Holiday Dessert Picks
My Sister’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Lydia used to make chocolate chip cookie dough (the recipie is on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse bags but only she can make it right) and she’d let me eat the dough off the eggbeaters like they were ice-cream cones. It was better than the cookies, sitting on the counter, covered in flour, licking egg-beaters and watching her ruin the rest of the dough by putting it in the oven. —Nathaniel Berry
My Sister’s Gingerbread And Sugar Cookies
My sister makes an unreal number of gingerbread and sugar cookies every year. The characters always assemble a very on point year-in-review. I’m a bit scared for what she’ll make for 2020. —Michael Colbert
Cheese
I'm not much of a dessert person, but I'm absolutely obsessed with cheese, and I love that the holiday season gives me an excuse to put together cheese and charcuterie boards basically nonstop. The more extra the better. I even got my hands on a fancy wooden cheeseboard this year, with little markings that show where the olives, meats, and breadsticks are supposed to go. It's 100% my biggest flex of 2020. —Jemimah Wei
Ben & Jerry’s Gingerbread Cookie Dough Bites
Look, I’m a simple man. I see cookie dough, I don’t see much else. This gingerbread version is (I think) a fairly new innovation, and a welcome one. Not so spicy that you can’t just pound piece after piece, but still gingery enough to get a little bite every so often — these are quite a perfect snack for late-night kitchen eggnog runs. —Elliot Alpern
Vanilla Wafers
These chewy cookies are best right out of the oven and take little more than sugar, butter, flour, and a heavy pour of vanilla extract. Simple and sweet: the way holidays ideally should be. —Rachel A.G. Gilman
Peppermint Bark
Dark chocolate? Peppermint candy? What more could you possibly ask for? I know people do all sorts of fun iterations of peppermint bark—truffles, cookies, pretzels—but I prefer the signature square with my morning coffee. —Gauraa Shekhar
Tiramisu
One of my favorite desserts, Tiramisu, is the ideal finish to any meal. Lady fingers softened by espresso, layered with whipped mascarpone and topped with ground espresso beans is kind of the most perfect dessert. The secret to making a transcendent tiramisu relies on the quality of the coffee and mascarpone. My Neapolitan father vows that Kimbo espresso and BelGioioso mascarpone were made to wed in a tiramisu. In terms of the lady fingers, any brand will do but make sure you get the one’s that are topped with sprinkled sugar. And skip the whip cream and stick to the mascarpone to make the “filling”. Making a tiramisu is a fun project if you’re solo or with company; you will surely impress your friends and family. –Giulia Di Stravola
Dutch Apple Pie
One year when I was on call at the shelter where I worked I made myself two Dutch Apple Pies, one for breakfast and one for desert. I ate the breakfast pie and breakfast time and the desert pie and desert time; it’s important not to mix them up or everything falls apart. When I say I made them, I mean Aunt Mille’s made them and I heated them in the oven, side by side, one for desert and the other for breakfast. —Nathaniel Berry
Chocolate Thumbprints
The most high-maintenance cookies I make each year, I like switching up the traditional thumbprint recipe with a chocolate batter that gets refrigerated, rolled in sugar, and then filled with fruit-flavored icing and mini chocolate chips. Worth every tedious step. —Rachel A.G. Gilman
