The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of Spoon University.
The holiday season may be over, but the sweet treats can stay all year long—and the New York Times recipes included in Cookie Week 2024 are no exception. Every day for the first week of December, a new cookie recipe is published from a NYT Cooking baker. I finally got around to trying five out of the seven recipes from 2024, with flavors ranging from matcha to citrus to rum butter. Some recipes were well worth the hassle, while others were less college-friendly, requiring expensive, obscure ingredients or time-intensive processes. Still, the recipe videos offer helpful tips and insights into the baking process.
Rum-Buttered Almond Cookies by Vaughn Vreeland
Vreeland’s previous cookie week recipes have all been drink-inspired, like his 2022 Gingerbread Latte and 2023 Mexican Hot Chocolate cookie recipes. For 2024, he came up with a gluten-free almond cookie flavored with butter, rum, and sea salt. This was one of the easiest recipes I attempted, coming together in under an hour with no chilling time. Rolling the cookies in sliced almonds is a low-effort way to achieve a rustic and festive look, and the depth of flavor suggests a much more difficult process than is actually necessary.
These cookies are made with almond flour, which gives them a pillowy and grainy texture more reminiscent of a scone than a cookie. The recipe also calls for a few tablespoons of dark rum, which is both mixed into the dough and combined with butter to be brushed on top of the cookies. The process of rolling in almonds and brushing with butter was simple and fun, yielding great taste and consistency. However, if the rum is any inconvenience to acquire, I’d recommend skipping it altogether. The flavor wasn’t very strong and didn’t add much to the cookie. This cookie is overall very almond-forward: if you’re a fan of the nutty and crunchy flavor profile, then you may enjoy trying out this recipe!
Lemon-Turmeric Crinkle Cookies by Eric Kim
This recipe was also quick and easy to make, using just one bowl and taking about an hour total. NYT Cooking compares these cookies to a bowl of Froot Loops, and I definitely agree. The sweet citrus flavor from bright lemon zest is enhanced by hints of turmeric, which gives the cookies a deep sunset hue. Feel free to skip the turmeric if you’re not a fan一it’s a subtle but distinct flavor. The recipe was simple and easy to follow; however, I recommend taking the cookies out of the oven a few minutes earlier than suggested. For a crinkle cookie that isn’t too cakey, take them out when the edges are firm but the middle still looks a little wet, contrary to what the recipe says.
Ginger Cheesecake Cookies by Samantha Seneviratne
These cookies were my overall favorite of the group! Though this recipe is more involved than the previous two and takes some time to chill the different parts of the dough, the warm ginger flavor and chewy texture make the effort worth it. To make the cheesecake filling, the cream cheese mixture is piped into rounds and frozen, making it easier to wrap with dough. The dough itself was too sticky to easily handle, so I added some flour to be able to work with it. I rolled the dough balls in raw cane sugar to add some extra sparkle. Crystallized ginger may be difficult to find, but I was able to skip it without compromising on the strong ginger flavor. I was skeptical about the cheesecake filling, but it did add an extra textural element that made the overall cookie soft and chewy. A simpler, traditional gingerbread cookie works just as well but this recipe is well worth the effort.
#SpoonTip: When assembling the cookies, keep the filling pieces in the freezer and take them out a few at a time so they don’t thaw.
Matcha-Black Sesame Shortbreads by Sue Li
These cookies are visually striking and a perfect marriage of colors and flavors. They were not very sweet, but still flavorful and perfect to serve with tea or a matcha. Plan ahead for this recipe, as the dough needs a few hours to chill. The recipe itself was easy to follow, but it was difficult for the dough to come together. I ended up adding some heavy cream to take it from a crumbly texture to something I could roll out. It was also an effort to form the dough into the log required—my cookies still turned out a little elliptical, rather than perfect rounds. Since the base of the dough is just shortbread, other flavors could be added—like ginger, cinnamon, or strawberry—to replace the black sesame. If substituting for black sesame, also make sure to add another egg yolk since the sesame seeds supply oil to bind the dough together.
Bûche de Noël Cookies by Claire Saffitz
Translating from French to “Christmas Log”, these cookies resemble mini Yule Logs and make for a gorgeous holiday plate when dusted with powdered sugar. A quick look at the recipe’s reviews reveals a common consensus among readers that the cookies are too much work for a simple chocolate cookie. This was one of the most involved recipes, requiring chilling for the dough, melting chocolate over the stove, rolling in cacao nibs and demerara sugar (I used raw cane sugar), and forming dough logs. Coiling up the dough into a log was a tedious and slightly frustrating step but overall I don’t think the recipe took as much effort as the reviews suggest. For an impressive-looking holiday recipe, some struggle is often what makes the final product even more triumphant. However, the resulting cookie was a slight disappointment in terms of taste—I would make this recipe again for the aesthetic but try to incorporate more chocolate into the dough and filling to give the cookies a stronger flavor.
If you’re in need of an impressive and unique cookie recipe, try out one of these recipes! Past years’ Cookie Weeks are also filled with more fun and diverse options if you’re looking to try something new. Some may require some trial-and-error, but part of the fun is learning to master a new recipe. Feel free to figure out what works best for you and adapt the recipes to make them your own.