New York Times

Gingerbread Cookies

These traditional cookies came to The Times by way of Jennifer Steinhauer in an article about her grandmother's beloved Christmas cookie recipes. Isabelle Steinhauer would bake between “15 and 20 varieties each season: cream cheese wreaths shot from a cookie press; papery wafers carefully dipped in colored sugar; elaborate cutout cookies of nursery rhyme characters, their eyes fashioned from metallic dragées that the F.D.A. has written off as inedible; all manner of confections with nuts.” There's nothing fancy about these gingerbread cookies, but they are tender, gently spiced (feel free to add more to taste) and completely wonderful with a glass of cold milk. If you don't like using shortening, some readers have had good luck using half solid coconut oil and half softened butter instead.