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If you’re one of the millions of fans of the Oreo cookie, then you’ll want to make sure you’ve tried them all. Oreos, those inimitable sandwich cookies with the creamy middle, come in a variety of flavors.

Oreo Sandwich Cookies

These are the originals. They are chocolate wafer circles on the outside and cream on the inside. This is the Oreo that started it all.

Oreo Double Stuff

These are Oreo wafer cookies on the outside but they have twice the creamy filling on the inside. Too much of a good thing is never enough.

Oreo Golden

These relative newcomers are golden Oreo wafers on the outside and cream on the inside. Many have debated whether the golden or the original is the best. You be the judge.

Oreo Springtime

These seasonal Oreos come with the original chocolate wafers on the outside and a yellow, fresh spring colored cream on the inside. Grab them fast as they disappear after Spring.

Oreo White Fudge Covered

These treats are chocolate Oreos dipped in white fudge. They look like little snowballs and some prefer their ultra-super sweetness to the original.

Oreo Mini Bite Size

Bite sized Oreos are a hit with the preschool set. They’re also great for snacking on the go. They are the same as their older brother, original Oreo, but in a shrunken down version.

Oreo Chocolate Crème

These cookies have a chocolate Oreo outside and a creamy chocolate center. It’s a new take on the old favorite and some prefer it to all others.

Oreo Organic

These Oreos mimic the original Oreo in looks but are made with organic flour and sugar.

Oreo Mint Crème

These Oreos are chocolate on the outside and minty cream flavored on the inside.

Halloween Oreos

Oreos that come out for Halloween are chocolate cookie wafers with an orange crème filling.

Peanut Butter Oreos

Peanut butter lovers rejoiced when the peanut butter Oreo hit the shelves. They feature the crisp chocolate outer with a creamy peanut butter center.

Peppermint Oreos

New for the winter holidays, peppermint Oreos are chocolate cookies on the outside with a minty, red and white filling.

Oreo Cakesters

These are a departure from the crispy wafer cookie. They are Oreo shaped, but larger. And the outer is a chocolate cake disc. The center is a whipped creamy filling. They come in vanilla cake or chocolate.

Golden Oreo with Chocolate Crème

These Oreos feature golden cookie outsides with a creamy chocolate center.

Milk Chocolate Dipped Oreos

The newest in the line of Oreo products is the chocolate dipped Oreo. It’s pure milk chocolate coating on the outside and a chocolate and crème Oreo on the inside.

Oreo Reduced Fat

These are the Oreo’s skinny cousin. Designed with less fat, the idea is that you can eat more without feeling as guilty.

Fudge Mint Oreos

As the name would suggest, this is an Oreo covered in chocolate with a mint center.

Try all the Oreo flavors to decide which you like best. And look for new flavors from Nabisco as they come out at different times of the year. There’s bound to be a new one on the shelves soon, so look for it next time you’re in the grocery store.

More on Oreos:

• How to make chocolate covered Oreo cookies
• Five Fun Ways to Eat an Oreo Cookie

You can paint Christmas cookies this year that will make everyone marvel at how you did it. It looks like you took a course in fine art or spent hours carefully attending to each detail. But really, cookie painting is something you can do with kids and is fun for any holiday, especially Christmas.

Put on your favorite Christmas music and get ready for a fun-filled day of cookie painting. It’s a stress-free activity that you will probably want to start doing every year once you see how easy it is.

There are two kinds of cookie painting. One is the kind you do before the cookies go into the oven. These cookies will come out with a more muted finish and are lovely. The other type of cookie painting is done after you bake the cookies. This type of painting results in a shiner coating. Either is fine and tastes just the same, so see which one you prefer.

The first thing you will need is a set of good brushes. Don’t go all out and buy the finest quality artist’s brushes unless you have the money to spare and plan to do lots of cookie painting. You’ll need to keep them free of any paint that isn’t edible, so plan to store them in your pantry for cookie painting only. You can find inexpensive brushes that model makers use. The bristles on these brushes won’t fall out as easily as really cheap generic ones will. And that’s good because the last thing you want is stray bristles in your cookies.

Paint Before you Bake

For this type of paint, you’ll need food coloring, one egg yolk, and ¼ teaspoon of evaporated (not condensed) milk. Don’t use plain water as the results will be disappointing. Each color will need this same amount of ingredients. Mix them in separate bowls. After you have rolled out and cut out your cookies, paint them in the colors you have just made. Then bake the cookies in the oven according the recipe directions. The colors set once the cookies are baked and cooled. You don’t have to do anything else to set the color.

Paint After you Bake

The main thing with this recipe is allowing time for cookies to cook before you paint. If you have children who can’t wait, perhaps you can have them paint them before they go in the oven with the recipe above. But if you can stand the wait, get separate bowls for each color paint. For each color, mix 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup and a drop of food coloring. Mix and see if you like the hue. If it’s too light, add more food coloring one drop at a time. A little goes a long way. Then paint your cooled cookies. Because there is no raw egg in this recipe, they are fine to eat as soon as they dry.

You’ll love painting Christmas cookies in festive colors. And as your tradition grows each year, you’ll find more and more people on your list requesting your famous painted cookies. They’re a joy to look at and delicious to eat. And you can have just as much fun with store-bought rolled sugar cookie dough if you don’t have time to make it from scratch.

After you've decorated your cookies, read on for some great cookie exchange tips.

If you can’t imagine a cookie better than the Oreo, imagine this - Chocolate covered Oreos! Sound good? You can easily make them yourself in about ten minutes.

You need little more than a love of chocolate to complete this recipe. The ingredients are basic and few.

You’ll need:

* One 12-ounce package of good chocolate chips. Use semi sweet or dark, white or mint, depending on your taste preference.

* One Tablespoon of shortening. Use Crisco for best results and do not substitute butter or some other fat.

* One package of your favorite Oreos. Here’s where you can get creative. If you love double stuff, golden, peanut butter, mint, or holiday flavored Oreos, go right ahead and use them. You might even make a mixed batch so you can get a surprise in every bite.

* Chocolate for drizzling on top of the finished cookies. You can skip this step, but it does add extra zip to your finished product. Use a package of melted white chocolate for best results.

Here’s How You Do It:

Gather your baking sheets and line them with Silpat non-stick liners or wax paper.

Mix the chocolate chips and shortening in a large glass bowl. Microwave for a few seconds at a time, stirring and checking to see when it’s fully melted. Don’t walk away during this step. You may end up with scorched chocolate.

Start dropping Oreos into the melted chocolate. It’s best if you have a fork, and don’t use your fingers, to lift the Oreos out of the chocolate. You’ll burn your fingers and create fingerprints on the cookies otherwise. Place the cookie, now covered in luscious chocolate, on the baking sheet.

When all the cookies have been dipped, put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for about half an hour until the chocolate sets.

Now you can melt the white chocolate for the drizzle. Take the cookie sheet out of the refrigerator and drizzle some white chocolate across the top. You don’t need a fancy pastry bag. Just dip a fork into the white chocolate and drizzle above the cookies. Or, if you want to get fancy, put the melted chocolate in a small plastic bag and snip off the edge. You can drizzle it out from there. You’ll want to stick the cookies back into the fridge so that white chocolate can set up a little before you serve the cookies.

That’s it! Your dipped Oreos will look like you spent hours making them when they took you less than 15 minutes. There are variations you can try like adding crushed peanuts or sprinkles. Even pretzel crumbs work well. It’s up to you. You can make up a whole tray with different embellishments and see what people like best. Try crushed candy cane pieces at holiday time or crushed graham crackers any time.  Seasonal sprinkles add some pizazz too!

Don’t be surprised if everyone starts asking for your famous Chocolate Covered Oreo Cookies. They can become a holiday or special occasion favorite or you can just whip them up any old Tuesday night. It’s a fun recipe to make with kids and you can easily create these treats for bake sales or fundraisers.

Make up a quick and easy batch of Chocolate Covered Oreo Cookies today and watch the smiles start coming!

Hungry for more? Try Oreo sand and dirt cups!

When the doorbell rings and a basket of cookies is waiting in the hands of a delivery man, the whole day suddenly starts to brighten up. Everyone loves to get cookies and to have them delivered to your door is even better. If you want to put a sparkle into someone’s day, send a cookie bouquet or basket! They’re perfect for birthdays, congratulations, retirements, engagements, thank yous, and more. In fact, there’s really no wrong time to send a batch of cookies.

