A Stress-Free Dinner Party: Your Mix-and-Match Menu

Custom Cookies

At Tina Casaceli's Milk & Cookies Bakery in New York City, customers can design their own flavors—say, marshmallow-macadamia cookies, which are then baked fresh on the spot. Here, Casaceli shares a dough recipe from her cookbook, Milk & Cookies. Prep the dough before the party, then use it as the base for the combinations she suggests, or anything you and your friends can imagine.

Step 1: Make the oatmeal-vanilla cookie dough.

Step 2: Mix in flavorings.

Candy
Chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, milk or bittersweet chocolate chunks, caramel chips, M&M's, chocolate-covered pretzels, broken candy bars, toffee bits, marshmallows, peppermints

Nuts
Chopped macadamia nuts, pecans, sliced almonds, peanuts, and walnuts (or nut butters); coconut flakes

Fruits
Dried candied pineapple, dried papaya, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, dried cherries, candied ginger, golden raisins, dried apricots

Other
Cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, clove, sanding sugar, walnut or orange liqueur, coffee extract, peppermint extract, jam, citrus zest, almond paste, sea salt, cream cheese

Perfect Pairings

Walnut
Walnut liqueur + walnuts

Ginger Snap
Ginger + cinnamon + clove

Mint Chocolate Chip
Peppermint extract + chocolate chips

Spice
Ginger + cloves + nutmeg + cardamom + cinnamon

Tropical
Papaya + coconut + macadamia nuts

Mocha
Coffee extract + milk chocolate

Chocolate-Caramel
Chocolate chips + caramel chips

Chocolate-Orange
Orange liqueur + grated orange zest + chocolate chunks + pecans

Macadamia
White chocolate chips + chopped macadamia nuts

Fruit and Nut
White chocolate chips + dried cherries + pecans

Candy Bar
Bittersweet chocolate chunks + toffee bits

Snickerdoodle
Cinnamon + sanding sugar + sliced almonds

Chocolate-Almond
Milk chocolate chunks + sliced almonds

Chocolate-Coconut
Chocolate chips + coconut flakes

Next: Design your own cocktails