Ho ho ho! As the Christmas season draws near, I have a fantastic gift for you – this compilation of the best Christmas cookie recipes.
You’ll need these recipes because as you await a midnight visit from Santa Claus, you must prepare him a snack. While this jolly old man is happy to leave Christmas gifts, we can’t have him crawling out the chimney hungry.
Whether for Santa Claus, guests, or yourselves, Christmas cookies are perfect sweet treats for the holiday season. They come in various flavors and forms, like candy canes, Santa Claus, reindeer, Christmas trees, and snowflakes.
1. Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’ll start this post by taking a crowd favorite and turning it into a classic holiday cookie. Ever since Ruth Wakefield invented them, the world has loved chocolate chip cookies.
You’ll love them more with this Christmas version, which has semi-sweet and white chocolate chips, and Christmas mix sprinkles in different colors. You’ll also need butter (melted and salted), sugar (white and brown), egg, vanilla, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
The different chips and festive sprinkles give the cookie different textures and flavors. They also match the theme, especially when you use green, red, and white sprinkles.
2. Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
Do you love eating peanut butter from the jar? It is time to upgrade that habit. Instead, spend your Christmas season munching on these chewy holiday cookies full of peanut butter goodness.
Add this recipe from The Novice Chef to the holiday baking list. It needs flour, baking soda, salt, creamy peanut butter, unsalted butter, brown and granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla extract.
These cookies will last five days in an airtight container. But I hardly think they would last that long. But these treats melt in your mouth so perfectly that you might eat them all in five minutes.
3. Peanut Butter Blossoms
Continue the peanut butter x Christmas theme with these peanut butter blossom cookies. Unlike the previous one, this recipe combines your favorite flavor with the goodness of chocolate.
How so? These are peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss candy embedded in the center. There’s a fantastic texture and flavor transition in every bite.
These peanut butter blossoms need peanut butter, unsalted butter, granulated and brown sugar, egg, flour, baking powder, kosher salt, and chocolate kisses. To make, you’ll bake the peanut butter cookies first, then press a chocolate kiss into each one once they’re out of the oven.
4. Russian Tea Cakes (Snowball Cookies)
Nothing feels more like a wintery Christmas than a platter of Russian tea cakes. You may also know them as snowball cookies because, well, they look like white balls of snow. Also, despite the name, they’re not from Russia.
These cookies have a soft, buttery center and chopped nuts in the dough. Each ball has a white powdered sugar coating, giving it a snowball look. All these lead to sweet flavors and intriguing textures.
To make Russian tea cakes, you’ll need six ingredients: unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and finely-chopped nuts, like pecans.
5. Christmas Sugar Cookies
You might be wondering where all the fun-shaped cookies with bright and festive colors are. Here we are – from candy canes to Christmas trees, you’ll take classic sugar cookies and give them a holiday twist.
Baking Christmas cookies are easy as long as you have your favorite cookie cutters. This recipe makes sure the shapes hold pretty well after baking. You only need an egg, granulated sugar, vanilla, almond extract, flour, baking powder, and salt.
The post also includes an easy icing recipe. It calls for confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, corn syrup, water, and salt. Add food coloring if you want.
6. Buttery Classic Spritz Cookies
We usually make spritz cookies by pressing them into different patterns. Hence, you may also know these treats as buttery pressed cookies. The cookie press makes the forms and designs more elegant than simple cutters.
Spritz cookies have a simple sweet flavor and a crumbly texture reminiscent of shortbread. However, we’re incorporating eggs in this recipe so they don’t crumble much and melt amazingly in your mouth.
As I’ve mentioned, the cookie press makes the shape, so you’ll need that machine to make this recipe. If you want some colored cookies, you’ll also need gel icing color.
7. Mexican Wedding Cookies
Although some weddings have these cookies, their snowball appearance makes them more popular during holidays than matrimonial ceremonies. They resemble Russian tea cakes with powdered sugar coating and buttery, nutty flavors.
You’ll need butter, flour, toasted pecans, powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt to make these cookies. Almond extract is optional but highly recommended to accentuate the nutty flavors of the toasted pecans.
Based on the ingredients list, the difference between these wedding cookies and Russian tea cakes is pretty subtle. This recipe has a more complex flavor profile because of the cinnamon and almond extract.
8. Italian Rainbow Cookies
These Italian rainbow cookies are a pop of colors and sweetness. You may also know them as seven-layer cookies, Neapolitans, tri-color cookies, or Venetians.
By appearances alone, they aren’t like any cookie you ever had. The top and bottom are thin chocolate layers. Meanwhile, tri-colored almond sponge cake layers fill the center of the cookies. The cakes are usually red, white, and green to fit the Christmas season and represent Italy.
These cookies take time and effort. Once your colored sponge cakes and melted chocolate are ready, assemble them carefully and chill until the chocolate is firm.
9. Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies
Not fond of nutty or chocolate cookies? You might like these cream cheese cookies instead! They’re soft and decadent, with rich, creamy flavors that imprint on your tongue.
There are two components: the cookies and the glaze with sprinkles. The ingredients list includes unsalted butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, baking powder, egg, vanilla, flour, Christmas sprinkles, and water.
Make and shape the dough, then bake cookies for up to ten minutes. Top with glaze. You can do without it by sprinkling the cookies with powdered sugar instead. Serve with a glass of milk for the perfect Christmas morning treat.
10. Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies with Cinnamon and Clementine
Shortbread cookies are a classic during the holiday season. Like sugar cookies, they come in many shapes and designs. Besides the fun forms, they’re also sweet and delicious.
Often, though, people with gluten restrictions can’t enjoy cookies. However, what’s Christmas without its cookies? Thus, I’ve included a recipe for gluten-free cookies with elevated flavors special for the holiday season.
You’ll need butter, GF flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, clementine zest, and juice. You’ll use confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, egg whites, and food coloring gels for the icing. Use cookie cutters and piping bags for your designs.
10 Cute Christmas Cookie Recipes
Make yourself a plate of the best holiday snacks: Christmas cookies!
Ingredients
Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Russian Tea Cakes (Snowball Cookies)
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Buttery Classic Spritz Cookies
Mexican Wedding Cookies
Italian Rainbow Cookies
Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies
Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies with Cinnamon and Clementine
Directions
- Select your favorite recipe.
- Organize all the required ingredients.
- Prep a Christmas cookie in 30 minutes or less!