7 Of My Favorite Christmas Cookies – With Links To Recipes!

I love to bake for Christmas! It’s that time of year when I spend a few days in a row baking my holiday goodies. There are some recipes that are always on the list, but each year I add a couple of new ones. With Christmas one week away, I thought I’d share the cookies I made this year, with tips and links to the recipes. Recipes are listed, clockwise, starting with the gingerbread men.

Gingerbread Cookies
This recipe is from Club House and it’s the best recipe I’ve found. I’ve used it for the last 4 years and people ask me for it. One recipe makes about 45-50 cookies, depending on size. I use Cake Mates Icing to decorate the cookies and I get sprinkles from Bulk Barn. For the recipe, follow this link.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies are made using the Cook’s Illustrated recipe. Cook’s Illustrated is one of my favorite sources for recipes because they do an excellent job of explaining the ingredients and methods and why they do what they do. Here, I used Sweetapolita sprinkles on the top of each cookie ‘puck’ before I baked them.

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
My daughters both love these cookies so much that I often open the box in the freezer only to find that there aren’t many left! One of my daughters even heats the cookies in the microwave to get them warm and gooey. The recipe, here, is from Martha Stewart. Don’t be deceived by the word ‘chewy’ in the recipe name. They’re not chewy. These cookies have the same texture as chocolate chip cookies. I use semi-sweet, butterscotch, and white chocolate chips to make these extra yummy, and I use only dried ginger (about 1 T) in the recipe.

Chocolate Crackle Cookies
These are classic Christmas cookies because they look like they’re snow-covered. There are many versions of this recipe out there, but I like Martha Stewart’s version. Try adding a tablespoon of instant coffee granules for an extra kick.

Snickerdoodles
Snickerdoodles are one of my favorite childhood cookies. The cinnamon taste in this yummy butter-rich cookie is just delicious. This year, I rolled mine in red and green turbinado sugar, but, to be honest, I prefer them in regular colored sugar. The turbinado was a bit much. I use Betty Crocker’s recipe, here.

World Peace Cookies
I made quite a few changes to this recipe, from Dorie Greenspan. It’s basically a chocolate shortbread cookie. I added some peppermint extract and it was pretty good. I’m a huge fan of shortbread, so I was happy to find this version.

Sugar Shortbread Cookies
I love this recipe, and I’ve blogged about these cookies before, in this post. You can make these cookies for any season. The recipe makes about 85 cookies, so you might want to start with half a recipe.