Shortbread is a classic holiday cookie for many, and it's one that we make each year in our house. While I tend to stick pretty closely to a classic version, I've started to add small and subtle mix-ins this year to make for a more festive, interesting cookie and one that stands apart from the rest. Here are a few ideas... More

Q: My husband was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, so all of this year's Christmas cookies need to be sugar-free. I've never baked with sugar substitutes like Splenda or stevia before, and I am dubious of their claims that they can be used one-for-one as a sugar substitute. More

I realize that Christmas is still two weeks away but I really want to make cookies now. Of course I have a dozen cookie recipes from my family but I want to do something a little different this year. More

There is no resisting rugelach, no matter how nubbly or imperfectly rolled. They're buttery, flaky, and just the right amount of sweet. You can fill them with anything from ground nuts and honey to peanut butter and chocolate — the only real constant is using cream cheese to make a super-tender dough. Here's how you can make them at home. More

Like many great cookie recipes, this one was born by accident. One year while I was making gingerbread men, some careless dough-rolling birthed a man who baked up chubby, thick and cakey, not flat and crisp like his brothers. Surprisingly, this textural mutation of a gingerbread man turned out to be the best one of all. You can call it cookie evolution, the accident that led to the creation of these chewy, molasses-spiked cookies. With their warm, spiced flavor and cake-like softness punctuated by the coarse crunch of sparkly sugar, you might also call them a new holiday tradition. More

Q: I am starting to experiment with different types of flours for baking. I purchased some soy flour and I am not quite sure what to do with it. I haven't found any interesting recipes and was wondering how to incorporate it into a recipe or substitute it for regular or whole wheat flour. Any suggestions? More

Wait! Before you toss those empty paper towel rolls into the recycling, CHOW has another way we can use them: to help us make perfectly round slice-and-bake cookies. More

Fresh, warm cinnamon rolls are a special breakfast for the holidays (or any day), but who wants to wake up at 5 am to start the process of making them from scratch? Instead of reaching for canned rolls, try this technique from King Arthur Flour: parbake and freeze cinnamon rolls, then fully bake them just before serving. You'll have hot, homemade cinnamon rolls on the table in just 20 minutes. More

Frankly, I don't really understand the December cookie craze. If you ask me what my favorite Christmas cookie is, I'll tell you chocolate chip. Only chocolate chip. At least, that would have been my firm answer right up until last week when I discovered Regan Daley's butter-toffee crunch shortbread and had a change of heart. It was love at first bite, and it took everything in me not to hide in the pantry and devour the whole pan.

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Last year, I shared an old favorite recipe for Peppermint Cream-Filled Butter Cookies, which are infamous in my family for being both ridiculously tasty and also ridiculously tedious to make. This year, I thought I'd try tweaking the recipe just enough to keep all its most swoon-worthy qualities while trimming away the labor. The result might, just maybe, be better than the original. More