Christmas

A holiday cookie if we ever saw one! So buttery, so nutty, so delicate, so mind-bendingly charming, these traditional Viennese cookies rival the city's fancier pastries as our fave.

It's time to melt some chocolate, toast some nuts, and cross some names off your holiday gift list.

The last thing you need to worry about tomorrow morning is breakfast. With this brioche French toast, you assemble it today, let it sit in the fridge overnight, and tomorrow slide it in the oven. By the time gifts are open, breakfast will be on the table.

Panettone, which makes its traditional Italian Christmas appearance, is gussied up here with any dried fruit you fancy. An ever so slight twist on a classic.

This dish from my Connecticut neighbor is the best goose I've ever eaten. But in Danny's inimitable way, she simply insists it be served with red currant jelly. Nothing else will do.

Ripe pears and sweet-tart dried cranberries are the stars of this fruit crumble. The topping is an old-fashioned mix of oatmeal, brown sugar, and butter.

Also known as Neapolitan or Venetian cookies, these vivid cakes are stacked and sliced and dubbed cookies. We can deal.

A traditional recipe on Christmas Eve in Portugal, this dish of salt cod, potatoes, and cabbage is drizzled with a garlic oil and topped with hard-boiled eggs.

A favorite holiday dish, beef Wellington is beef fillet slathered with pate, covered in a dice of mushrooms, wrapped in puff pastry, and baked.