F lour, eggs, butter and sugar: four kitchen staples with a world of sweet tricks up their sleeves. It never ceases to amaze me that the same short list of ingredients can produce such different results. Increase the flour and butter for rich, crumbly shortbread and sablés; lose the butter, flour and egg yolks for meringues; bring them back for a more cake-like texture; use caster sugar for a crisp bite, or molasses for something more chewy.

Where biscuits are concerned, certain conditions must be met: chill the butter to be rubbed into flour to make the dough, say, but start with it at room temperature when it's to be creamed with sugar. But as long as you follow those few rules, there's plenty of room for manoeuvre. Traditional madeleine recipes, for example, call for little more, flavour-wise, than eggs, butter, lemon zest and a hint of vanilla. With ground almonds and egg whites, not to mention all the nuts, coffee and spice, the so-called madeleines below are as different as they are delicious.

These look great if you fill half of them with raspberry jam and the remainder with lemon curd. Or play around with what's in your cupboards: marmalade, chocolate spread… The cookies take their name from the thumbs that shape the jam-filled dents, as well as the Austrian city of Linz, where whole tortes filled with jam are a Christmas treat. They keep well in a sealed container for up to three days. Makes about 28.

180g unsalted butter, at room temperature 80g caster sugar 1 egg, beaten 150g ground almonds 130g plain flour 1 tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground cloves 1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed 1 tsp ground ginger Finely grated zest of 1 orange Finely grated zest of 1 lemon 2 tsp vanilla essence 30g flaked almonds, toasted ¼ tsp salt 130g raspberry jam or lemon curd

Heat the oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until light and airy. Add the egg, a little bit at a time, and continue to mix until combined. Add all the remaining ingredients, apart from the jam or curd. Use a wooden spoon and then your hands to mix until dough is formed.

Wet your hands and pull off walnut-size pieces of dough, weighing about 20g each, and roll them into 2.5cm balls. Divide these between two large parchment-lined trays, spaced well apart; you should end up with about 28 balls. Press your thumb into the middle of each to make a 2cm-wide dimple.

Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes, until they have started to turn golden-brown. Put the jam in a small saucepan, warm through until it starts to bubble and then spoon into the holes in the cookies while they are still hot. Lemon curd can be spooned in without heating. Transfer to a wire rack to cool before serving.

Thanks to Tamar de Vries Winter for helping me to crack the pastry recipe below. Margarine is not something I normally use when baking but it works well here for wonderful short pastry. Brushing one set of cookies with date molasses and sprinkling the other with icing sugar provides a nice contrast, but you can obviously choose just one finish. These keep well in a sealed container for up to five days. Makes 30 cookies.

100g unsalted peanuts 100g fine semolina 100g plain flour, and extra for dusting 30g caster sugar 80g unsalted margarine or butter ½ tsp vanilla extract 2 tsp lemon juice 3 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted, plus 1 tsp extra to garnish 10 Medjool dates, stoned (160g net) 2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp finely grated orange zest 2 tbsp orange juice 2 tbsp date molasses 1 tbsp icing sugar Salt

Heat the oven to 140C/275F/gas mark 1. Spread the peanuts out on a baking tray and roast for 25 minutes, until golden-brown. Set aside to cool and increase the oven temperature to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Put the semolina, flour, sugar and margarine or butter in a large bowl with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. Use the tips of your fingers to form a breadcrumb consistency. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix through to form a pliable dough.

Put the peanuts, sesame seeds, dates, cinnamon, orange zest and juice in a food processor with a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Blitz to a thick paste and set aside.

Divide the dough in two and shape each half into a rectangle, about 5cm by 10cm. Put one half between two large pieces of baking paper and roll out into a 10cm by 30cm rectangle. Repeat with the second half.

Divide the date paste in two and, on a lightly floured surface, roll each half into a sausage, 30cm long. Lay one sausage down the long side of each dough rectangle and roll up, using the paper to get a tight fit. Seal the edges and roll the cookie-sausages on your surface to form two perfectly round, long cigar shapes. Place on a large parchment-lined baking tray, seam down. Use a sharp knife to score the rolls widthways every 2cm, cutting about 3mm deep.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until the pastry starts to turn golden-brown. Remove and, while still hot, brush one roll with half the date molasses, then spoon the remainder evenly over the same roll. Sprinkle with the remaining sesame seeds and set both rolls aside to cool. Dust the second with icing sugar, then slice both into cookies.

I'm never sure which comes first in my mind: the coffee or the biscuit. The combination here, with or without an accompanying double shot, is certainly a pick-me-up. These are made using a madeleine mould, hence my liberty with the name, but the recipe is more that of a financier. If your madeleine moulds are silicon, you can just brush them with melted butter at the outset and skip the process of double-coating with butter and flour and freezing. Makes 30 medium madeleines.

90g unsalted butter, plus extra, melted, for brushing the moulds 65g plain flour, plus extra for dusting the moulds 60g walnuts 165g icing sugar 60g ground almonds ¾ tsp baking powder 2 tsp ground cardamoms 1 tsp ground coffee beans 4 egg whites (170g) 2 shots espresso coffee (50ml) Salt For the syrup 3 shots espresso (75ml) 40g caster sugar

Heat the oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3. Brush metal madeleine moulds with melted butter and dust with flour. Freeze for five minutes, then repeat the process, keeping the moulds in the freezer until required.

Put the walnuts in the small bowl of a food processor and blitz to a fine crumble; you don't want them to be ground up completely.

Put 90g butter in a small saucepan and melt on a high heat. Cook for three to four minutes, until the butter turns brown, smells nutty and just starts to burn. Remove from the heat and carefully pour into an ovenproof bowl to cool down.

Sift 65g flour into a food processor, along with the icing sugar, ground almonds, baking powder, cardamom, ground coffee, egg whites, espresso, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and the melted butter. Blitz for a minute to form a smooth, thin batter. Transfer to a large jug and stir in the walnuts.

Carefully pour the batter into your buttered moulds; they should be almost full. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes; depending on the size of your moulds, it could be a few minutes more or less. When done, the madeleines should be golden-brown, have risen slightly and bounce back when touched. When cool enough to handle, remove them from the tins and place on a wire rack, shell side up.

Pour the espresso and caster sugar for the syrup into a small saucepan and boil rapidly on a high heat for three to four minutes, stirring, until the sugar has melted and the glaze is thick and reduced to three to four tablespoons. Remove from the heat and brush over the warm madeleines, so they absorb some of the moisture and turn shiny. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yotam Ottolenghi is chef patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.