The first week of December at The New York Times is known as “Cookie Week.” Every day, for seven days, our cooking team highlights a new holiday cookie recipe. This year’s batch features flavors that aren’t necessarily traditional holiday ones — or even, for that matter, flavors. Instead, they draw inspiration from family night at the movies, drinks like Vietnamese Coffee, and perhaps most surprisingly, an Italian deli meat.

In this edition of the Sunday Special, Gilbert Cruz talks with Melissa Clark and Vaughn Vreeland from New York Times Cooking about this year’s cookies, and they answer questions from readers about how to navigate cooking and baking during the holidays.

Background Reading:

These 7 Cookies Will Be the Life of Every Party

Melissa Clark is a food reporter and columnist for The Times.

Vaughn Vreeland is a supervising video producer for NYT Cooking and writes the “Bake Time” newsletter.

Audio produced by Tina Antolini and Alex Barron with Kate LoPresti. Edited by Wendy Dorr. Engineered by Rowan Niemisto. Original music by Daniel Powell and Diane Wong. 

Photo credit: Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

💾

The Canadian defense manufacturer Roshel has delivered more than 2,000 Senator armored vehicles to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to company CEO Roman Shimonov. The confirmation came in a public reply on X, where defense expert Jeff21461 asked Shimonov for an update on delivery figures, referencing a previous count of 1,700 […]

Six F-16 Fighting Falcons touched down in Argentina on Saturday morning, marking a major milestone in the modernization of the Argentine Air Force and the country’s return to supersonic combat aviation after more than a decade. The arrival was confirmed by the Argentine Air Force, which stated, “Mission accomplished: the F-16s have landed on Argentine […]

Vantor, a defense-focused geospatial technology firm based in Westminster, Colorado, has revealed a high-resolution 3D reconstruction of China’s Yulin Naval Base just hours after a satellite passed over the site. According to a post from the company, the terrain data was captured at 11:21 a.m. local time and processed into a detailed 3D model within […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the T-90 tank family in an interview with India Today, calling it one of the best main battle tanks in the world and highlighting India’s domestic production of the platform. “India produces our famous T-90 tanks. Believe me when I say these tanks are considered among the best in the […]

General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) and AeroVironment (AV) have successfully demonstrated the integration of Switchblade loitering munitions into frontline combat platforms using a new modular launcher system known as PERCH. The Precision Effects & Reconnaissance, Canister-Housed (PERCH) system was tested at the U.S. Army’s Machine Assisted Rugged Sapper (MARS) event held at Fort Hood, Texas, […]

Police are investigating after a "number of people" were believed to have been attacked with pepper spray by a group of men who then fled.

Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has been erupting intermittently since December last year.

Orqa, a Croatian manufacturer of FPV and unmanned aerial systems, has expanded its production facility in Osijek to support an annual output of up to 280,000 NDAA-compliant drones. In a statement on December 1, the company said the new capacity allows it to meet growing global demand for defense-grade drones free of Chinese components. The […]

The United States Navy has officially selected the LST 100 design from Dutch shipbuilder Damen for its new class of Medium Landing Ships (LSM), a move aimed at accelerating delivery of critical littoral capabilities to naval forces. The announcement was made on December 5 by Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan and marks a […]

Airbus and Saab are in early talks to develop an unmanned combat aircraft, according to company executives who spoke with Reuters during a recent European defense industry event. The discussions reflect both the rising interest in drone systems and shifting alliances across Europe’s fragmented defense industry. The project would explore drone aircraft designed to support […]

Castelion, a fast-moving defense technology firm founded by SpaceX alumni, announced it has raised $350 million in Series B funding to accelerate production of its Blackbeard hypersonic weapon and expand U.S. industrial capacity for next-generation munitions. The company says this funding will support construction of a large-scale manufacturing facility and operational integration with Army and […]

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV-7 has released footage of a previously unseen air defense system during a recent live-fire training exercise in the Gobi Desert. The system, likely a short-range air defense platform, was shown launching surface-to-air missiles in what appeared to be high-precision strike tests. The new complex features a modular launcher mounted on a […]

Liverpool star Mohamed Salah says he has been "thrown under the bus" by the club, and his relationship with manager Arne Slot has broken down.

A message from the French embassy in Benin said gunfire had been reported near the residence of the president.

Images appeared online of unveiled women competing in the race on Friday.

Gunmen stormed a hostel near Pretoria and opened fire, killing 11 people including a three-year-old.

Drone strikes on a town in South Kordofan on Thursday are said to have killed at least 50 people.

For the past two years all public Christmas celebrations have been cancelled in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Japan has begun informal discussions with the Philippines over the possible export of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Type 03 Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile system, known as Chu-SAM, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government advances plans to end long-standing restrictions on defense exports. According to a report by Kyodo News published on November 30, several government sources […]