Cookies are a big part of my life all year round, but especially during the Christmas season. The best Christmas cookie recipes are the ones that you take a bite of and you are instantly transported to a place of holiday bliss. Not only are Christmas cookies delicious to eat, they are a joy to make. The most important ingredient in all the best Christmas cookies recipes, is the love you put into it. It sounds cheesy, but I think it is the only way to explain why Christmas cookies are always extra yummy.
Tips for Baking Better Cookies
- Cream your fats and sugars for at least 5 minutes. The first step to making most cookie recipes is usually to mix together your fats, often butter, and your sugars. This is such an important step and should not be overlooked. As you blend together the sugar with the butter, you are incorporating air into your batter that will keep your cookies from flattening like pancakes as they bake. Mix in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment for at least five minutes and you’ll notice that during this time the butter will go from a pale yellow to an almost white color. This is a good sign that your cookies are going to turn out awesome!
- Fully incorporate your eggs. There is a fear when making cookies that you’re going to over beat your eggs and ruin your cookies and, as a result, it is easy to actually under beat the dough at this point. You want your eggs to be fully incorporated and evenly distributed. Let the dough beat for about one minute.
- Add your dry ingredients at one time and pulse in until just incorporated. The moment you add flour into your batter, gluten begins to form. More gluten development equals tougher, dry cookies. In order to have nice soft, tender cookies, only mix your dry ingredients until just blended. You should not be able to see any dry flour in your batter or streaks of dry ingredients.
- Use a cookie scoop for even, well baked cookies. No matter how well you eye-ball it, the only way to get nice and even cookies is to use a cookie scoop. I like to use a cookie scoop to measure out the dough, and then use the palms of my hands to form the dough into a ball. This makes for beautifully round, even cookies that maintain a nice height as they bake and do not flatten out like pancakes 🙂
1. Molasses Ginger Cookies
This is my personal favorite Christmas cookie. We use black strap molasses to give the cookies that deep color and plenty of spices to fill the room with a holiday aroma. My favorite part about this recipe is that I feel like they bake perfectly every time. As soon as you start to see that signature cracking on the top of the cookie, you know your cookies are perfectly done. This recipe has been converted into weights, making a scale the perfect tool. One of the several gifts we recommend for every baker! Here is our recipe!
2. Harvest Sugar Cookies
This is a classic recipe that my mom found years ago in a Taste of Home magazine, and we have used it ever since. This cookie dough is perfect for those who are wanting to practice their decorating skills. Our favorite designs for Christmas include snowflakes, Christmas trees, and stars.
My Favorite “Cookie” Buttercream
Ingredients
- 2 sticks of salted butter, room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2-4 Tablespoons milk
Directions
- I like to make buttercream in a stand mixer, but you can definitely use a hand mixer. Place your butter in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat the butter for 3-5 minutes. In this time, the butter should become almost white and whipped. DO NOT skip this step, it is critical to making AMAZING buttercream.
- Add in your powdered sugar and beat for another 3-5 minutes. When you first add the powdered sugar, start by pulsing it until it begins to incorporate with the butter so that it does not fly out of the bowl.
- Add in your vanilla and enough milk so that the buttercream is a nice, spreadable consistency. It shouldn’t be so thick that it clumps together, but you don’t want it to be soupy!
- Divide the icing into bowls, add your food coloring, and start decorating! This buttercream can be used for piping cookies or can be spread on with a knife. This icing will form a bit of a crust as it sits but will remain soft. Cookies should not be stacked after they are iced.
3. Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
The special part of this recipe is definitely the black cocoa. This is the cocoa used in Oreo cookies and it is evident in this recipe. It has that same addictive cocoa taste with the added touch of peppermint. We decorate these with a drizzle of ganache and crushed peppermint sticks. At the bakery we like to take this recipe up a notch and fill it with a peppermint buttercream. Here is our recipe!
4. Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies
I have had so many different kinds of peanut butter cookies, and it is almost impossible to go wrong with any of them. However, this one if my favorite. The combination of coarse sugar on the outside and the honey roasted peanuts spread throughout gives this cookie an amazing texture. If you want to dress this recipe up you can mix in chocolate chips or marshmallows. Here is our recipe!
6. Holiday Sugar Cookies
What I love about sugar cookies is that they are easy to make festive for anytime of the year. Whether you want to use pink sprinkles for valentine’s day or red and green for the Christmas season this is a very flexible recipe. My favorite way to dress these cookies up is to roll them in red sanding sugar before baking them. Then, they come out of the oven ready for Santa! Here is our recipe!
Best Christmas Cookies Recipes
Whether your using an old recipe or a new, we hope you make some fun memories while making your Christmas cookies this year. Although we make cookies all year round, we always have an extra good time when we can add some holiday cheer to them!