Know the company you are selecting to send your cookies.  Check out how long the company has been in business? Have they got a customer service department you can actually speak to, or is the whole operation entirely online with no helpline whatsoever? Go for a company who will pick up the phone should something go wrong. It’s fine to order online; just know that there is a number there if you need it.

How will your cookies be packaged? Are they arriving in the middle of August in a plain brown box? After they’ve sat in a hot warehouse and delivery truck, your cookies will be melted goop by the time your recipient opens them. So see if they deliver locally or in a cooler packed with dry ice. If you can’t get an answer from their web site, call the customer service number and find out before you place your order.

See how fast the company ships. Is there a two-day lag period on any order? If you need the cookies to arrive tomorrow for your sister’s birthday, don’t go with a company that won’t promise overnight delivery. Pay a little more and choose a company who will guarantee your delivery on the day you need it.

Is there a quality guarantee? What if your recipient opens a box of crumbs or the cookies are spoiled? Is there a way to get your money back or get a replacement batch sent out? Most businesses who plan to stay in the cookie delivery business know what they are doing and you’ll be happy with your delivery. But there’s always that one chance that something might not be right. What is the guarantee you can hold them to?

Finally, decide which type of cookies you’d like to send and the price range you want to shop in. Most company web sites allow you to browse by price range. That way you don’t end up falling in love with a cookie basket that’s twice what you wanted to spend. You’ll filter your results by the range you can afford and only see those options.

Sending cookies is a joyful task. See about sending rose cookies on sticks or a big tin full of individually wrapped cookies which will last longer and the recipient will have more time to eat. Ask about nut products used in case your recipient has allergies and make sure that information is included with the delivery. And check with any hospital staff before you send food baskets to a hospital floor. Most times it’s fine, but depending on the person’s illness, they may not be able to receive them.

Don't stop here! Get more ideas for cookie gift baskets...

Have you got a hobby? Want to start a new one? How about cookie jar collecting? It’s so much fun to gather wonderful jars of old together on your shelves and look at a snapshot of a gentler time. A time when grandmas made home baked cookies, and kids knew to look in that weathered cookie jar to find them.

There are many types of cookie jars you can collect. If you like animals, you can collect just dogs, pigs, rabbits or cats. There are jars that were made just for the holidays with Santa or a pumpkin for Halloween. You can choose just about any theme or leave your collection open so you can add to it whenever you hit upon a nice jar.

Collectors of cookie jars can be found on the internet. There are blogs and web sites that allow you to join in the discussion as a new cookie jar collector. These people will quickly take you in and show you the ropes as collectors are eager to talk about their collections. There are usually swaps online as well where someone offers up a cookie jar and you swap it for one of yours. There are also sites that let you ask for a specific jar you are looking for. You just have to do a little digging.

Sites like eBay can be a goldmine for cookie jar collectors. You will find that people are getting rid of the exact jar you’ve been looking for at a decent price. There will usually be listings for much less than a price you’d pay at an antique store.

Get yourself a good book on cookie jar collecting from a site such as Amazon.com. They have a whole array of books just on this topic. Start building a library of resources so you’ll know the value of each jar you run across. Take it with you when you go to fairs and antique shops. That way you’ll always be able to look the item up quickly and snap up a good deal.

Some collectors choose to keep their jars under glass in a locked cabinet. Some are valuable enough to merit special care. But others choose to actually use their collection or display the whole group in their kitchen or throughout their house. The fun of cookie jars is their heirloom appeal. They are usually so well made that they have survived decades intact, so your using them won’t do much damage.

Go ahead and jump into cookie jar collecting. You may start with one little bunny in a basket and find that you can’t pass up an animal cookie jar at all anymore. The lids are usually stylized to be the animal’s head and the bottom will usually be the body. But you will run across jars that defy categorizing. If you see something you’ve never seen outside of a collector’s book, snatch it up, as it may be rare. You’ll kick yourself if you don’t and later realize it was very valuable.

Whether you collect cookie jars because they look so cute or because they are valuable, you will find that your hobby draws people in. There’s hardly a person who can resist peeking inside to see if there really are any fresh-baked gourmet cookies inside.

More on cookie jar collecting:

• The history of the cookie jar
• The most valuable cookie jars
• How to collect vintage cookie jars