Everywhere I look there are cookies baking!




Mercedes at Desert Candy offers a recipe for lovely white chocolate drizzled Pistachio-Cranberry Cookie Sticks.

Delicious Days bakes up some beautiful Pepparkakor (Swedish Christmas Ginger Cookies).

David Lebovitz shares his recipe and methodology for making Lemon Glazed Madelines.

I've shared a recipe for Peppery Chocolate Cookies and submitted it to Susan at Food Blogga for the Eat Christmas Cookies event. Bloggers have submitted dozens of cookie recipes from around the world.

Peppery Chocolate Cookies
Makes approx. 2 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup lightly-packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg and vanilla and beat on high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until just incorporated.
Turn the dough out onto some wax paper and use the paper to shape the dough into a cylinder about 10 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. Wrap up tightly, twisting the ends to seal and refrigerate for at least an hour. The dough can also be frozen up to three months.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut chilled dough into 1/4 inch thick slices. If it was previously frozen let it rest at room temperature for 5 minutes before slicing. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool a bit on the cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack.