Photos: Your top cookies, your winning bakers

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted a recipe for Banbury tarts. “My mother-in-law, Ruth Shubitowski, makes wonderful baked goods, but her Christmas cookies are the best.... Banbury tarts are included in the Christmas package year after year, and they’re still our favorite.”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted her recipe for bourbon balls. “Something about the flavor of liquor in desserts just screams ‘holiday’ to me. Maybe it’s a nod to fruitcake and plum pudding, or maybe it’s just a way to get through all the family gatherings of the holidays.”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted her recipe for Grandma Chandler’s Christmas cookies. Above, she holds a photograph of her great-grandmother, from whom the cookie recipe came. “These cookies will never win a beauty contest -- they kind of look like potatoes! But they are a fantastic, sturdy molasses-spice-walnut cookie that keeps well and tastes great throughout the holiday season. We cut them into diamond shapes because, well, that’s how we’ve always done it.”  (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted her recipe for keeflees. This recipe has been in the family for at least 115 years. ‘My grandmother came from what is now the Czech Republic and all of her recipes were stored in her head.... At the age of 20, I decided that I would hang out with Grandma in the kitchen as she cooked, in order to preserve some of her wonderful recipes. These holiday cookies were one of the many that I wrote down and have since passed on to my children.”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted her recipe for Nana’s Russian tea cookies. “My Nana Ida was born in Russia in 1899 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1904. When I was a child growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii, my nana would come to visit us by ship. She taught us to make these flaky, jam-filled delights rolled in powdered sugar, and we have been baking them for the holidays for over 40 years.”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted her recipe for silver bells. “Our family has been rolling out and decorating silver bells for 40 years.”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted her mom’s recipe for sour cherry rugelach. “In 2005, my mother died of ovarian cancer the day after Christmas. We stumbled around in a fog for a few months, but before we knew it, it was the holidays again. This time, it was my father and me trying to fill the shoes my mother had left. While we bake these sour cherry rugelach, I am reminded of how much I miss my mom, but I’m also reminded of my dad’s incredible courage and devotion to his kids. The taste of sour cherry and buttery crust means that it’s December again and we’ve made it through another year, together.”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted this recipe, originally published in Taste of Home magazine. “Four years ago, my roommates and I started the ‘Annual Christmas Cookie Sweatshop’ party for our friends and family, and I make over 1,000 cookies for them to eat and decorate (hence the ‘sweatshop’). Every year, there is high demand for the peppermint pinwheels!”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

She submitted her recipe for the ultimate wedding cookie. “Years ago, I saw the recipe printed on a bag of C&H sugar. It was so simple I almost ignored it. Sure glad I didn’t. It is the most requested cookie I bake. The only alteration I’ve made is the type of nuts used...Macadamia nuts take this recipe over the top.”  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Click here for the recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)