From a stunning baked Alaska to an Insta-worthy vanilla layer cake, these are the recipes we come back to again and again.

I’ve always found chocolate chip cookies to be deeply flawed (to know this about me explains a lot). Too sweet, too soft, or with too much chocolate, there’s a lot of room for improvement, if you ask me. But no one asked me, and rather than do a complete overhaul on the most iconic cookie known to man, I took all my favourite parts and invented something else entirely. Made with lots of salted butter (it has a slightly different flavour and a deeper saltiness than using just salt—I prefer unsalted butter everywhere else but here), the dough has just enough flour to hold it together and the right amount of light brown sugar to suggest a chocolate chip cookie. The chocolate is cut into chunks to prevent chip congregation, and once the dough is formed into a cylindrical log, the whole thing gets rolled in Demerara sugar for the crispiest-ever edges. Less chocolate chip cookie, more brown sugar shortbread with chocolate chunks — they just might be the cookie you’ve been looking for. —Alison Roman

Forget the card—say it with cake. Nothing beats a decadent dessert (especially chocolate) when it comes to making someone feel special.

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s new cookbook, Nigella Christmas. The recipe has not been tested by the Chatelaine Test Kitchen.

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