Make these 12 recipes for the ultimate Philadelphia holiday cookie swap

Holiday cookie recipes start showing up in our email boxes around August, previewing a holiday season filled with linzers, biscotti, and gingerbread. The return of cookie season was especially exciting this year, and we couldn’t wait to hit up our friends, family, and colleagues for their favorite recipes.

Our contributor Kae Lani Palmisano asked people around town for their favorite cookies to bring to a cookie swap, and before we knew it, we had a dozen recipes from across the region, from people of all backgrounds, including Philadelphia chef Eli Kulp and muralist Marian Bailey.

Behind every shortbread and chocolate chip cookie was also story of family, tradition, memories, and culture they wanted to share with all of Philly.

Our friends at Drexel University’s Department of Food and Hospitality Management helped us bake and test all of the recipes, filling their kitchens with vanilla and cinnamon, sanding sugar and sprinkles, and reminding us of the joys of holiday baking.

Over the next few pages, we’re sharing 12 recipes, plus tips for throwing a cookie swap, now that many small gatherings are back. We also have the best tools for baking cookies, and if you’re not a baker, the best places in Philadelphia to find cookies.

If you bake any of the cookies, post a picture and tag us on social @phillyinquirer.

Get your sheet pans ready for the Let’s Eat, Philly Cookie Swap!

— the Food Editors

Eli Kulp is a lot of things. He’s a James Beard Award finalist, a co-owner of High Street Hospitality, he’s the voice of Chef’s Radio Podcast, and a co-host on the new Delicious City Philly podcast. He is not, however, Italian American, despite his love for cuccidati, sweet Sicilian cookies filled with nutty and fruity fig filling and decorated with rainbow sprinkles.

Though cuccidati originate in Sicily, the modern version of this cookie is a result of the Muslim influence in Sicily dating from around 831 to 1091. The filling made with figs, dates and raisins were all brought to Sicily by Arabs. Over the centuries, the cookie has become a popular Christmas treat.

Kulp enjoys eating cuccidati with his son, Dylan, whose mother is from an Italian American family. Though the cookie calls for a lot of ingredients, and making them can be a tedious, Kulp says organizing your ingredients and having the right tools on hand will make the process run smoothly. “Being that you have to roll the dough around the fig filling, if you don’t have the space and you are disorganized, it’s going to make it more challenging,” he writes over email. “Use the flat side of a bowl scraper or bench scraper to help lift the dough over the fig filling and don’t overlap it too much.”

Getting the ratios of dough to filling is also key. “The fig filling should be no thicker than a Sharpie marker,” writes Kulp. “If you have strong piping bags, use them to pipe the fig filling across the dough and then roll the dough over it.” Another thing to pay attention to is using the right proportions of frosting and sprinkles, which are Kulp and his son’s favorite part of cuccidati. To achieve the perfect bake, he recommends not browning the cookies too much. “Bake them just until the dough has cooked through, leaving it moist with just a hint of crunch,” writes Kulp.

Though Kulp admits to being more of the eater of the cookies rather than the baker of the cookies, it is still a fun cookie to make with the family.

For the filling:

2 cups dried figs, hard tips discarded

1½ cups dried dates, pitted

1 cup raisins

¾ cup whole almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

¾ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped, toasted

½ cup orange marmalade

½ cup honey

¼ cup brandy

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

For the dough:

4 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks unsalted butter) cut into ½-inch cubes

1 large egg

½ cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon water for egg wash

Colored sprinkles

To make the filling: Using a food processor, combine figs dates and raisins and process until well-combined. Remove to a medium bowl. Add remaining filling ingredients and stir to combine. Cover and chill for four hours.

Make the dough: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter, then blend with your fingertips until it looks like coarse meal.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg, milk, and sugar. Add to the dry mixture and mix until well-incorporated. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Cut into four pieces and refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

On a lightly floured surface, one at a time, roll out each piece of dough into 12-inch-by-3-inch rectangles. Spoon 2 tablespoons of filling down the center of each rectangle. Fold the rectangle inward to the center to enclose the filling. Pinch the edges to seal. Turn the cookies press gently to flatten the seams. With a floured knife, cut the logs crosswise into 2½-inch wide, by ½-inch apart on the prepared backing sheets. Brush with egg wash and decorate with sprinkles. Bake until golden brown. About 20 minutes.

