Naomi Donebedian Piparkakut, a Finnish cookie made with black pepper and cardamom; the latter gives it “big 3D flavor,” wrote Naomi Donabedian.Last December, The New York Times asked readers to send photos and recipes of their holiday cookies. About 100 people answered the call, filling the inbox with creations that were classic (sugar cookies), endearingly oddball (chocolate-pepper cookies in the shape of frogs) or both (meringue mushrooms that looked as if they’d fallen off a bûche de Noël).
When it comes to holiday cooking, the bottom line seems to be that, if it’s festive, it flies. Sesame cookies made with tahini join eggnog or glazed ham at the table. Treats based on supermarket staples — hello, saltine brickle — compete for affection with more elegant specimens, like a very dignified Scottish shortbread.
Thirty-five cookie recipes were published online last year. This month, The Times had eight of the recipes prepared by a tester, and then conducted an informal tasting with members of the Dining section staff. Rich chocolate cookies were a unanimous favorite; the aforementioned brickle was met with some skepticism, but a few enthusiastic reactions put it over the top. Cardamom-walnut crescents and shortbread jammers also fared well.
Another recipe that was given high marks was piparkakut, a Finnish cookie that incorporates cloves, black pepper, cardamom, ginger powder and orange zest. It was sent in by Naomi Donabedian, 29, a graphic designer in Brooklyn who wrote of the “big 3D flavor” imparted by grinding cardamom to order. It is a cookie that is more fun than it ought to be, given its dainty profile and crisp bite.
Ms. Donabedian, who writes the food blog Cantaloupe Alone, is baking about 24 dozen cookies this season, distributing them to her clients, family, friends and mail carriers. “I’m even bringing them to the women at the grocery store in my neighborhood, because I’m there four times a week,” she said.
Not all will be piparkakut; buckeyes, jam thumbprints and chocolate cookies with bits of candied bacon — “just to make them even more disgustingly unhealthy,” she said — are also in the pipeline. This may in part be driven by necessity. The piparkakut dough “is tough and not that easy to roll out,” she said. “Your arms actually hurt.”
She offered several tips along with her original submission, among them the warning that these cookies, thin as they are, crack easily. “Broken reindeer piparkakut taste the same as whole, but be aware these will not ship as well as other cookies,” she wrote. To avoid this fate, Ms. Donabedian recommends using simpler shapes: snowmen, hearts and circular cookies with scalloped edges are sturdier.