For the holidays, Dorrie has created a more sophisticated version of her popular Classic Jammers: Port Jammers, pairing Fonsecta Bin 27 ruby port with classic French sablés,* shortbread cookies.

Sablés are made with the finest butter and vanilla, crispy around the edges, cakey in the center. Sable (SAH-bluh) means sand in French; plain sablés glisten with sparkling sugar.

Port Jammers are an elaborate variation: vanilla sablés have a center of cherry jam and a topping of Valrhona-cocoa-spiked streusel.

Dried cranberries are cooked in the port with honey and spices, then folded into a tender sugar and spice cookie. Each cookie is topped with port-spiked French cherry jam and Valrhona-cocoa streusel.

Port Jammers cooling on a rack (but that won’t stop us from downing a few). Photo by Kyle Orosz | Beurre et Sel.

You can serve the rest of the bottle of port with the cookies, with cheese, with chocolate; or use it as an ingredient in barbecue sauce or anything needing a bit of intense fruit flavor.

*Sablé is a round shortbread cookie. According to writings of the Marquise de Sévigné, the cookie was created for the first time in 1670 in the town Sablé-sur-Sarthe, in the Pays de la Loire region of western France. The French word for sand, the name may relate to the crumbly texture and golden color of the cookies. Classic sablés can be plain or flavored with almonds, lemon or orange zest.

Ingredients for the cranberries and cookie base:

 
For The Streusel & Jam:

 
Preparation

1. PREPARE CRANBERRIES. Tie spices in a cheesecloth bundle and put in a small saucepan. Add honey, water and port. Simmer for 1 minute. Add cranberries; cook and stir until liquid evaporates. Discard spices. Cool cranberries.

2. MAKE COOKIE BASE. Mix flour, cinnamon, salt, ginger and black pepper together. Beat butter until creamy. Beat in both sugars. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Blend in flour mixture, then stir in the cranberries.

3. DIVIDE DOUGH into 2 disks. Wrap and chill 1 hour. Roll each disk between wax paper until dough is 1/4 inch thick. Freeze for 3 hrs.

4. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F with a rack centered in the oven.

5. MAKE THE STREUSEL. Mix all the flour, brown sugar, cocoa, sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter together in a large bowl. Rub everything together with your fingers until the streusel forms moist crumbs. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.

6. STIR the cherry jam and port together. Place a 12-cup muffin tin on the work surface.

7. CUT out 2-inch rounds of dough. Drop a round of dough into each muffin cup. Put 1/2 teaspoon of jam in the center of each cookie and spread into a small circle. Top with streusel.

8. BAKE 14 to 15 minutes, until streusel sets and jam bubbles. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Makes about 30 cookies.

NO TIME TO BAKE? BUY ONLINE!

You can order Port Jammers on line, as well as Dorie’s other glorious cookie flavors: Chocolate Mint, Cranberry 5 Spice, Espresso Chip, Classic Sablés and World Peace Cookies, a recipe from famed French pastry chef Pierre Herme made with cocoa and chopped extra-bitter chocolate and fleur de sel.

The “Cocktail Collection,” savory cookies, includes Cocoa Cayenne, Rosemary Parmesan and Sesame Sea Salt.

Eight delicious cookies in a gift tube are $14.00 from BeurreEtSel.com.

It works as a standalone dessert for a smaller group, or as a centerpiece for a larger dessert table.

The clever concept is from Lauryn Cohen, a.k.a the blogger Bella Baker, known for her creative treats.

For this recipe, Lauryn makes mini espresso cupcakes, but you can make any flavor and size. The hands of the clock are pretzel rods, swirled with chocolate.

CHRISTMAS MERINGUES

If you’re looking for a lighter dessert for Christmas, or want to bake a special gift, try Lauryn’s red, green and white holiday meringues recipe.

Lauryn’s Book, Sweet Gifts: 95 Fabulous Holiday Desserts & Crafts, is available at Barnes & Noble bookstores and other retailers nationwide.

TIPS FOR BAKING PERFECT CUPCAKES

Here are tips from Lauryn for baking perfect cupcakes every time:

Find more of our favorite cookie and cupcake recipes in THE NIBBLE’s Cookies, Cakes & Pastries Section.
  

A pizza stone makes a great holiday gift for any pizza lover, from the seasoned chef to kitchen beginner. I assure you: it will change the way you eat pizza forever!