Transfer to wire racks to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

» READ MORE: The 5 must-have cookie baking tools, according to one of Philly’s most popular pastry chefs

As a writer, comedian, game show host, and performer, Alyssa Al-Dookhi has mastered the art of entertaining large crowds. What they haven’t mastered, however, is how to eat a ghraybeh, an Arabic shortbread cookie, without getting it over their new Eid clothing. “It’s in your hand one moment and then it just explodes into a bunch of crumbs,” says Al-Dookhi. “And then sometimes they’re covered in confectioners’ s sugar, so you have the double challenge of trying to not get it on your new Eid clothes.”

Al-Dookhi moved from Kuwait to Kalamazoo, Mich., for college before settling down in Philadelphia where their mother’s family is based. In addition to writing sketches and comedy routines, they work with YallaPunk, an organization that creates space for marginalized people who want to find a home in the arts. Between giving people something to laugh about and nurturing others in growing their artistic skills, YallaPunk has a spirit of hospitality that is reflective in Al-Dookhi’s Arabic culture. “No matter where you go, the first thing you’ll be given is a beverage and a tray of treats will come around the room,” they say.

Ghraybehs are light and airy but also dense, and though they have a kind of buttery texture, they tend to crumble with every bite. They’re not overwhelmingly sweet, making it the perfect cookie for other flavoring like rose water, vanilla, or cardamom, which is Al-Dookhi’s favorite. You can also top your ghraybehs with a single nut like a pistachio, a dollop of fruit jam, and/or a dusting of confectioners’ sugar. The cookies can be served with a variety of drinks, but Al-Dookhi says they taste best with a hot tea.

Though some recipes call for butter, Al-Dookhi recommends using ghee. “I’ve seen people make it with butter, but I think it doesn’t have as much moisture and the texture is the most important part,” they say.

In Al-Dookhi’s family, ghraybehs are traditionally enjoyed during Eid al-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, “the feast of sacrifice,” as well as during other occasions and family gatherings. However, they say ghraybeh pair well with savory, aromatic dishes. “Because of the cardamom, they’d go really well with a cup of apple cider, or with a rich and savory roast or holiday ham,” says Al-Dookhi. “It’s so simple, it’s not overly sweet, and it’s decadent without being overkill.”

Recipe adapted from Dima Sharif.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1 cup butter

½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon powdered vanilla

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

¼ teaspoon baking soda

Shelled pistachios for garnish

Powdered sugar or sanding sugar, for topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a bowl, beat ghee for 1 minute and slowly add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla powder until it is fluffy.

Add flour and baking soda and mix until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Cover bowl and set aside to rest at room temperature for one hour.

Roll dough into balls. Make a small indentation in center and press each cookie down with a pistachio. Line baking sheet with cookies and bake for 13 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered or sanding sugar, if desired.

Over the past year, Snacktime has brought joy to the city through good music, good food, and good times. “Snacktime is really about bridging the communities between food, people, and music, and everyone in Philadelphia who would like to have the best of those worlds in the entertainment industry,” says Sam Gellerstein, Snacktime’s sousaphone player. Playing jazzy renditions of familiar tunes, the brass band gets everybody grooving with a feel-good energy.

Gellerstein is all about creating good experiences with others. When Gellerstein isn’t jamming with Snacktime, he’s sharing his love of music with students across Philadelphia as a music teacher. Gellerstein doesn’t spend too much time in the kitchen, but when he does, he enjoys baking cookies for people he cares about. “There’s nothing quite like pulling cookies out of the oven and sharing them with the people you love,” says Gellerstein.

When Gellerstein wants to make friends and family happy or when he’s gearing up to celebrate a special occasion, his go-to cookie is a brown butter and toffee chocolate chip cookie recipe he adapted from Bon Appétit. “It’s definitely a crowd-pleaser,” says Gellerstein. “It’s a really good, savory, salty chocolate treat.”

Instead of using the baking chocolate wafers in the Bon Appétit recipe, Gellerstein uses “nice, sexy chocolate bars,” as he describes it, and breaks them up into pieces before folding into the batter. “It makes a really cool flat spread of chocolate that will leak out a little bit when they’re still hot,” he says.

To make this indulgent cookie even more decadent, he’ll sometimes upgrade the chocolate bar to one with caramel in it. The caramel is a sticky and sweet accompaniment to the subtly salty toffee. “It has all these different notes that you can really taste,” he says. “I love the savory toffee mixed with that nice salt and obviously the sweet chocolate and the caramel is super good, too, but then the brown butter also makes it nutty which is really nice.”

Recipe slightly adapted from Bon Appetit.

