dreaming@echonyc.com

both of these cookies come from carole walter's master icebox cookie recipe in great cookies. the first are cinnamon nut swirls. you knead cinnamon sugar into a plug of dough, being careful not to overmix. then you form the dough into a cylinder, chill, brush it with egg white, roll it in finely-chopped toasted walnuts, chill again, then slice and bake.

because i am a dork, i didn't notice that this variation, which uses only one-sixth of the yield of the master recipe, makes only two dozen cookies. so it ended up being a fair amount of work for only a handful of cookies. they're very pretty, but i didn't taste one because, hey, i've only got 24 to begin with.

these are simply the master dough rolled, chilled, brushed, rolled in red and white nonpareils, chilled, sliced, and baked. i did taste one of these because i baked the lumpy ends from the cylinders along with the pristine rounds.

one of my goals this year is to incorporate more plain old cookies into my assortment — not fancy, not elegant, but homey, familiar, and, well, soothing rather than challenging. these fill the bill perfectly. they're a very good plain old cookie: not too sweet, golden-tasting, and tender. call it a good eatin' cookie. and ignore the fact that my fingertips are now stained red from the nonpareils.