Here's a last-minute, no-brainer tip for better cookies: Toast your flour and your spices. It's a simple way to build aroma and add nuance to your holiday cookies with ingredients you're already using. You can do this with any kind of flour—all-purpose, almond, rye, wheat—and any spice. Milk Street Director of Education Rosemary Gill uses a skillet and toasts the flour until it is two to three shades darker than it is raw. At the last minute, she throws in the spices. Try this tip in our Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies, our Chocolate-Almond Spice Cookies or in our Semolina Polvorones.