilled overnight, rolled as thin as you dare and baked in minutes.
Swedish Pepparkakor
Sweden's thin, snappy Christmas gingersnaps: butter, dark syrup and sugar melted with ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, rested a full day, rolled thin and baked for 5 minutes.
Linzer Augen (Linzer Cookies)
Upper Austria's favorite Christmas cookie: a short almond and lemon dough cut into rounds, half of them with peepholes, sandwiched with apricot or red currant jam and dusted with sugar.
Danish Vaniljekranse (Vanilla Wreaths)
The Danish Christmas cookie behind the famous blue tin: a rich butter dough with ground almonds and a whole vanilla bean, piped through a star tip into little rings and baked crisp and golden.
Mexican Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies)
Crumbly pecan snowballs: butter, shortening, ground pecans and powdered sugar pulsed into a short dough, rolled into balls, baked golden and buried in more powdered sugar.
Snickerdoodles
Soft, slightly cakey sugar cookies made tangy with cream of tartar, rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked hot until they crackle on top.
New York Black and White Cookies
Big, soft, cakey 4-inch cookies with a hint of lemon, iced half in vanilla and half in chocolate, the New York deli classic.
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
The oat-box classic: butter, brown sugar and cinnamon with three cups of rolled oats and a cup of raisins, baked just until light golden for chewy middles.
Chinese Almond Cookies
Crumbly, lightly sweet bakery cookies made with lard, butter and toasted almond flour, crowned with a whole almond and brushed with egg for a shiny golden top.
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
One bowl, no flour, about 30 minutes: peanut butter, brown sugar and an egg with a few chocolate chips, flattened, baked 8 to 10 minutes and pulled while the tops just crinkle.
Levain-Style Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Inspired by Levain Bakery
Six-ounce mounds of brown-butter dough loaded with semisweet chips and toasted walnuts, chilled overnight and baked cold so they stay tall, crusty outside and molten inside. Inspired by, not official.