Recipes

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Agnes F. Hostettler, of Statesville, N.C., was 72 when she shared this recipe with The Times in 1990. She baked brunsli and zimt sterne each Christmas, as they were the cookies she baked as a child with her mother in Germany. The year she contributed this recipe, she has already baked about 1,000 cookies that she has sent to her five daughters. “My daughters all have my recipes,” she said. “But they say, ‘Mom, they never taste as good as when you make them.’ ” Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

This recipe was brought to The Times in a 1990 article about traditional Christmas cookies, but we think these butter-rich confections are delicious any time of year. Sometimes called Mexican wedding cakes (or polvorones or Russian tea cakes or snowballs), their provenance is often debated, but this much is true: they are dead-simple to make and addictive to eat. This version is done completely in a food processor, so you can clean-up in minutes, and get to the important business at hand: eating cookies and licking your fingers.

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

The recipe for these sweet, tart squares, adapted from the “Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook” by Susan Mahnke Peery, was published in The Times in December 1990, part of a Christmas cookie roundup. But they can be made for just about any occasion, whether you’re in the holiday spirit or just craving something with a little pucker. The buttery shortbread mellows a lemon topping, as does the dusting of confectioners' sugar. Make it to cap off a weeknight dinner, or for a weekend afternoon snack, paired with a cup of tea. Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Jenan Madden, the manager of a book store in Seattle, shared this recipe with The Times. She acquired it as a child from a favorite baby sitter. “The taste is great,” she said. “And it’s fun telling people what they are called.” (Ammonia cookies are in fact made with ammonium carbonate, a form of baking soda, not cleaning ammonia, which is poisonous.) Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking

Dena Kleiman · NYT Cooking