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It’s Cookie Week

You’ll get a new holiday cookie recipe and video each day this week. Read, watch, bake and enjoy!

ImageClaire Saffitz’s mortadella cookies.Credit...Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.

When the cookie says “Ciao bella!”

Like it’s meaty mortadella

That’s amore!

I’ll work on it. And your eyes are, in fact, deceiving you. This is not cured pork — it’s a delicious strawberry-almond cookie peppered with pistachios and macadamia nuts. It’s Claire Saffitz’s mortadella cookie!

Claire is a queen of many things — classic French pastry, sourdough bread, fancy homemade versions of classic store-bought snacks — and flavor is where she reigns supreme. Freeze-dried strawberries not only give the dough its rosy pink hue, but they also add a wonderful tartness that balances out the cookies’ sweetness. The pistachios nod to actual mortadella, and the pockets of “fat” that you’d see in the real thing are unroasted macadamia nuts. Genius!

ImageCorporate wants you to find the difference between these two items.Credit...Vaughn Vreeland

Around the holidays, I like to keep a log of slice-and-bake cookie dough in my freezer for cookies in a pinch, and this will absolutely be this year’s go-to. The dough comes together really quickly in the food processor, so it’s ideal for making ahead. (Plus, I usually double whatever I’m making in my food processor because I hate cleaning it and want to maximize its time on my counter, and that means more cookies.)

The finished treats have an extremely tender, shortbread-like texture with a bit of crunch from the nuts and chewy little pockets of almond paste. That, along with the craveable strawberry-almond flavor, crunchy sugar sparkle and tiny size (three bites!), keeps me reaching for more.

Featured Recipe

Mortadella Cookies

View the recipe →

When I first saw this cookie, I audibly gasped. It looked less like a delicate sweet and more like something that came from a deli on Arthur Avenue. Claire worried she’d missed the mark: “I do feel like this is not what they meant when they said, ‘But make it a cookie,’” she said. Oh, Claire. You absolutely understood the assignment.

ImageCredit...New York Times Cooking

Watch Claire make her mortadella cookies here →

Make sure to watch the video of her making these cookies; she has a great technique for rolling a perfectly round log and a wonderful ode to Special K Red Berries. I can’t say it’s subliminal messaging, but I did go buy a box after being on set that day.

That’s all from me for today! I’ll see you in one sleep. Tomorrow’s cookie is peak nostalgia; I can’t wait to talk about it.

ImageMore mortadella cookies!Credit...Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.

Share photos of the cookies you’re baking with #nytcookieweek and tag @nytcooking. You might receive a special delivery, including a few surprises from The New York Times store.

No purchase necessary, open to legal residents of the 50 U.S./D.C. at least 18 years of age, begins December 1, 2025 and ends December 14, 2025. Subject to official rules.

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