25 Christmas Cookies to Bake This Holiday Season
Holiday cookie season has begun! We rounded up 25 of our favorites, so you can be ready for all the cookie swaps and parties headed your way. They also make thoughtful, delicious homemade gifts.
Two dozen seems like a good number. But why not even more? You’ll find 25 Christmas cookies from Edible magazines across the U.S. and Canada here—from traditional favorites such as gingerbread cookies that double as ornaments and classic cut-out sugar cookies (roll them out with sugar instead of flour to keep them as tender as possible) to twists on holiday favorites such as these red velvet crinkle cookies, which are even more holiday-like with their stunning red color and snowy white coat and new traditions such as ma’amoul, a traditional sweet from the Middle East filled with dates and walnuts that are served differently by people from different religious background and worthy of a place on any cookie plate.
Classic cut sugar cookies get a bit of a spicy edge with these sparkly holiday cookies. A bit of food coloring gives pinwheel cookies a holiday edge. Mix up that tradition more with cocoa powder and crushed pistachios in these chocolate-pistachio butter cookies that take well to being rolled and cut into holiday shapes.
Don’t forget about the charm of stained glass cookies that use hard candies to create easy built-in window panes. Double down on old-school holiday spirit with sugar and spice cookies full of cloves and ginger and molasses. And add seasonal color with cranberry pecan cookies.
Basic chocolate cookies get pumped with crushed candy cakes in these double chocolate peppermint crunch cookies. Or mix up chocolate cookies with these chocolate mocha drop cookies. Add whole grain goodness to your cookie plate with dark chocolate buckwheat cookies that even call for sourdough starter. Keep things thin and crispy with chocolate wafers (the recipe includes an optional lavender icing).
Twists on classics aren’t the only way to go. Classics that aren’t your own can come into play, too. Try Lithuanian lebkuchen, featuring a warmly spiced dough and walnuts. Or these Persian rose cookies flavored with rose water and rose tea.
These mesquite almond cookies from Edible Phoenix feature mesquite meal, the dried and ground pods from the mesquite tree, better known for the flavor its wood imparts when used to grill. Also very much of a place, forest pine nut cookies can be made anywhere pine nuts are sold, but are of particular appeal in Colorado and New Mexico where pine nuts (aka pinon) are harvested.
Almond mantecados feature both almonds and lard, which combine to create their unique, haunting flavor.
Add humble nuttiness to sugar cookies with these sunflower seed cookies that provide crunch to a favorite. Or mix up sugar cookies with a grown-up edge with bourbon maple cookies.
If you have a pizzelle iron, making homemade pizzelle, or Italian waffle cookies is a fun holiday baking project. Once you have the iron out, you might as well crack on and make a whole bunch of them.
Traditional florentines get an American hit by using maple syrup and pecans in these maple pecan lace cookies.
Mix things up and keep everything traditional with these eggnog cookies—they’re like thumbprint cookies, but with an eggnog custard instead of jam in the center.