For those who resist buying single-use gadgets: Rest assured, you can do more with a pizza stone than make pizza.

The simple beauty of a pizza stone is its ability to get crazy hot and remain bone dry (crispy!), which are the exact conditions you need for something like pizza crust.

Another benefit: Pizza will rarely burn on a stone. More precisely, the crust will burn before the bottom will, so even though you can’t see it, you don’t have to stress out that the bottom is burning while it sits on the blazing hot stone.

HOW TO USE A PIZZA STONE

The pizza stone should come with instructions, but here’s an overview:

 
THE PIZZA PADDLE

If you want to make pizza with minimal muss and fuss, you should also own a pizza paddle. Then, along with the pizza stone, you’re ready to compete with the local pizzeria.

The paddle, dusted with a bit of semolina flour or cornmeal, is the most effective way to get the raw, stretched pie onto the stone.

Growing oysters off the coast of Louisiana. Photo courtesy Louisiana Seafood News.

 
Without a paddle to build on, it’s challenging to move the pie to the hot stone from whatever surface you’ve built it on.

WHAT ELSE TO DO WITH A PIZZA STONE

Beyond making a pie from scratch, a pizza stone is perfect for getting any number of dough-related items especially toasty and delicious; just think of the idea pizza, and apply that to:

Canapés: Small appetizers like crackers and crostinis can get soggy if they sit with toppings longer than intended. A quick trip into a 350°F oven on a pizza stone will bring them back to life, strengthening the base and rewarming the toppings. Make bubbly, mini tuna melts on brioche rounds; remove and plate with ease using a spatula.

Cookies: Picture your favorite chocolate chip (or other) cookie, hot from the oven, with a crispy bottom and a soft top, chocolate chips all gooey. A minute or two on a pizza stone will give you just that. Bonus: A crispy bottom stands up particularly well to a milk dunking!

Cold/Leftover Pizza: Never again use a microwave to reheat your pizza, and that overly chewy crust that stretches like taffy will become a thing of the past! Five minutes on a hot pizza stone will have your slice tasting like it did when it arrived at your front door or your table at the pizzeria.

Pastries: A danish, scone, or other sweet pastry will get hot without getting soggy if you put it on a pizza stone. Keep an eye on pastries with fillings or glazes, as they will conduct heat more quickly and need less time than you might think.
Sandwiches: Open faced or closed, a hot sando made (or simply finished) on a pizza stone is unmistakably the most delicious way to enjoy it. The bread will get as crispy as possible, helping strengthen it for wetter fillings and condiments. Starting a grilled cheese open faced on a pizza stone helps get the cheese brown and bubbly, adding another layer of flavor to the sandwich when you put your two halves together.
  

A great gift for those who love both tea and wine. Photo courtesy Vintage Teaworks.

The folks at Vintage TeaWorks take another approach to tea and wine, creating tea blends flavored with natural ingredients that evoke different varietals of wine.

The results don’t taste like wine, but have aromas and palate nuances that are reminiscent of four different varietals:

Purchase them online at VintageTeaworks.com.
 
Discover the world of fine tea in our Gourmet Tea Section.

If you only bake one type of cookie this season, bake shortbread. Buttery cookies beloved by both children and adults, shortbread is accessible yet sophisticated.

Dipped into chocolate, the cookie becomes even more beloved.

Serve them to guests, keep the stash for yourself, give it as gifts.

This particular recipe, from GoBoldWithButter.com, a website of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, is a great way to start. If you don’t have hazelnuts, use almonds, macadamias, pecans, pistachios or walnuts.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SHORTBREAD RECIPE

Ingredients

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Preparation

1. BEAT butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla. Gradually add flour and salt, and mix just until combined. Stir in hazelnuts.

2. FORM dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

3. PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.

4. ROLL out dough into a disc about 1/4-inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut out cookies into 1×2-inch bars. Carefully transfer cut cookies onto prepared pans.

5. BAKE, one pan at a time, for 12-15 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans for about 10 minutes. Then, transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

6. PLACE chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave at half power in 30-second increments until chocolate melts when stirred. Dip cookies partially into chocolate or drizzle chocolate over cookies. Allow chocolate to set completely, refrigerating cookies if necessary.

The history of shortbread cookies and how they got the name “shortbread.”

Find more of our favorite cookie recipes.