Baking cookies encompasses all I love about the holidays. The sights and smells of cookies being made, their mouthwatering taste and delicate texture, as well as the anticipation of the joy and delight in the giving and receiving are an all-consuming sensory experience.

My favorite cookies to make and eat are shortbread. In simple terms, shortbread is a type of cookie classified by its high butter content. It is named shortbread due to its short, or crumbly, structure—which is caused by the high proportion of fat. The traditional recipe, developed in Scotland, consists of one part sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour.

My favorite shortbread recipe is Petticoat Tails, my father’s favorite. I don’t remember a Christmas without them. My mother’s recipe was written again and again on index cards that date back to the 1950s. Like traditional recipes it has simple ingredients–butter, sugar, flour, and a pinch of salt. Her recipe, which I follow faithfully, also includes a teaspoon of vanilla.

I always wondered why they were called Petticoat Tails, and only recently did I find out that the name is meaningful in baking history. Apparently, the French term for the wedges of shortbread was petits gâteaux or petites gatelles–little cakes, and this became "petticoat tails.“ It is now thought the Scots term derives from the decorated round edge of the segments which resemble petticoats.

It is so important when making shortbread, or cookies of any kind for that matter, not to overwork your dough. I noticed many years ago with cookie recipes that the directions are very specific. When the recipe says “beat together” or “mix together” or “cream” the butter and sugar ingredients it means use an electric mixer. Be watchful though if the recipe says “stir in” as it is a signal that the dry ingredients should be hand mixed, either with a wooden spoon, rubber scraper, or with your clean hands. Then, mix it just until it starts to come together, then dump it onto a floured surface until you have a smooth dough.

Shortbread has so few ingredients that you can't get away with cutting corners; good quality butter and sugar are essential, and plenty of them. A pinch of salt helps to balance that rich, delicious sweetness. The dough can be made ahead and refrigerated and sliced at the time of baking. Shortbread is stored in cookie tins lined with wax paper and the flavor develops as they “age,” so a few days or weeks (if they last that long) will only improve their quality.

When polling my many siblings, my Bermel family favorite is Pecan Crisps. A shortbread because it has no egg or leavening, it includes roasted, chopped pecans in the recipe and its appeal is the powdered confectioner’s sugar that it is rolled in three times. When I see pictures of round versions of these cookies on Facebook called Snowballs, it is simply the same recipe here but without the nuts and in a different shape. My mother got her recipe from her friend Ad Newins in 1964. Every time I eat a Pecan Crisp, I exclaim, “Now that’s a cookie!”

While on the checkout line at the supermarket in late November 2005, I purchased a magazine titled Holiday Cookies, 100 Recipes for the Season. Published by Martha Stewart, it was a limited-edition magazine that has several of my “new” favorite recipes. A shortbread cookie I now make every year from the magazine is Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies. A favorite of my mother-in-law, the addition of cream cheese and toasted chopped walnuts takes buttery shortbread to a new level.

The large batch recipe makes four dozen cookies and is meant to be made ahead which was always most convenient for me when I was working. I could take 45 minutes to make the dough after dinner during the week and refrigerate it until the weekend when I had more time to bake them.

Cookies, and all homemade goods, make great gifts because they are a gift of love from the heart. A simple and inexpensive holiday gift bag that includes a plastic bag of assorted cookies, my homemade jam, and/or ornament has been a gift to our friends, neighbors, teachers, colleagues and service personnel for many years. These priceless gifts affirm the gratitude and appreciation I have for everyone in my life. This simple gift of self is always enough.

Petticoat Tails

This delicate and delicious cookie was my father’s favorite and one I love to make. Dough is made into bars and can be refrigerated until sliced and baked. I don’t remember a Christmas without them!

Ingredients:

Directions

Combine flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in another bowl. Then combine all, making sure not to over-handle dough. Divide dough in half and make rectangular rolls 2” x 3” squared at front and back. Wrap in wax paper. Place in refrigerator, Make ¼” sliced and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until edges and bottom are lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

TIPS: This is a delicate dough that should not be overhandled. I mix the dough with my hands, and add the flour nearby. Make sure that the bars are solid. Use a sharp knife when slicing the cookie bars. If they crumble, make a slightly thicker slice. Crumbs can be combined into a ‘taste’ cookie.

Pecan Crisps

Ad Newin 1964

This cookie, a family favorite, is about the best gift I can give my adult siblings. Friends tell me that they make this recipe, without nuts, roll into balls when baking, and call them Snowballs.

Ingredients:

Directions

Cream butter and sugar well. Stir in vanilla extract, chopped pecans, flour, salt. Do not overmix.

Shape about the size of a thumb. Place onto cookie sheets ½ inch apart.

Bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees (lightly browned on bottom)

While hot, roll in confectioner’s sugar.

Cool and roll in confectioner’s sugar again.

Let rest and re-roll a third time in confectioner’s sugar.

Layer in cookie tin with wax paper in between. This is a very delicate cookie, so layer carefully.

Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies

From Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies, limited edition magazine, 2005

The dough for these slice-and-bake cookies can be shaped into logs and frozen for up to two weeks. This cookie, which I added to my annual repertoire in 2005, was my husband Paul’s mother’s favorite. So delicious! This large recipe makes a lot of cookies, plenty to eat, plenty to share.

Ingredients:

Directions

Whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

Put butter and cream cheese in a bowl of an electric mixed fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes. Mix in sugar and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined (do not overmix). Mix in toasted walnuts.

Divide dough in half and transfer to a work surface. If dough is very sticky, flour the surface first. Shape into an 8” long log about 2” in diameter. Wrap in parchment paper: freeze until firm about 2 hours or up until 2 weeks.

Preheat oven to 350 with racks in upper and lower thirds. Unwrap one log and roll in finely chopped walnuts, coating completely. Cut into ¼” thick rounds. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper about 1 inch apart.

Bake cookies, rotating halfway through, until golden around the edges. Repeat with remaining log. Store in airtight container or cookie tin at room temperature.

TIPS: I wrap in wax paper and refrigerate and make the cookies the next day. Chop extra walnuts to roll the logs on to make sure they are completely covered.