Hi and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. The word at NYT Cooking headquarters this week is cookies: We have just published our holiday spectacular, which we have so humbly titled “12 Stunning Cookies That Will Impress Everyone You Know.”
And yet, unless you know only professional pastry chefs, I really do believe this is truth. We asked the legendary food stylist Susan Spungen to come up with 12 cookies for modern bakers that would be as amazing to look at as they are to eat, and she delivered in the most astonishing way.
But this is a newsletter for busy people, no? So let me cut straight to the cookies that are easiest to pull off: These gingery brownie crinkles. The brown sugar-anise cookies (it’s difficult to overstate how delicious these are). The dirty chai earthquake cookies (a staff favorite). And the citrus shortbread (beautiful if you use cookie stamps, but very straightforward if you just make the dough, slice and bake). I’ve tasted them all — I know, life is hard — and they are heaven. Let me know what you think at dearemily@nytimes.com.
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You do still need to eat non-cookie foods. And so here are five dishes for the week:
This is a vegan reimagining of the Filipino dish chicken adobo, and it is more than a little brilliant. Serve with rice or another grain, and something green on the side. I might also add fried eggs for fun.