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

⅓ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1.4-oz. chocolate toffee bars (preferably Skor), chopped into ¼-inch pieces

1 ½ cups (216 g) wafers (disks, pistoles, fèves; preferably 72% cacao) or chopped chocolate bar

Flaky sea salt

Cook butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring often, until it foams, then browns, 5–8 minutes. Scrape into a large bowl and let cool slightly, until cool enough to touch (like the temperature of a warm bath), about 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and kosher salt.

Add brown sugar and granulated sugar to browned butter. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add eggs and vanilla, increase mixer speed to medium-high, and beat until mixture lightens and begins to thicken, about 1 minute. Reduce mixer speed to low; add dry ingredients and beat just to combine. Mix in toffee pieces and chocolate wafers or chopped chocolate with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Let dough sit at room temperature at least 30 minutes to allow flour to hydrate. Dough will look very loose at first, but will thicken as it sits.

Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375 degrees. Using a 1-oz. ice cream scoop, portion out balls of dough and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart (you can also form dough into ping pong–sized balls with your hands). Do not flatten; cookies will spread as they bake. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake cookies until edges are golden brown and firm but centers are still soft, 9–11 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough and a fresh parchment-lined cooled baking sheet.

Do ahead: Cookie dough can be made 3 days ahead; cover and chill. Let dough come to room temperature before baking.

» READ MORE: The best cookies in Philadelphia

Baking is hardly child’s play, but when Rhonda Saltzman and Mercedes Brooks were kids, their playground was the kitchen. The sisters behind Second Daughter Baking Co. liked to play a game where one person in the family would create a dish using ingredients found in the pantry, and the others would try to guess what went into it. It was during this game that their cherry and raspberry chocolate sandwich cookies were born. “It was just something that we put together and we thought, this is good, let’s keep making this,” says Saltzman. “With Second Daughter, we try to do things that are reminiscent of our childhood but also elevate it a little bit because we’re adults now.”

The creation of this decadent cookie doesn’t end with the bake. The cherry and raspberry chocolate sandwich cookie begins with two chocolate cookies fused together with a cherry meringue and a raspberry jam center. It’s then dipped in chocolate and topped with graham cracker crumbs. It’s playful and whimsical like many of the baked goods that pass through their bakery in the Bok Building. “We want to cater to that childhood nostalgia but also bring it to adulthood,” says Saltzman.

It’s a cookie they love to share with their family, especially with their 8-year-old nephew who the sisters say is their executive taste tester. “If it doesn’t pass his test, then it doesn’t go on the menu,” says Saltzman. “Kids don’t lie.”

There’s a lot going on with this cookie, but the best part, according to Brooks, is the cookie sandwich’s filling. “When you bite into it, you get that raspberry center that’s fresh and tart and kind of sweet,” says Brooks, “and with the black cherry and the raspberry together — it just kind of explodes.”

The key to a perfect filling, according to Saltzman and Brooks, is to make sure the cookies are completely cool before making them into sandwich cookies. And if you’re in a pinch for time, they say that marshmallow fluff and store-bought raspberry jam work just fine.

Recipe adapted from New York Times Cooking.

1 cup / 145 grams all-purpose flour

¾ cup / 75 grams Dutch-process cocoa powder

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

10 tablespoons / 141 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup / 150 grams dark brown sugar

⅔ cup / 133 grams granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups / 305 grams semisweet or bittersweet chocolate discs (or use 2 cups / 340 grams chocolate chips)

For filling:

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Pinch fine salt

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 to 2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

1 to 2 cherry or raspberry jam

Directions: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until very light, about 5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well-combined.

With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Add the chocolate discs and mix briefly to combine. Press plastic wrap against the dough and chill for at least 24 hours and up to 36.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Portion the dough out into balls slightly larger than golf balls, about 3½ ounces each, and transfer five balls to the baking sheet. (They will spread significantly.) Bake the cookies until set, being careful to remove cookies from the oven when still soft in the center, about 18 minutes. Transfer the parchment with the cookies to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough, baking a second batch of four or five cookies.

Make the buttercream filling. Combine the butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl if mixing by hand or with a hand mixer. Mix on low speed until mostly incorporated. Add the vanilla mix until smooth, adjusting the consistency with milk. Flavor with desired amount of jam and mix until incorporated. Sandwich finished cookies with flavored buttercream.

The best recipes are ones scrawled down decades ago on pieces of paper. They’re usually the ones that are kitchen tested and family approved. And the more tattered the paper it’s written on, the more beloved the recipe. When recipes like this get passed through the generations, they’re not just instructions for how to make the dish, they’re a story all on their own. That was the case when Geo Banks-Weston’s dad sent him a photo of his fine-tuned yet rough-around-the-edges recipe for his Drop Sand Tart cookies.

