For the cake walk, bake sale, or office cookie swap—here are our picks for gift-worthy treats.

Recipe: Cinnamon coffee cake

Laced with cinnamon, this moist coffeecake is an upgraded butter cake with a silky-fine texture, and a cinnamon-sugar mixture swirled into the batter before baking.

Recipe: Chocolate-chip brownies

Brownies made doubly good with minature chocolate chips and a dusting of powdered sugar.

Recipe: Oatmeal raisin cookies

These are crispy on the outside, moist and chewy inside.

Recipe: Laurie Colwin’s gingerbread

Although gingerbread is supposed to improve with age, this one won’t have the chance to. Most of it will be eaten before it has time to cool. Novelist Laurie Colwin’s version uses Steen’s syrup and lemon brandy.

Recipe: Alfajores

Alfajores (pronounced al-fah-HOR-es) are sandwich cookies of dulce de leche between thin rounds of shortbread. They might be rolled in coconut shavings, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar, or coated with chocolate. Some varieties use flour and cornmeal, but these crumble upon the touch.

Recipe: Chocolate peppermint bark

Peppermint bark—every candy manufacturer seems to have a version—is really just melted chocolate with crushed peppermint candies added.

Recipe: Cheese crackers

This simple dough is made like a pastry crust, but with lots of cheese and a generous pinch of cayenne pepper. Roll it into logs, then slice and bake. The rounds are very cheese-y and flaky.

Recipes: Chocolate crinkles

A dark chocolate batter is rolled into balls and dropped in confectioners’ sugar. When baked, the balls flatten and the sugar coating crackles. Don’t overcook these cookies; they should be tender and fudgy.

Recipe: Walnut toffee

Old-fashioned homemade toffee is a rich and buttery four-ingredient mixture, lavished with dark chocolate. The sweetness of the brittle is offset with toasted walnuts.

Recipe: Chocolate-dipped candied orange rind

Take a few minutes to cut away as much pith as possible from each piece of rind; the end result will be less bitter. With or without chocolate, wrap the strips in cellophane bags tied with ribbons.

Recipe: Pumpkin-streusel buns

A pumpkin variation of German schnecken, these cinnamon buns are made with a yeast dough that is rolled out and wrapped around butter, cinnamon, and sugar.

Recipe: Chunky blondies

With chocolate, walnuts, and dried fruit, these chewy, caramel-y blondies are perfect after school or supper.

Recipe: Cannoli filled with ricotta

You need at least 6 cannoli tubes and a pot in which you can deep-fat fry. You can roll the dough on a pasta machine or by hand.

Recipe: Cakey brownies

These brownies are the opposite of the fudgey version, and deliciously rich with a lovely firm edge for cakey brownie lovers.

Recipe: Chocolate-chunk blondies

Blondies are down-to-earth bar cookies, made from a simple batter whose ingredients you probably already have on hand.

Recipe: Lemon-pecan butter cookies

What makes these lemon-butter cookies irresistible is a lightly cakey, butter-infused crumb.

Recipe: Popcorn balls

Turn to a childhood favorite — Cracker Jack— updated as popcorn balls. Coat plain popcorn and peanuts with a brown sugar caramel and shape into balls.

Recipe: Flourless chocolate cake

Unlike traditional flourless chocolate cakes, which are souffle-like and delicate, this cake is dense and moist. It’s so rich that a sliver will suffice.

Recipe: Italian chocolate-almond torte

The cake has no yolks, just whites, which are beaten and mixed with ground almonds, chopped chocolate, and sugar. It’s fairly easy to make, rich but not dense, with a pronounced nutty flavor.

Recipe: Chocolate peanut butter bars

These bars take advantage of the legendary combination of peanut butter and chocolate, this time swirled together over a peanut butter-oatmeal crust.

Recipe: Bittersweet chocolate flats

Bliss is when a generous bar of bittersweet chocolate is chopped and mixed into a buttery dough with just enough flour, salt, and eggs to form a mixture that bakes into golden, crunchy flats.

Recipe: Brandied raisin-nut cake

This isn’t one of those red-and-green-studded cakes everyone has strong (mostly negative) opinions about. Our family’s is made with select dried fruits, soaked overnight with walnuts in brandy.

Recipe: Shortbread pan cookies

The four pantry staples in shortbread—butter, salt, sugar, and flour—transform into such a complicated, rich taste. The sum is definitely greater than the parts.

Recipe: Salted-chocolate cookies

A-Frame pastry chef Beth Kellerhals devised these salty-sweet sandwiches for those moments when her “chocolate craving has an identity crisis.” “The dense, dark chocolate fudgy goodness reminds me of a brownie; the chewy middle and crisp, crackled edge yells cookie.”

Recipe: Rugelach

These raisin and walnut filled crescents, from Jane Wolfman’s Bubbe Kate, her maternal grandmother, are made with a rich butter and cream cheese pastry.

Recipe: Peanut butter pretzel cookies

Sweet and salty cookies from Cow and Crumb Bakery founder Hilary Koloski.

Recipe: Peanut butter cookies

The classic crosshatch pattern always signals crunchy, nutty rounds.