Bar Cookie

I come from a Hungarian-Czech background, which means I grew up on lots of things with poppy seeds, like poppy seed cakes and poppy seed rolls. I still look forward to visiting my parents in New Jersey during the holidays and getting my annual fix. These portable bars combine my love of lemon desserts, specifically lemon meringue pie, with my culinary heritage. You can make them ahead of time, chill them, and then cut them up at the picnic. They hold together very well and are fun to eat.

Mature ginger is used for drying and grinding, as its flavor is more intense. The skin of the rhizome is removed and the flesh is sun- or machine-dried and then ground to a powder.

Dylan's Candy Bar owner Dylan Lauren created these brownie pops as a fun way to use leftover Halloween candy. To watch Lauren create these brownies, and to take a tour of Dylan's Candy Bar, check out our videos. The instructions below are just for inspiration—feel free to experiment with different kinds of candy and decorating supplies. Most of the candy can be found in the candy aisle of supermarkets or at Dylan's Candy Bar.

Fudgy cookies go Latin with an infusion of dulce de leche, a sweet milk caramel similar to cajeta and arequipe. These cool treats are happily portable on their crisp shortbread crusts.

Two adored classics come together in this dessert lover's superbrownie.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains. To read Epicurious's review of the cookbook, go to The Best Cookbooks of 2006. Imagine a dense, moist, chewy brownie. Now take chocolate out of the equation and substitute a different childhood favorite, butterscotch. That's Butter-Nut Blondies. These will be popular with those who count the rich, caramelized taste of butterscotch as one of their favorite flavors.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Lauren Chattman's Mom's Big Book of Cookies. To read Epicurious's review of the cookbook, click here. Here is one of my favorite recipes in this book. These bars are just the essence of home baking for kids: a few simple ingredients that you probably have on hand, minimally handled, make the best bar cookies ever.

I tinkered endlessly with the proportions of basic brownie ingredients to come up with a recipe that I think is perfect. They have a deep chocolate flavor, moist, fudgy interior, and chewy edges. Best of all, they are entirely mixed in one saucepan. No bowls to wash!

These buttery fruit-and-nut bars taste like rugelach but are much easier to make.

Loaded with dried fruit, toasted almonds, and bittersweet chocolate, these blondies combine the best of a brownie with what you wish fruitcake could taste like. A terrific addition to any holiday cookie platter, they are also a satisfying stand-alone dessert.

The richness of almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, and pistachios embodies the generosity of the season. A kiss of honey and brown sugar adds a sweet touch.

These squares practically explode in the mouth with silky, fudgy chocolate and cool mint ganache.

These lightly spiced butter cookies are similar to Janhagel, a popular Dutch cookie. Jane Valentine Talbert of Encinitas, California, uses pecans instead of the more traditional almonds.