“When I called him about this recipe, I got a little family history about it,” says Banks-Weston. His father, George Banks Sr., was the youngest of 10. At one point, one of his nieces was living with his family and she loved to eat Drop Sand Tarts. She was so obsessed that Banks baked the cookies for her all of the time, and in the process, ended up perfecting the recipe.

“This was his favorite cookie growing up because it was a favorite of his niece,” says Banks-Weston, of his father’s love of Drop Sand Tarts.

It was a tender story he’d never heard before, because from his perspective, Banks-Weston only knew of the Drop Sand Tart as a family holiday tradition, and as a bit of friendly competition. “The Drop Sand Tarts are one of those cookies that everybody has their variation that they think is the best,” he says.

Banks-Weston is no stranger to recipe testing. He holds a doctorate from the University of South Carolina and is a senior marketing manager for Comcast x NBC Universal by day, but by nights and weekends, he’s documenting his culinary adventures on his blog Geo’s Table and his podcast, Table86. For nearly a decade, he’s been shining a light on diverse restaurants in the region, sharing recipes and culinary traditions specifically focusing on the perspectives of Black, brown, and other underrepresented communities.

His Drop Sand Tarts are a little different from some of his family’s versions. They’re generally a crispy, flat cookie but Banks-Weston prefers his cookies to be a bit soft and a little gooey.

He also adds an aromatic blend of ground ginger, clove, and nutmeg to his recipe, and substitutes half a cup of sugar for dark brown sugar, which gives the cookie a deeper, more winter-spiced flavor. In addition to the pure vanilla extract that most recipes call for, he adds a little rum extract or almond extract. Lately, he and his husband have been enjoying Drop Sand Tarts with a teaspoon of Appleton rum.

“Drop Sand Tarts is something that I remember fondly about holidays,” says Banks-Weston.

“Not so much with the main courses for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, but always with the baked goods.”

1 cup room-temperature butter

1½ cups granulated sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar

2½ cups flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 room-temperature eggs , plus 1 beaten egg for egg wash

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon spiced rum or rum extract

For the sugar and spice topping

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons sanding sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter, sugar, and dark brown sugar in a standing mixer (or large bowl) until well-blended. Add 2 eggs (one at a time), and mix in vanilla and rum.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sifted flour and baking powder. Gradually add flour to the butter, sugar, and egg batter until the cookie dough has formed.

Place in the fridge for 10 minutes, then using a medium-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop cookies onto a nonstick baking sheet about two inches apart.

Prepare an egg wash by beating one egg, and lightly brush on top of each drop cookie with a fork pushing the cookie down slightly. (The cookies will spread while baking).

Sprinkle each cookie with sugar and spice topping. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until cookies are cooked through.

» READ MORE: Holiday cookies are being made at the LaBan house. But now they are gluten-free.

Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is known for being hearty and rich in butter, cream, and eggs. It’s a cuisine that’s a far cry from being vegan. But vegan baker Kate Devlin is on a mission to transform the familiar and comforting dishes of her childhood into plant-based delights. At Crocus Eatery, which sets up shop at the Rittenhouse Square and Dickinson Square farmers markets, Devlin creates plant-based versions of Pennsylvania Dutch classics like whoopie pies, zweibelkuchen, and a “chicken” stew, a corn soup made with homemade noodles.

But of all of the homey delights, one of her family favorites is her grandmother Judy Devlin’s sour cream cookies that she’d make every holiday season. “She’d literally have one of those old pretzel tins filled with sour cream cookies and we’d eat them for weeks,” says Devlin, who spent the season devouring her grandmother’s cookies.

Sour cream cookies are a soft, cakey, airy cookie topped in a brown sugar glaze. They are a part of a multitude of culinary traditions, including in Russia, Eastern Europe, and parts of Germany. The Pennsylvania Dutch, who are descended from German settlers, are likely responsible for bringing the sour cream cookie to our region. Devlin, who was a conservation technician at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, once found an old recipe similar to her grandma’s sour cream cookie in an old Pennsylvania Dutch craft book. Devlin assumes that her grandmother likely got the recipe from a friend in the Harrisburg area, where her family is from.

At first, Devlin was hesitant to adapt her family recipes into vegan baking because she was afraid that her versions would never live up to the soft, cakey cookies of her youth. But after years of vegan baking, she became more confident in her craft and began dabbling.

