Vincent Hsiao

Gingerbread Cookies (serves 24 cookies):

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 ground ginger
• (Optional) granulated sugar to roll the cookies in

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Beat butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until fluffy.
3. Add egg and molasses and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.
5. Once well combined, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
6. Form balls of dough slightly smaller than a golf ball, and, if desired, roll in granulated sugar, before placing on a baking sheet about 2-3 inches apart to allow room to spread.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes and allow cookies to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire sheet to cool fully.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (serves 20 cookies):

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable, canola, or light olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar (for rolling)

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer, combine sugar, oil, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and eggs. Mix until well combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll dough into small, ice cream scoop-sized balls and coat generously in powdered sugar. Place on a baking sheet, leaving 2-3 inches to spread.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will come out of the oven soft but will harden as they cool down.

Snowball Cookies:

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cups chopped nuts of choice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for rolling

Instructions

1. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla in a stand mixer until fluffy.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, nuts and salt.
3. With the mixer on low, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
4. Form the dough into small balls and bake 8-10 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned.
5. Allow cookies to cool enough that you can handle them and roll generously in powdered sugar while they’re still warm.

Biscotti (serves 24 cookies):

Ingredients

• 1 vanilla bean*
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup chopped almonds

*If you’re poor like me, disregard the vanilla bean and any steps that include it — you can substitute with 2-3 extra teaspoons of vanilla extract!

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. With a small knife, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and place in a small bowl. Add the sugar and use your fingers to mix the vanilla evenly into the sugar.
3. In a stand mixer, beat together vanilla sugar and butter until fluffy. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and almonds and stir into the butter mixture.
5. Divide dough into 3 pieces and shape each piece into a log on a lined baking sheet. Each log should be around 1 1/4 inch wide.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before cutting logs at an angle with a serrated knife into 1/2 inch wide pieces. Place the pieces on baking sheet, cut side down, and bake for around 8 minutes. Flip the pieces and bake for another 8 minutes.

Snickerdoodles (serves 36 cookies):

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon Topping

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar and mix until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.
5. In a small bowl, combine remaining sugar and flour for the cinnamon topping.
6. Form small balls with the dough and roll generously in the cinnamon topping. Place on a baking sheet 2 inches apart and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Linzer Cookies:

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-2 cups jam of choice
• 1 cup powdered sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer, cream together butter, sugar and salt until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and combine fully.
2. Slow the mixer to low, and add flour until combined.
3. Place the dough on a sheet of parchment paper, place another sheet on top, and roll out with a rolling pin to about 1/8 inch thick.
4. Place flattened dough on a baking sheet and place in refrigerator for 20 minutes until firm.
5. Using a cookie cutter and a Linzer cookie cutout/small cookie cutter/piping tip, cut out the cookies so half are plain and half have a cutout.
6. Place cookie sheet into the freezer for 3-5 minutes, then bake for 8-10 at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Dust powdered sugar over the cutout cookies, spread the plain cookies with jam and sandwich them together.

Recipes by Christi Johnstone (lovefromtheoven.com), Natalya Drozhzhin (natashaskitchen.com), Holly Nilsson (spendwithpennies.com), Molly O’Neill (cooking.nytimes.com),  Lil’ Luna (lilluna.com), Mandy Merriman (bakingwithblondie.com)