Our Favorite Holiday Cookies
We not only love to bake cookies and confections – we love to gift them to our friends and family. In particular, the holidays are a special time for us in the baking department. Today we thought we’d share with you some of our favorite holiday cookies and their recipes. Some of them are our recipes, some of them are recipes from other very talented bakers and some are others recipes that we’ve modified. Any way you look at it, we have a whole lot of delicious favorite holiday cookies! We’ve provided links to the recipes (and some of the tools we use to make them) below.
Aaaand…if there aren’t enough of our favorite holiday cookies in this post for you, we’ve previously posted several other holiday-worthy cookies in the past: Wreath Spritz Cookies, Mint Meltaways, Embossed Shortbread Sandwiches, Raspberry Almond Bars, Salted Peanut Chews and Almond Macaroons.
There are a few of our favorite holiday cookies that we make that utilize special tools. These tools are readily available on Amazon and King Arthur Flour websites. The links are supplied here: for the Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies and the Stamped Brownie Cookies we used Nordic Ware Geo Cast Cookie Stamps, and the Simply Snazzy Cookie Stamps are used for the Marzipan Shortbread.
Top row, left to right:
Stamped Jam Thumbprint Cookies (recipe below)
Middle row, left to right:
Chewy Chocolate Mint Cookies with Andes Mint “Frosting” (recipe below)
Peppermint Fudge Oreo Bars (recipe below)
Brown Butter Toasted Sugar Shortbread
Chewy Chocolate Chunk Trees (Sally’s Cookie Addiction Book)
Bottom row, left to right:
Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate Toffee Slice and Bake Cookies
Soft Batch No Roll Holiday Cookies
Stamped Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- 1 cup (8 oz) butter at room temperature
- 2/3 cup (2.6 oz) confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla or vanilla bean paste
- 1 ½ cups (6.8 oz) all purpose flour
- ½ cup plus 2 TBS (4 oz) potato starch
- ¾ tsp salt
- Choice of jam for filling
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat to combine thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and beat on low until dough just comes together. Divide into two disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
Remove from refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and set aside. Roll one disk at a time on well flowered surface to a generous ¼” thickness. Cut out using Thumbprint Cookie Stamps. Place cut out cookies on prepared baking sheet about 1” apart. Place in freezer for 20 minutes.
While cookies freeze, preheat oven to 350. Remove cookies from freezer and fill each indentation with desired jam (we find it easiest to use a ziplock bag with one corner cut off). Return to freezer for an additional 10 minutes. Bake straight from the freezer, one sheet at a time for 15-18 minutes until very light brown around the bottom edges. Allow to cool completely on cookie sheet.
Cookies keep well for about 2 weeks, Store in an air-tight container at room temperature, with layers separated by waxed paper.
Makes about 40 cookies
Chewy Chocolate Mint Cookies with Andes Mint “Frosting”
- 1 1/4 cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (28g) cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup plus 1 tbsp (125g) unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (110g) packed dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp (5ml) pure vanilla extract
- 1 package (10 oz) Andes Crème De Menth Baking Pieces or mint baking chips
- 40 Andes Mints for topping
Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly.
Beat butter with both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or using a hand mixer until smooth and slightly fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined.
Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until mostly combined but a few streaks of flour remain. Add mint pieces and continue to mix on low just enough to distribute them through the dough. Wrap dough well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. If left overnight, let the cookie dough stand at room temperature for 15 minutes to soften.
Roll about 2 tablespoons of dough into balls and place onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately top each cookie with 2 mints. Let stand for about 5 minutes until mints are melted, then spread evenly over top of each cookie. Transfer to wire rack and allow to cool completely.
Store in airtight container at room temperature. These cookies are best within about 3 days.
Makes about 20 cookies
Peppermint Fudge Oreo Bars
Oreo Cookie Layer
- 42 (21.4 oz) Peppermint Oreos
- 8 TBS salted butter, melted
White Chocolate Layer
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 3 cups (540g) white chocolate chips
- ¼ cup marshmallow creme
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 2/3 cup crushed candy canes, plus 2 extra TBS for garnish
Oreo Layer:
Preheat oven to 350. Line 9” x 13” pan with aluminum foil or parchment. Set aside.
Crush the Oreos either by hand or in a food processor. Add melted butter and stir to coat completely. Press Oreo crumb mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack before proceeding.
White Chocolate Layer:
Combine sweetened condensed milk, white chocolate chips, and marshmallow creme in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the white chocolate chips have melted. Once the mixture is smooth, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, peppermint extract, and 2/3 cup crushed candy canes. Pour over chocolate layer and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle with extra candy canes.
Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight until completely set. Once set, remove from the baking pan by lifting out the aluminum foil or parchment paper. Peel away foil and cut into desired size bars.
Store at cool room temperature in an air-tight container.
Makes about 48 -1 ½” squares
How to cut triangle “trees” from a 9″ x 13″ pan of bar cookies
Any recipe that can be baked in a 9″ x 13″ pan (or any sized pan for that matter!) can be cut into triangles and decorated as Christmas trees! You can use your favorite brownie or blondie recipe, sugar cookie recipe, or a batch of chocolate chip cookies, as we did here.
Make your chosen dough or batter per recipe directions. Line your pan with either foil or parchment paper making sure a bit hangs over the edge of the pan. Press the dough (or pour the batter) into the pan. Bake per box or recipe directions for brownies. If you are using a drop cookie dough, you will need to bake it for longer than your recipe call for…probably about 20-25 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let cool completely. Remove the cookie slab from the pan by lifting out using the edges of the parchment or foil.
Now all you need to do is cut the short edges off the bars, leaving a 12″ x 9″ slab. In the 12″ direction, cut the slab into 4 – 3″ strips. Then each strip into triangles with 2″ bases (see below). You will have some “scraps” to nibble on from each end of the strip, but will ultimately end up with 7 triangles from each 3″ strip for a total of 28 cookies.
The triangles can then be decorated as desired, creating festive and delicious Christmas trees!