Sour cream cookies require a lot of eggs, so the first thing Devlin did was replace the eggs with Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer. “You just want to make sure you whisk that as soon as you add the water to the powder,” recommends Devlin, “because otherwise it gets really chunky and it’s not nice to work with.”

In place of the sour cream, Devlin tested out a variety of store-bought vegan sour creams. They worked just fine, Devlin said, but using her homemade cashew sour cream was key in achieving the same flavor and texture as her grandma’s sour cream cookies.

“They’re not a fancy cookie by any means,” says Devlin, “but they’re not in your typical Christmas cookie assortment.”

Cashew ‘Sour Cream’ or vegan sour cream (see instructions)

For the cashew sour cream:

1 cup raw unsalted cashews

Lemon juice

Citric acid

Apple cider vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

For the cookies:

1½ cups (300 grams) light brown sugar

½ cup (103 grams) shortening

2 tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons water, according to package instructions)

2¼ cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

⅔ cup chopped nuts (if desired)

1 cup cashew sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the glaze:

½ stick Earth Balance

¼ cup oat milk

¾ cup / 100 grams brown sugar

1 cup / 120 grams confectioners’ sugar, sifted

½ teaspoon vanilla

Make the cashew cream: Bring about 2-3 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over raw cashews. Let sit for at least 20 minutes. Drain cashews. Add them to a high-speed blender with a good dash of salt and a bit of lemon, citric acid, and apple cider vinegar, to your taste. When you start the blender, you’ll want to slowly add additional water, blending until you have a very smooth texture that is a little looser than regular sour cream.

Make the cookies: In the bowl of a stand mixer, thoroughly combine shortening, brown sugar, and egg replacer. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nuts (if adding).

Stir in cashew cream, vanilla, and salt and mix until well-combined.

Drop the cookies by tablespoon onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

For the glaze, in a small sauce pan, melt butter, then add oat milk and brown sugar.

Once mixture is smooth, remove from heat. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, whisking until well-combined.

Let cool for a few minutes before spooning onto cookies. Glaze will harden as it cools.

Marian Bailey is a visual artist and muralist whose artwork is bold, vibrant, and modern. You may recognize her work from the farm-to-ice-cream mural featuring colorful cows and scoops of ice cream at Weckerly’s, or on cans of Triple Bottom Brewing’s “Training Montage” hazy IPA depicting characters pursuing perfection through practice. Though Bailey’s art is more contemporary, when it comes to baking cookies, she likes the classics like Betty Crocker’s chocolate chip cookie.

Bailey was introduced to the trusty recipe by a friend while living in North Carolina. Despite being skeptical of the old-school recipe, she trusted the process and was happy with the results. “They were the most incredible cookies I’ve ever had,” she says. “And whenever I make them for friends, or bring them to an event, I just hear about how good they are.” They are popular among her family, too. When she goes home for a visit, the classic chocolate chip cookie is the most requested dessert.

The difference between a good chocolate chip cookie and a great one is the butter, according to Bailey. The butter is key to achieving that melt-in-your-mouth texture and gooey consistency, and its temperature can play a role in that. She recommends leaving the butter on a counter to soften before baking. “Sometimes I’ll just put it on top of the stove while my oven is preheating,” says Bailey. Because she loves the buttery flavor of the chocolate chip cookie, Bailey cuts down on the sugar, reducing the original amount to ½ cup of sugar and ½ cup of brown sugar.

When Bailey really wants to indulge, she’ll add a little bit of peanut butter to the chocolate chip cookies, either spreading the peanut butter on one side or using it as the filling of a chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie sandwich. The cookie is simple, but the flavors are complex and bold, much like a work of art.

Adapted from Betty Crocker.

Ingredients

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup softened butter

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

For the peanut butter filling (optional):

3 tablespoons softened butter

3 tablespoons softened peanut butter

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Chopped salted peanuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate large bowl, beat softened butter with the brown and granulated sugars.

Beat egg and vanilla into mixture. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until the dough is stiff. Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll cookie dough into balls and place onto cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown. Cool for 2 minutes before moving the cookies to a cooling rack.

Optional: Mix together softened butter, peanut butter, and confectioners’ sugar. When cookies are completely cooled, spread peanut butter mixture on flat side of one cookie, top with flat side of second cookie. Roll sides in toasted, chopped, salted peanuts.

