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December 14, 2024 
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Good morning. I'm off today, so Vaughn Vreeland, my colleague from New York Times Cooking, is filling in to tell you about holiday cookies. — Melissa Kirsch
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| Julia Gartland for The New York Times |
Sweet season
Cookie hive, assemble. Why? Because it's the most wonderful time of the year.
I'm Vaughn! You may remember me from last year, but if not, I'm the emcee of this tradition my colleagues and I at New York Times Cooking call Cookie Week. It's a larger-than-life celebration of one of those little things that make the holidays so sweet — cookies! This year we rolled out seven cookies, along with fun video tutorials, from all-stars like Sohla El-Waylly, Melissa Clark and Eric Kim. I might be in there, too — you never know.
A big part of our process is thinking about how to modernize the classics: colorful takes on classic shortbread, interesting yet festive flavor combinations, shapes beyond your classic circle. Cookie Week is as much a visual experience as it is a taste experience, and this year we wanted our collection of recipes to have something for everyone. In July, when we started planning this year's cookies, we leaned heavily into nostalgia for inspiration. Yule logs, rocky road and hot buttered rum all came to us like visions of sugarplums.
After months of planning, testing, filming, photographing, designing and eating (I live for quality control), our cookies finally made their debut last week. They go together like Elphaba and Glinda, and much like our favorite witches of Oz, I have been changed for good by this year's lineup.
Three gems
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| Julia Gartland for The New York Times |
I don't play favorites, but I have found myself gravitating to Sohla's holiday rocky road, a no-bake confection that's essentially marshmallows, nuts and other fun things enrobed in chocolate and sliced into bars. She adds cookie butter to the melted chocolate so that it slices more like fudge, giving it a hint of spice and a lovely melt-in-your-mouth quality. It's also beautiful — bejeweled with gumdrops and adorned with fun sprinkles — and comes together in minutes, making it perfect for gifting and even better for snacking.
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| Julia Gartland for The New York Times |
I'm also leaning toward Samantha Seneviratne's ginger cheesecake cookies. They're chewy, spicy and sparkly with a tangy little surprise inside. Need I go on? OK, I will. Three kinds of ginger — crystallized, ground and freshly chopped — infuse the simple dough, which is stuffed with a frozen dollop of cheesecake filling, rolled in sanding sugar and baked to perfection. I love how they glitter in the glow of my Christmas lights and perfume my apartment with warm spices.
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| Julia Gartland for The New York Times |
I've been baking for Cookie Week since I helped start it five years ago, and working on my yearly offering is the only thing I love about turning my oven on in July. My rum-buttered almond cookies are pillowy mounds of fragrant marzipan-like dough that are covered in toasted almonds and lathered in a buttery rum glaze that infuses into the cookies. I love all my cookie children, but this one might be my favorite (don't tell the others). They also go from tablespoon to tabletop in about 30 minutes, which means you can keep making them over and over. Plus, they're gluten-free!
If you're new to this whole holiday baking thing, I've got a few tips to help you. Stock up on the essentials, like sugar, butter and flour. Our friends at Wirecutter have put together a list of their favorite baking gear, like rolling pins and cooling racks. Get lots of sleep, put on a fire playlist to get in a festive mood, and don't forget to drink water!
You can find recipes for all of this year's cookies here. You're in for a real treat. Actually, seven!
Music
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| Timothée Chalamet in "A Complete Unknown." Macall Polay/Searchlight Pictures, via Associated Press |
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🦁 "Mufasa: The Lion King" (Friday): Maybe you loved the 2019 "Lion King" remake, which swapped in remarkably realistic CGI animals for the original's bright cartoon characters? (Lots of people did; it made over $1.5 billion internationally.) Or maybe you're just looking to fill a day during the kids' holiday break. This Disney prequel offers an origin story for Simba's dad. Barry Jenkins of "Moonlight" fame directs, and Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé's daughter, makes her feature film debut.
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| Rachel Vanni for The New York Times |
Cinnamon Toast Cookies
Need just one more confection to round off your holiday cookie box? Let me suggest Ali Slagle's adorable cinnamon toast cookies. These crouton-size squares are easy to prep and even easier to snack on, a handful at a time. Made from white bread (or brioche or milk bread) coated in melted butter and cinnamon sugar, then baked, they're delightful to tuck into cookie boxes or to offer by the bowlful as a sweet ending to a holiday party.
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| A floating home in downtown Copenhagen. Birgitta Wolfgang |
In Copenhagen: A couple hired an architect with experience designing floating homes. The outcome was a dream.
The Hunt: She was seeking an income-generating home near New York with space for her brother to potentially live. Which one did she pick? Play our game.
What you get for $1.4 million: A home from 1900 in Woodstock, N.Y., a midcentury modern house in Las Vegas and a converted barn in Chester, Conn.
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| Israel Vargas |
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A no-fuss trick for better sleep
There are countless high-tech gadgets that claim to help you get better sleep, like sunrise alarm clocks, light-therapy glasses and cooling mattress covers. But sometimes the most effective solutions are the simplest ones. For me, it was a sleep mask. After much trial and error (including stealing — er, borrowing — my husband's sleep mask), I received this adjustable silk one last Christmas. I've worn it every night since and slept like a rock. — Maxine Builder
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| Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Associated Press |
Buffalo Bills vs. Detroit Lions, N.F.L.: Detroit and Buffalo are separated by a Great Lake but united by a common spirit, as Tim Graham writes in The Athletic. They're both union towns. They can get dreary in winter. And they live and die by their long-suffering N.F.L. teams. This season, though, one of them might finally win a Super Bowl. The Lions are 12-1 and the league's clear front-runner. The Bills are 10-3, and quarterback Josh Allen is having an M.V.P. season. The Lions are the top-scoring team in the N.F.L.; the Bills are a close second. Sunday at 4:25 p.m. Eastern on CBS
Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was trackway.
Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week's headlines.
And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.
Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa
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Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch |
