Holiday cookies: Recipes and where to buy in LA

Food media is inundated each year with holiday cookies packages — not packages of actual cookies but pitches on each periodical’s group of cookie recipes. This year’s packages have been overwhelming, but stick local on this one.

If you are planning to bake cookies, start with this year’s holiday collection from the Los Angeles Times. Cooking Columnist Ben Mims has put together a group of recipes from local pastry chefs and cooks who hail from all over the world. This is not a group of icing laden sparklers. Evan Kleiman isn’t a fan of the highly decorated, icing loaded cookie. These recipes and the list of cookies you can buy focus on what cookies you want to eat because, hello, cookies!

To buy:

-The cracked cookies from Rose Wilde, pastry chef at Rosso Blu. Evan Kleiman’s favorite cookie is sweet, salty, chocolate, and huge.

-Chocolate Walnut Halvah Cookie by Thessa Diadem at All Day Baby.

-Sycamore Kitchen’s cookies, especially the Chocolate Chip Rye.

-Polvorones from Gusto in Long Beach - Nutty, crumbly with powdered sugar on your shirt. Their Alfajor de Nuez of coconut and dulce de leche is sold out in pre-order, but the recipe to make your own is in the LA Times.

-Eggnog Petit Fours from Valerie - not a cookie, but two bites of dreamy cake.

-Cookie assortment boxes from Cake Monkey - Everything is good here, from cookies to their mini-dessert specialties.

-Cookie boxes from Little Sparrow

-Cookie boxes from Sasha Piligian (@sashimi1)

-Chocolate and Gingerbread Sablé cookies from Pavé Bakery. They’re also selling a high end hot chocolate mix.

-Lilia Orozco and Sandra Castro are baking ornaments and other holiday-themed iced cookies as Dos Amigas Baking on Instagram. DM to order.