A list of our most popular holiday cookies—those that are clicked, searched, and cooked. This collection includes some delicious shortbread recipes, gingerbread, chocolate crinkle, millionaire bar, and many more that are guaranteed to inspire you to bake for the popular holiday cookies.
Introduction to our most popular holiday cookies
No matter how big of a head start you like to get on your winter baking, 200+ batches is probably a bit excessive, even though we think all of our Christmas cookie recipes are worth making.
To help you narrow down your selections, we’ve compiled a list of our most popular holiday cookies—those that are clicked, searched, and cooked. This collection includes some delicious shortbread recipes, gingerbread, chocolate crinkle, millionaire bar, and many more that are guaranteed to inspire you to bake for the holidays.
In December, when millions of home cooks worldwide search for popular holiday cookies to bake for the holidays, the action really picks up. In precise order, these are the best Christmas sweets on Simply Recipes. Many of them are inherited from the families of our contributors, then spread over the generations and the internet at large. They have genuinely endured throughout time.
Cocoa Crisps
These dense biscuits resemble bite-sized brownies dusted heavily with powdered sugar. They’re so simple to make that I did it when I was eight years old in order to get a Girl Scout badge. You don’t even need a mixer.
Cookies with peanut butter
Any day of the year is a good time to enjoy peanut butter cookies, but they look especially good on a Christmas cookie platter. If you’re hitting them hard, you may pound a meat mallet against the dough balls instead of using a fork to make the crosshatch on top.
Seven-Layer Magic Bars
This is still up for dispute among readers. While many readers like to add the condensed milk over all the other layers, our recipe asks for drizzling it over the graham cracker crust. To be honest, I support the top layer as it serves as a stronger adhesive to hold the layers together. Either method works, though, and the result is delicious bar cookies loaded with chocolate chips, almonds, and coconut.
Gingerbread House cookies
Well, that’s a gingerbread home, so it counts, right? This is the recipe that people keep coming back to. This comprehensive how-to yields a gingerbread dough that is strong enough to withstand construction specifications and is absolutely tasty. It comes with a planning timetable (there are a ton of phases, after all) and a downloadable template for the components of your house.
Mexican Wedding Biscuits
These melt-in-your-mouth treats, also known as Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding biscuits, are loaded with finely chopped nuts. I prefer to replace the vanilla essence in mine with vanilla bean paste. A few readers have successfully made them gluten-free by using almond flour in place of the all-purpose flour.
Traditional Shortbread Cookies
This is the recipe to make buttery, British-style shortbread cookies. After a long while, they freeze, much as in a dream. If you want to truly go all out, use Kerrygold or another quality butter.
Cookies with thumbprints
These festive cookies shine with jewel-like centers from jam dollops. Try rolling the dough, which resembles shortbread, in nuts before filling and baking for added taste and texture. Try using any excess cranberry sauce you may have on hand as a filler.
Sugar Cookies for Christmas
Contributor Steve-Anna Stephen’s go-to recipe for Christmas cookies is this one. She gives a recipe for the frosting and lots of decorating ideas because she enjoys decorating the cookies just as much as eating them.
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Did you know that Freda Smith of Gibsonburg, Ohio made peanut butter blossoms for the 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off? Most likely, you recall these steps: Unwrap a bunch of Hershey’s Kisses first. Then, consume a couple of them before they reach the cookies.
Cookies with Candy Canes
Making candy cane cookies can be a little difficult. Their dough breaks easily when forming the twists since it is quite dry. I think it was because we weren’t perfectionists that my closest buddy and I built these without any problems when we were younger. As an adult, I would advise you to measure the flour lightly and not worry if there are a few fractures or cracks.
Chinese Almond Cookies
Not only are these popular Chinese-American cookies a must-have for Chinese New Year, but they’ve officially entered the Christmas lineup. Their signature flavour comes from almond flour and almond essence.
Crescent-shaped Almond Cookies
Chinese almond biscuits are not as buttery and crumbly as almond crescents. They are frequently referred to as Viennese crescents and are native to Austria. Particularly if you live in a dry region or at high altitude, the dough may be dry. If so, include a small amount of milk or an additional egg yolk into the dough.
Cookies with Red Velvet Crust
This recipe was created by contributor Irvin Lin for Valentine’s Day, but it has now become a Christmas cookie here as well. “For Christmas, swap out the white chocolate on top with some green M&M’s,” says commentator Brian.
Crinkle Cookies with Chocolate Without Gluten
This traditional, soft, and fudgy holiday cookie recipe from Charlottetown’s Whisk and Sugar bakery is ideal for any gathering or cookie exchange. Even the most discriminating cookie or chocolate fan will be delighted by these.
