If we are allowed a fourth choice, add me to the thumbprint cookie list.
These were both fun to make and enjoyable to eat!!
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Lebkuchen
Linzer cookies
Nussecken
All to be baked in the coming weeks. Scale be damned I’m going to enjoy this holiday season.
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Thank you!
Does biscotti count? I make chocolate almond pistachio biscotti that I really love. An Italian co-worker claimed that they were best when dipped in whisky.
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Oooooo. Three of my favorite flavors!!
Would you care to share the recipe?
Here’s the recipe, from “Chocolatier” magazine. I converted the asinine measurements into weights.
Almond Pistachio Biscotti
3 oz semisweet chocolate
1-3/4 cups (7.5 oz) AP floor, spooned into cups
2/3 cup (4.5 oz) sugar
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (5 oz) almond paste
3 Tbsp (1-1/2 oz) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2” cubes
2 large eggs + 1 yolk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup (7 oz) lightly roasted whole almonds (I use slivered)
1 cup shelled pistachios (about 7 oz in shell)
Rack in center of 350°F oven. Lightly butter and flour insulated cookie sheet.
Finely chop the chocolate with a knife (food processor would chop too fine).
Flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into food processor with metal blade. Process till combined. Add almond paste and butter. Process on/off till coarse crumbs form.
Flour mixture into large bowl. Stir in almonds, pistachios, and chocolate.
Break eggs and yolk into measuring cup; beat with fork till blended. Reserve 2 tsp to small cup. Add vanilla to measuring cup and stir to blend.
Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add eggs from measuring cup. Stir with spatula till mixture clumps together. Form into ball.
Transfer dough onto floured surface. Form into 8” disk. Cut into 4 wedges.
Form each wedge into 12” log. Place logs on cookie sheet 2” apart.
Flatten each log to 1-1/4” width. Brush with reserved egg.
Bake 25-35 minutes, till logs start to brown and bounce back when lightly pressed.
Cool cookie sheet on rack 20 minutes.
Position one rack in 1/3 and another in 2/3 of oven. Reduce to 325°F.
Transfer logs to cutting surface. With finely serrated knife cut into 1/2” thick slices.
Place biscotti upright 1/2” apart on two insulated cookie sheets. Bake 15-25 minutes till they start to brown. Switch sheets halfway.
Cool on cookie sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to racks.
Note: I make 3 logs instead of 4, and don’t bother with insulated sheets.
Let me know how they turn out. I always have trouble with them breaking up.
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Thank you!! They sound fabulous.
I picked up at the library a donated copy of this month’s Southern Living and inside…a recipe for those cookies. The recipe does look like what you described found online along with a big fat glob of marshmallow on top.
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Your grandchildren may enjoy many of those versions. I don’t like sweets much, and I’m not a big chocolate either otherwise, so I much prefer any version that is not too chocolatey and sweet. I may try an online version and tweak the recipes a bit over the holidays to see if I can adapt it to one I like.
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Please let me know how it goes. What I’ve been seeing is way over the top for what I want to make. 
They’re very local, but the chocolate chip shortbread cookies from Acme Bakery, three blocks from my house, are the best I’ve had. I don’t get them often, because the line at the bakery is usually long. Which is just as well, because I’d snarf up a package of eight very quickly.
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Long ago and far away, I would spend the day after Thanksgiving and the days of that weekend making up the doughs for my baking blitz’. I had nine doughs (gingerbread, regular sugar cookie, shortbread , choc chip , rum ball dough, Mexican Wedding cookie, Pfeffernüsse, chocolate crinkle and Finnish almond fingers) in one or two gallon zipper lock bags stacked in the fridge and for the next few weeks I’d be baking every night. Plus I would make mocha meringue kisses and rosettes. In those days, one could stroll up to the post office on the 20th of December and mail off the cookies that needed to get there on the 24th, 1200 or 3000 miles or more away. Not anymore! I’m older now, maybe wiser. The cookies I make nowadays are for the family, here, or bake pülla for them. There are some good cookie baking memories from those days. I hung up my superwoman cookie apron, for good. I’m in awe of those who do now what I used to do.
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