An icon of Jewish American baking, black and white cookies push the boundary between cake and cookie, with a tender texture and their signature icing. They’re best eaten within a few days of baking.

Recipe writer Arielle Nir’s grandmother often had crunchy Moroccan anise cookies called rifat on hand to enjoy with tea. In her family, they are made with a pasta maker, but you can also use a rolling pin. 

This cookie recipe from Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, the duo behind London’s Honey & Co. brings together honey, dried apricots, and orange blossom water. They are naturally gluten free.

These delicate cookies filled with dates and walnuts come from Stella Hanan Cohen’s Sephardi community. You will need a cookie mold (which are readily available online) and a bit of time to make them, but the results are well worth it.

“I love how buttery and crumbly these are!” says JFS culinary manager Chaya Rappoport. These crescent-shaped cookies were a favorite at the inn cookbook author Frances Largeman-Roth’s grandparents owned in Germany.

These simple oatmeal cookies can be made with or without walnuts and are finished with a cross hatch pattern.

For many Jews, macaroons refer to coconut-based cookies for Passover. But, in Michel Thouati’s family, macaroons are almond cookies, scented with orange extract and zest, that are fit for the holiday or anytime.

When food stylist Susan Spungen visited her Ukrainian grandmother Pearl in Philadelphia, she was often greeted with a plate of crisp poppyseed cookies. Our editorial director Devra Ferst has a soft spot for this recipe. She grew up with one similar — also in Philadelphia.

With just a handful of ingredients, these walnut cookies are far more than the sum of their parts. They are wonderfully roasty and nutty. The recipe comes from Ruth Stulman who serves them at Mimouna, a Moroccan celebration to mark the end of Passover.

These Iraqi cookies are made with almond flour and eggwhites, which lend them a chewy texture, while rosewater offers a floral note. 

Holocaust survivor Alta Blima Hartstein used to make kindl for holidays and big family gatherings. The dough is made with red wine, seltzer, and yeast and the cookies have a sweet, chewy walnut filling.

Cookbook author Jake Cohen’s great-great-aunt Lotte always arrived at holiday meals with a Tupperware of her famed meringue cookies studded with chocolate chips and walnuts.

In Ayelet Izraeli’s Iraqi family, these cookies are made for Purim celebrations. But, with only three ingredients, you can even make them at the end of a busy work day.

When Emily Velelli’s family threw her a 100th birthday party, they sent guests home with small bags of these classic Greek butter cookies with the recipe attached, to make sure it wouldn’t disappear.

The recipe for these iconic Sephardi cookies has traveled with Debby Kaplan Pearlman’s family from Greece where they lived before World War II, to what was Belgian Congo (present day Democratic Republic of the Congo), and to the U.S. Serve them with coffee. 

These pistachio cookies tinged with rosewater are part of Ruth Stulman’s Mimouna celebrations, a North African custom to mark the end of Passover.

In Jennifer Indig’s family, her grandmothers’ cookies are always on hand. There are thin mandel bread from grandma Mitzi and these shortbread cookies topped with caramel, nuts, and chocolate from grandma Syl.

Filling hamantaschen with dulce de leche helps Mia Zimman connect the threads of her daughter’s heritage. “She’s Latina, Jewish, American — she’s got so many cultural identities. It just feels really good to put together a few different pieces into one,” she says.