Tova du Plessis’ culinary influences are drawn from all over the world. Before coming to Philadelphia, the James Beard Award semifinalist lived in South Africa where she was born and raised in a Jewish household. These are memories braided into every challah bread and baked into every black and white cookie she offers at Essen, her East Passyunk bakery. One of her favorite cookies didn’t come from South Africa or her Jewish traditions. Instead, it came from a copy of The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits by Australian Women’s Weekly, first published in 1982.

Chocolate Wheaties are wheat germ cookies half dipped in chocolate, that du Plessis’ mother baked pretty regularly. “I think it’s because she felt like the wheat germ in them was a little healthier for us,” she says. According to the Mayo Clinic, wheat germ is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, and it contains protein and fiber as well. Plus, du Plessis says, the wheat germ gives the cookies a nutty flavor and fibrous texture.

Though du Plessis’ went to the bakery with her mother every week to pick up rugelach and babka, it’s her mother’s homemade Chocolate Wheaties that bring back fond memories. “I really loved picnicking in the backyard — I’d take a blanket and a plate of these cookies, go outside and eat them,” she says.

As a child, she enjoyed the chocolaty, toasty flavor. But as an adult, du Plessis appreciates both the nostalgic taste and its wholesomeness. “You feel a little bit better knowing there’s some nutritional benefit,” she says, acknowledging that the cookie still has some fat and sugar. “But it’s like when you eat a fruit and nut bar or a granola bar and you feel better about eating that.”

Adapted from Australian Women’s Weekly “The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits.”

Ingredients

¼ cup unsweetened dried coconut

¼ cup wheat germ

⅔ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

3 ounces unsalted butter

½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg

6 ounces dark chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the coconut, wheat germ, flours, baking powder, and salt.

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, beat until incorporated. To this mixture, add all dry ingredients and stir to form into dough. Do not over mix.

Roll into 1 tablespoon size balls. Flatten with a fork onto lined baking trays. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until just starting to brown slightly around the edges.

Cool cookies on cooling rack.

Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl, either over a double boiler or in the microwave in short intervals. Dip the cookies halfway in the chocolate, scrape the bottom on the edge of the bowl, and set down on parchment. Allow chocolate to harden in the fridge or on the counter.

Eric Smith’s most recent novel, You Can Go Your Own Way, follows the unlikely but charming love story between Adam Stillwater and Whitney Mitchell, two young adults whose parents own dueling businesses in Philadelphia, a successful chain of gaming cafes, and an old school pinball arcade. When a huge snowstorm hits the city, Stillwater and Mitchell are trapped together inside the arcade. They pass the time by reconciling their differences, and as the snow melts away so do their tensions.

As a young adult author and literary agent, Smith writes coming-of-age stories. They’re stories of overcoming challenges, pivotal growth, and life’s firsts as his characters navigate the complexities of the world. And in some ways, Smith’s cookie of choice, the snickerdoodle, is a key moment in his own growth. “It was the first thing I learned how to make all by myself,” says Smith, who learned to make the simple cookie in a home economics class right before entering junior high. It may seem small, but the snickerdoodle was a recipe that gave him a sense of autonomy, and helped him earn his parents’ trust in the kitchen.

“As an adult, it is my favorite cookie to make for my kid,” he says. Smith’s son, Langston, lives with sensory sensitivity, so the simpler the cookie, according to Smith, the more accessible it is for him. Langston loves peanut butter cookies and sugar cookies, but the snickerdoodles are always a hit. “It brings me a lot of joy to think that the thing that makes me think of my childhood is something that is very comforting to my own child,” he says.

Snickerdoodles can be as simple or as complex as you want. Smith recommends being a little experimental with your snickerdoodles. You can add a little bit of pumpkin spice for a bit of fall flair, or sprinkle them with red and green sugar for Christmas, something that Smith used to do as a kid. Either way, Smith says a good snickerdoodle is one where you’re not shy with the sugar. “I feel like you should be unapologetically liberal with the sugar and cinnamon.”

2½ cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter

2 large eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For sugar coating:

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until creamy. Add eggs and mix until combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until a dough forms. In a small bowl, mix together ¼ cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon for sugar coating.

Roll dough into small balls and roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar mix. Place on a lined baking sheet.

Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are golden around the edges.

» READ MORE: Get out your baking sheets: 6 tips for hosting the best cookie swap from baking experts

Sparking conversation can be tricky but improvisational performer and storyteller, Neil Bardhan —the executive director of the Broad Street Review and the director of Applied Storytelling at First Person Arts — knows how to break the ice.

In college, Bardhan was known for asking new people “do you like sugar cookies?”

