Cookies: Varieties, Recipes, and Preparation Techniques

Cookies : All recipes and menus

Here you’ll find all the recipes for cookies or those that include cookies as an ingredient.

Cookies are sweet or sometimes savory treats made from flour, sugar, fat, and often eggs, with textures and shapes that vary depending on the techniques and recipes used. Their history dates back several centuries, and their diversity makes them ingredients that are both enjoyable to eat on their own and extremely useful in cooking and baking.

Types of Cookies

There are several main families of cookies:

Shortbread cookies: crispy and low in moisture, such as shortbread, cookies, tea biscuits, or speculoos. Their firm texture makes them perfect for crumbling into preparations like pie crusts, cheesecake bases, or gourmet verrines.
Soft cookies: these have a tender crumb due to a higher moisture content, such as spoon cookies, financiers, or madeleines. Widely used in pastry making, they are used to make tiramisu, charlottes, or to form layers in layered cakes.
Rolled or flaky cookies: such as jam-filled rolled cookies or palmiers, which can be filled and shaped before baking. Their light, crisp texture makes them ideal for elegant presentations or for creating edible decorative elements.
Flavored or aromatic cookies: incorporating cocoa, citrus zest, spices, dried fruit, or seeds, they are often used to add flavor and contrast to layered desserts or to enrich preparations such as truffles, desserts, or ice cream.

Uses of cookies in cooking and baking

In cooking and pastry making, certain cookies serve a specific technical purpose:

Sponge cake is light and spongy, perfect for soaking and providing structure to desserts.
Shortbread cookies are often used as a base for tarts or cheesecakes.
The cookie or crunchy biscuit can add textural contrast to mousses, verrines, or ice creams.
Speculoos, with its spicy aroma, allows for the creation of original sweet-and-salty combinations, such as a verrine with blood sausage, banana, and speculoos crumbs, offering a surprising marriage of textures and flavors.

Thus, understanding the different types of cookies not only allows you to vary the pleasures on the palate but also to use them functionally in pastry and creative cooking, by playing with the texture, structure, and flavor of your preparations.

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Chocolate and Almond Roll

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England

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Herb and Cheese Scones

Here is my recipe for herb and cheese scones—they’re easy to make. Scones are small British pastries traditionally served at tea time. What makes this recipe unique is that it offers a savory version ...

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Easy Light Sesame Shortbread Cookies

I love making this recipe for light sesame shortbread cookies... and then enjoying them with a good espresso! The nutty flavor of the sesame seeds pairs perfectly with the roasted aromas of coffee or ...

Provence

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My Grandmother's Earrings

Here is the traditional recipe for oreillettes, those delicious figure-eight-shaped cookies that Marie-Louise, our Provençal grandmother, used to make for us when we were little. The oreillette is a ...

Provence

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My Grandmother's Wonders

Here is the authentic recipe for Merveilles from my grandmother Marie-Louise. These delicious, large, thin, light, and crispy fritters, dusted with powdered sugar, have left me with unforgettable ...

Alsace and Lorraine

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Bredele

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Corsica

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Easy Corsican Canistrelli

Canistrelli are small, very crispy cookies from Corsica, available in various shapes and with exquisite flavors. Since I love them so much, I decided to try making them myself, and after a few ...