Cookie swaps: The perfect excuse to party with friends and sample copious amounts of cookies. Whether you prefer the classics or want to try something new, these cookies are all tested, perfected, and family-approved.
Buttery with a thin layer of glaze that adds just the right amount of sweetness, these cookies are as delicious as they are pretty. They're also a pleasure to make: the dough is easy to work with and the cookies hold their shape perfectly when baked. GET THE RECIPE
These snickerdoodles have crackly tops, perfectly crisp edges and soft centers. They're fun to bake -- kids love to form the squishy dough into balls and roll them in cinnamon-sugar. GET THE RECIPE
These chocolate chip cookies are crispy outside and chewy inside, chockful of all kinds of good stuff, and just right. GET THE RECIPE
This is the perfect ginger cookie: it's got just the right balance of spices -- think ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and black pepper -- and a wonderful crisp texture. GET THE RECIPE
Buttery in flavor with a crisp and sparkly outside and tender interior, these cookies are truly crave-worthy. I discovered the recipe years ago on the King Arthur Flour website, and it's been my go-to for sugar cookies ever since. GET THE RECIPE
These chocolate cookies stuffed with chocolate chips and pecans emerge from the oven puffy, gooey, chewy, and crunchy every single time. GET THE RECIPE
These thumbprints could win a cookie contest on looks alone. The cookie is actually a Mexican Wedding Cake (AKA Russian Tea Cake, Viennese Crescent or Snowball), which makes the perfect shortbread-like base for a dollop of luscious fruit preserves. GET THE RECIPE
If you've been searching for the perfect peanut butter cookie, look no further. This recipe, adapted from My Father's Daughter by Gwyneth Paltrow, is the best I've tried. The cookies are thick and soft with a rich peanut butter flavor and almost sandy texture. GET THE RECIPE
These cookies might look plain but when you bite into them, you discover a buttery and sweet shortbread studded with melted toffee bits and crunchy almonds. Delicious! GET THE RECIPE
Hands-down, my favorite biscotti recipe. Adapted from Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, they are everything good biscotti should be: buttery, lightly sweet, and crunchy but not tooth-shattering. GET THE RECIPE
Crisp and powdery on the outside, and soft and fudgy in the center: if you can imagine what a brownie would taste like in cookie form, this is it. GET THE RECIPE
These have got to be some of the world's cutest cookies. They look just like little yo-yos, thus the name, and are popular in Australia. You make them by joining together two buttery shortbread disks with a layer of chocolate-hazelnut spread. Delicious, adorable and perfect for the holidays! GET THE RECIPE
Imbued with warm autumn spices, these little cookies are cakey on the interior and slightly crisp on the exterior, with a bit of crunch from the raw sugar sprinkled on top. My family flocks to the kitchen as soon as I pull them out of the oven, and the first batch disappears before the second trays are even done. GET THE RECIPE
Also known as Snowballs, Butter Balls, or Russian Tea Cakes, these are crisp shortbread-like cookies made from ground nuts, flour, butter and sugar. This south-of-the-border version is flavored with lime, pecans and ground coconut. GET THE RECIPE
These best-ever oatmeal cookies are sweetened entirely with brown sugar, which gives them fabulous flavor. GET THE RECIPE
Light as a cloud, kiss-shaped meringue chocolate chip cookies: You "forget" about them in the oven overnight -- letting them cook ever so slowly -- resulting in the dreamiest, lightest, most irresistibly simple chocolate chip cookies you could imagine. What's more, they're gluten free. No strange substitutions, just naturally that way. GET THE RECIPE
You can't eat just one of these adorable little cookies. They're technically a type of snickerdoodle, but since they taste and look so much like donut holes, my kids have renamed them Donut Hole cookies. GET THE RECIPE
These deliciously different oatmeal cookies taste just like banana bread. Seriously. GET THE RECIPE