“It helped to get to know people very quickly, but also to see how they handled weird situations and me being bizarre,” says Bardhan, who uses the art of improv in the workshops he runs to help people and teams develop effective communication skills.

To Bardhan, sugar cookies are nostalgic. “They’re such a simple comfort food and they pop up in places like gas stations and diners where I might feel in transition,” he says.

The sugar cookie is ubiquitous in American baking, but the quintessential holiday cookie actually has its roots in Pennsylvania. Most records show that the sugar cookie was likely created by German Protestant settlers from Nazareth, Pa., during the mid-1700s. The original sugar cookies were molded into the shape of the state’s symbol, a keystone. However, after African American inventor and grocer Alexander P. Ashbourne created the first biscuit cutter in 1875, sugar cookies started to take on more shapes.

The firm dough helps sugar cookies maintain the shapes of trees, snowflakes, stars, and bows for the winter holidays, but also eggs, baby chicks and rabbits for Easter and hearts for Valentine’s Day. The sugar cookie responds to any situation, much like that of an improvisational actor “yes and-ing” their way through a scene.

Aside from the fun shapes, Bardhan says that the perfect sugar cookie is soft and buttery and falls apart as soon as you bite into it. “There has to be sugar sprinkled on top,” he says, adding that the pale-yellow color of some sugar cookies brings him back to his old college cafeteria.

Recipe from Serious Eats.

8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks; 225g); firm but pliable, about 60 degrees F (16°C)

10 ounces sugar (1 ½ cups; 280g)

2½ teaspoons baking powder (10g)

1 ¼ teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt (5g) (For table salt, use half as much by volume or use the same weight)

1 large egg, cold

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (15mL)

11 ¼ ounces all-purpose flour (about 2½ cups, spooned; 320g)

Assorted sanding sugars, nonpareils, and sprinkles, or plain granulated sugar blended with vanilla seeds, luster dust, or powdered food coloring for finishing

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350 degrees . Line 2 aluminum half sheet pans with parchment paper (not wax paper!).

Combine butter, sugar, baking powder, kosher salt, egg, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low to moisten, increase to medium and beat until fluffy, pale ivory, and soft, about 5 minutes. Pause to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Resume mixing on low, sprinkle in flour, and continue mixing until a thick dough is formed.

Divide into 26 1-ounce portions with a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop. Roll each ball of dough between your hands until smooth and round. If desired, tumble in a dish with sanding sugar, nonpareils, sprinkles, granulated, or vanilla sugar until coated on all sides. Arrange cookies on prepared half sheet pan, leaving 2½ inches of space in between cookies. Do not flatten; cookies will spread on their own.

To Michelle Nelson, it takes a community to feed the community. To that end, she founded the Mama-Tee Community Fridge Project to encourage individuals, community leaders, and local businesses to pitch in and help feed those in need.

“Food is a right, not a privilege,” says Nelson, who holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology.

Under the philosophy “take what you need, leave what you don’t,” the project manages 17 refrigerators throughout Philadelphia to ensure that neighbors have access to the food they need.

To Nelson, shortbread cookies are not just tasty, they’re sweet reminders of her childhood. Nelson grew up valuing the communal effort to feed one another, particularly when it came to her family making shortbread cookies together. “Everybody has their part in the plan,” she says, describing how her family would work together when baking. “You have one person beat the eggs, someone else might want to mix in the flour, someone else might want to put chocolate chips in it. It’s just great because everybody finds their place in making the cookies.”

Though she loved the process of baking with her family, decorating the shortbread cookies was her favorite. “My mom has all of the different cookie cutter shapes,” she says. “Sometimes she’d dye the cookie green and we’d make a Christmas tree and we’d put the little sprinkles to make the little lights and so on.” The Christmas ball, though, was Nelson’s favorite shape to decorate. “That one required different layers of icing, and it was fun to see what you could come up with creatively.”

Shortbread cookies are a blank canvas for decorating, flavors, and textures. Regardless of what flavors or icing you decide to add to your cookies, Nelson believes that consistency is key. “Shortbread cookies can be very moist depending on how many eggs you put into it,” she says, adding that how much sugar you use will also influence how the shortbread cookie will come out. After years of making this cookie, she says that you don’t necessarily have to use white sugar and can substitute brown sugar or a white sugar alternative.

Ingredients

2 cups (256 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup (115 grams) powdered sugar

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temp and cut into pieces

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the flour, powdered sugar, salt, and butter into the bowl of a food processor. Process for 30 seconds to 60 seconds. Stop when the mixture clumps up in one mass. It’s ready when the dough clumps together when pressed.

