Houston Chronicle names top reader submission

This year’s candidates for the best holiday cookies were an impressive bunch, ranging from nutty nibblers to chocolate indulgences to chewy bars. As always, our baking team fielded dozens of recipes as we whittled down to finalists — and a winner.

Houston Chronicle restaurant critic Alison Cook was our judge this year, and after sampling all the tested recipes, chose a winner: Salted Rosemary Shortbread from Joanne Prashad of Houston.

This was Cook’s reaction to the cookie: “Oh. My. God. Just the finesse of the lovely sandy texture and the way the salt and herbaceous character of the rosemary contrasts with a gentle sweetness. And the beautiful, rounded edges of the loaf shape … just perfection! I could eat a stack of these.”

We thank Prashad and all our readers for submitting their recipes, many of which came with fond family remembrances of beloved holiday traditions.

Recipe testers: Greg Morago, Jody Schmal, Melissa Aguilar, Bao Ong, Diane Cowen, Marcia Ogasawara, Elizabeth Pudwill, Bridget Schmal and Jennifer Chang.

Salted Rosemary Shortbread (Critic’s Pick)

This savory shortbread offers great butter flavor, a lovely smooth cookie texture, herbal notes from the rosemary and a salty punch. Perfect for a charcuterie board. Our contest winner!

Recipe

Raspberry Horns

The popular Mexican wedding cake takes a delicious Eastern European detour. Instead of a dense mound of dough studded with nuts, the pastry dough puffs up like a mini croissant and is filled with raspberry preserves mixed with slivers of almonds. A generous dusting of powdered sugar gives it the sweet holiday touch.

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Molasses Ginger Cookies

Kids will love decorating this soft cookie filled with warm, fragrant spices.

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Apricot Bars

These sweet, gooey bar cookies are melt-in-your-mouth good. They’re adaptable, too, since you could substitute raspberry, cherry or any other preserves for the filling.

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Ribbon Cookies

This triple-layer crumbly cookie, which involves poppy seeds, cherries, and chocolate, is both festive and tastes great.

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Lemon Ricotta Cookies

The light, soft, fluffy cookie offers a welcome tang from lemon juice and zest in both dough and icing.

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Amaretti Cookies

These cookies are classic of the amaretti form. Subtle almond flavor but not overbearing. Delicate, crackly exterior with really good elasticity inside and a slight chewy pull.

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Peppermint Merry Mocha Cookies

A chewy, capital-H Holiday cookie adorned with crushed peppermint and full of chocolate-y coffee flavor.

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Eggnog Snickerdoodles

Soft, chewy interior, crisp exterior. Rummy, nutmeggy, eggnog flavor — the essence of a seasonal cookie.

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Almond Butter Cups

Adorable little gems made in mini muffin pans. Very sweet with interesting textural variations between the shell and the almond paste filling and a meringue-y top.

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Hungarian Butter Balls

Whether dipped or not, the crunchy-but-not-too-crunchy ball cookie has a terrific balance of salt, and a nice sandy texture.

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Chocolate Malted Cookies

These classic-with-a-slight-twist chocolate chip cookies have a pleasant texture with a little chew and a little crispness.

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Fig Squares

A soft and cakelike bar with pleasant figgy taste. Quite unusual.

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Chewy Granny Smith Cookies

We prefer to think of these gooey-soft cookies as being fairly healthy due to the fruit content. Nevermind the cup of sugar.

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Lemon Cheese Snaps

Interesting cookie. The savory flavor from the Gruyere and cheddar swells up at the end in a nice way.

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Kolache Cookies

The dough on these pretty specimens has light, layery texture, while the jam has a sticky quality and hint of tartness. Vintage in a cookie.

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Edith Telloni Meringue Bars

These super sweet, chocolate-y bars are a mashup of brownie and cookie. They have an appealing cracked meringue texture on the top.

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Dot’s Sand Tarts

A cinch to make. Straight ahead classic sand tart taste and texture.

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Maple Glazed Oatmeal Cookies

These hearty oatmeal cookies are a cinch to prepare and are sure to please a crowd. Great maple glaze.

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Texas Snowflakes

The holy trinity of sugar, fat and flour rarely disappoints. This recipe is essentially a variation on the Mexican Wedding Cake that’s just as good with a sip of coffee or tea.

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