Cookie Bakers: Living the Dream

It's a passionate baker's fantasy: Quit your job and make cookies full-time. Here, holiday recipes from three people who followed their dreams into the sugar-dusted cookie business.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Clouds with Cocoa Nibs

Coconut Macaroons

Baby Bûche de Noël Cookies

Blogger/Artist Jessie Oleson

Cakespy, Seattle

"My tongue-in-cheek style and love of puns come out in everything I do—like my Rolling Scones and my Creamed Candy Corn," says Oleson. "CakeSpy started with one 'cakey' find per day, but it has evolved into a place where I share all manner of sweetness—recipes, cake- and confection-themed art, baked-goods history and lore, baking experiments, bakery finds and cake news."

The former greeting-card illustrator has a blog called CakeSpy, a Seattle shop and a new cookbook featuring her whimsical twists on the classics.

Macaroonist Danny Cohen

Danny Macaroons, NYC

"Before I married the macaroon, my maiden name was Cohen," says the man everyone calls Danny Macaroons. "One Passover, a great-aunt of mine told me, in that very-old-lady-from-Brooklyn voice, 'You should sell these macaroons, really, you should.' The last thing I was interested in was career advice from a 90-year-old."

After starting a social media company, he launched a business selling the amazing coconut cookies he liked to bake on Passover. Now, they have a cult following and their own website.

Pastry Chef Malika Ameen

By M Desserts, Chicago

"Spices in dessert are completely underrated," says Malika Ameen. A former pastry chef, she closed the Chicago restaurant she co-owned, Aigre Doux, and started By M Desserts online, selling pastry-chef-style sweets, like cookies flavored with unusual spices.