Put the dough onto the counter and gently press it together. Knead the dough a few times and form it into a square shape. If the dough is too soft, chill it in the refrigerator for 10 to 20 minutes, until it’s cool but still pliable.

Roll the dough out on a well-floured surface, to your preferred thickness. Use a cutter or knife to make shapes.

Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Chill the cookies on the sheet pan in the freezer for 15 minutes or until the cookies are solid to the touch.

Bake the cookies, one pan at a time, for 18 to 23 minutes, or until the cookies are dry and golden. Remove from the oven and cool before storage. Decorate with sprinkles or sanding sugar, if desired.

There’s Abbott and Costello, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and then there’s Philadelphia’s own Tony Trovarello (also known as Tony Trov) and Johnny Zito. The dynamic duo are the creative forces behind independent films like the horror comedy Alpha Girls, the Philly-centric clothing line South Fellini, and the local history podcast Legends of Philadelphia. And that’s just a few projects they’ve produced together.

Whether it’s making retro-style T-shirts emblazoned with “Wawa Jawn,” a deep dive into the obscure history of South Philly Tofani doors, or hosting a citywide scavenger hunt, their work is a celebration of Philadelphia. Everything they do makes life in the city fun and whimsical — in quirky, Gritty-esque Philly fashion.

They’re Philly natives, and it’s clear that the city’s culture is stamped and baked into them, leaving a deep impression, much like that of a pizzelle.

Both grew up in Italian-American homes, where pizzelle were not only the star cookie of the holiday assortment tray, they were made year-round. “I always joke and say that my parents are so Italian they make pizzelle in the summertime,” says Trov. “They make them nonstop. I don’t remember not having them.”

Pizzelle originate in Italy’s Abruzzo region and are believed to be one of the world’s oldest cookies, dating back to the eighth century to the cookie’s Roman predecessor, crustulum. The crispy, anise-flavored snowflake-shaped cookie made its way to Philadelphia by way of Italian immigrantsduring the late 1800s and early 1900s. It’s a cookie tradition that’s been passed down through generations of Italian American families.

Making pizzelle can be tedious. Each cookie is baked one or two at a time, depending on what kind of pizzelle iron you’re using, so it can be time-consuming. “You can’t just throw it in the oven and then go scroll through Instagram,” says Zito. “You need to pay attention or you’re going to burn the pizzelle.”

According to Zito, the secret to the perfect pizzelle is only using a teaspoon-size dollop of batter when you’re making the press. “I think there’s a tendency to want to go big, but with a pizzelle you don’t want too much bleedover,” says Zito. The trick, he says, is to dispense just enough batter so that it stops right at the edge of the pizzelle iron when it’s pressed. That will create a perfectly thin pizzelle with the desired crispy edge. “I think you need to be real judicious with your use of the batter,” says Zito, “and the thinner [the pizzelle] the better.”

After you’ve doled out the batter onto the pizzelle iron, press it down and bake on each side. Trov and Zito recommend saying a “Hail Mary” prayer when baking each side , which they’ve determined is the perfect amount of bake time. For non-Catholics, that’s about 45 seconds on each side if you’re using an old-school handheld pizzelle iron, and about 1 minute and 30 seconds if you’re using an electric pizzelle iron. Once they’re finished, place the pizzelle on a cooling rack which Zito says is a game changer when trying to achieve the perfect texture.

Pizzelle can be made plain, or they can be made with chocolate chips, dusted with powdered sugar, sandwiched together with hazelnut spread, or rolled into a cannoli shell, but note, if you’re using them to make cannoli, they need to be rolled while they’re still warm. “It’s the only cookie that tastes like that,” says Trov. “I didn’t realize how uncommon they are around the country. They are so regular in the Italian American community, but not anywhere else.”

Special equipment needed: Electric pizzelle iron

6 extra large eggs

1 ½ cups white sugar

1 cup corn oil

2 teaspoons anise oil (such as Torre Products natural anise oil available in Italian speciality stores (or 2 tablespoons of anise extract like McCormick Pure Anise Extract)

4 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

Directions

In a large bowl, hand beat eggs and sugar until well-mixed. Add corn oil and anise oil. Then add flour and baking powder a little at a time. Mix until you achieve a pancake-batter consistency.

Heat pizzelle iron, brush with oil or cooking spray.

Drop one tablespoon of batter onto the iron. Bake about 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Remove cookie from iron and place on a flat surface. Stack when cool.