Our Favorite Christmas Cookies
We don’t know about you, but one of our favorite things about Christmas is the FOOD. In the past we’ve tackled Christmas party appetizers and fruitcake. This year, it’s all about Christmas cookies.
We both have fond memories of Christmas baking — we always knew it was getting close to the big day when you came home from school and your mom had fat stacks of cookies ready to go. Of course, you weren’t allowed to eat all of them right away — summoning Santa requires an offering after all.
So join us as we share our favorite Christmas cookies! 🍪
👋 If you’re new here, hi! We’re Mediocre Chef — two friends (Brittany and Trevor) who write about their experience cooking…and now baking! In this post we share our experiences about Christmas cookies, but we’d love to hear about your favorite cookies in the comments below!
Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread is a classic staple at Christmastime. Is it really Christmas if you don’t have gingerbread cookies? Brittany’s Mom made them every year, and after slaving away in the kitchen making multiple batches of cookies, she enlisted her children to decorate them.
Now gingerbread cookies don’t need to be decorated (the delicious blend of ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves can stand on their own), but they taste more magical when decorated.
What should you look for when choosing a gingerbread cookie recipe? Choose one that has a generous amount of ground ginger — they’re called GINGERbread cookies after all — and also dark molasses.
No gumdrop buttons here.
🍪 Mediocre Tip: You’ll need a different recipe to make the cookie for a gingerbread house. A recipe for gingerbread cookies will not work for construction gingerbread — you need more flour!
Sugar Cookies
These are the classic cookies that are used for decorating. Sugar cookies themselves are fairly standard and aren’t exactly anything to write home about. However, when you cut them into fun shapes and start decorating them, that’s when the magic happens.
Snowman? Sure thing! Christmas tree? You betcha! Little Christmas star? You got it, boss!
Then it comes time to decorate. Cover them with sugar icing (seriously, go heavy with it). Channel your inner Bob Ross and let the cookies become your canvas. The only limitation is your imagination.
🍪 Mediocre Tip: Invite friends over and have a cookie decorating party!
Butterscotch Cookies
This is a recipe that has been passed down for generations (it’s a recipe from Trevor’s mom, who may have gotten it from Trevor’s grandmother). Notably, the butterscotch cookies don’t have any butterscotch chips in them. The flavour is supposed to come from the mixture of margarine and brown sugar (or butter, if you’re like us and decided to swap the margarine for butter).
This is a super simple recipe that requires nothing fancier than a hand mixer (although on the day of cooking we used a stand mixer) and relatively simple ingredients. Mix everything together, make little balls, and bake them for about 10 minutes.
We opted to do a little experiment by dividing the dough in half and adding some butterscotch chips in half the dough to see if it added anything. They definitely added a more butterscotch-y flavor to the cookies, so if that’s your jam, go ahead and add some. We also added some holiday colored M&M’s to one of the cookies as well just to get a little extra festive as an experiment.
👎 Mediocre Note: So on the day of, these didn’t really turn out and we couldn’t figure out why. After extensive research (Trevor texting his mom) turns out you are supposed to form these into a log, chill it, then slice cookies and bake them that way. Little balls won’t do the trick here folks! (Also use margarine. Yes. We know.)
Shortbread
Butter: the true meaning of Christmas. 🧈
But for real, shortbread cookies are mostly just butter and sugar, which makes them the perfect, indulgent treat during the holidays.
Enough said.
So simple. So good.
Bird’s Nest Cookies (AKA Thumbprint Cookies)
Why are these Christmas cookies? Because Brittany’s Mom would make them every year during the holidays. They have jam in the middle and that’s red, so that makes bird’s nest cookies Christmas-y, right?
We’ve also seen people make this type of cookie, but put a maraschino cherry in the centre or a Hershey kiss.
Sidenote: Apparently there is another version of bird’s nest cookies, but we’re not talking about that one, okay?
This is an older picture from when Brittany was also gifted these cookies for her birthday.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
These cookies are chocolate (yum) and look like they have snow on them (spoiler: it’s actually powdered sugar). Snow = Christmas.
There’s a delicious chocolate crinkle cookie recipe in the 100 Cookies cookbook. (If you love cookies, you need this cookbook.)
Snickerdoodle Cookies
Cinnamon + sugar = delicious. Snickerdoodles can be flat or they can be thick — Brittany’s Mom always made the thick kind around Christmas. It’s fun rolling the dough balls around in the sugar and cinnamon mixture to coat them.
The key to a snickerdoodle recipe is the cream of tartar which gives it a distinct tangy flavour — without it, it’s just a regular old cookie.
🍪 Mediocre Tip: If you’re feeling extra festive and crave chocolate, add green and red M&M’s to your dough.
Brittany made the flat version one day.
Candy Cane Cookies
A million years ago, when we were in middle school, we took a home ec class. Part of class was to make cookies, and because it was approaching Christmas time, we made candy cane cookies.
What is a candy cane cookie? Well, you make a simple cookie dough, break it in half, use food colouring to make one half red while the other stays white, then you roll pieces of the dough into little ropes and braid them together into a candy cane shape.
It sounds complicated, but it was easy enough that we were able to figure out how to do it when we were 15. Give them a try if you’re feeling extra festive this year!
Bonus Round: Pillsbury Christmas Cookies
Maybe for you, Pillsbury cookies were your Christmas cookies. Don’t worry fam, we gotchu. We picked up two packs of them and baked them up as a pre-lunch snack. They have that distinctly Pillsbury flavour to them that brings us back to the good old days.
These have no business being so addicting.
Bonus Round 2, Electric Boogaloo: Danish Butter Cookies
We couldn’t rightfully make an entire blog post about Christmas cookies without mentioning these bad boys. We’re not going to lie, when we opened the tin we were half expecting it to be filled with sewing needles and thread. Luckily, it wasn’t and was instead filled with delicious, buttery cookies.
It’s not Christmas without a tin of these. Also, remember the big tins of popcorn? Miss those.
How to Make Any Cookie a Christmas Cookie
Here’s the secret that Big Cookie™ doesn’t want you to know: any cookie can be a Christmas cookie. Don’t believe us? Try one, or several, of the following:
Cut them into festive shapes (Christmas tree, star, stocking, etc.)
Use red and green food dye (maybe don’t try this with chocolate based cookies)
Add icing and sprinkles (red, green, and white of course — silver and gold are also acceptable accents)
Replace chocolate chips with red and green M&M’s (or any other legally distinct coloured candy coated chocolate)
Congrats, you now have a Christmas cookie! 🎄🍪
Tips for a Smooth Christmas Cookie Baking Experience
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Use slaves children to decorate your cookies to save time. This will allow you to increase your cookie production.
Don’t alter your mom’s sacred cookie recipe and expect it to turn out okay unless you’re a professional baker.
Don’t skip the “chill your dough” step in the recipe. Your cookies won’t turn out. It will not be okay. Christmas will be ruined.
BOWLS. You will use so many bowls. Have more than one large bowl — you’ll need it if you’re making multiple different types of cookies in one day.
BAKING SHEETS. Related to bowls. The more of these you have the easier your baking experience will be. Also, don’t forget cooling racks!
Buy your ingredients well in advance. Turns out everyone likes to do their baking early in December. (We couldn’t find red or green sprinkles, oof.)
Want to be environmentally conscious? Consider using silicone baking mats instead of parchment paper.
If you have one, a stand mixer goes a long way to reducing frustration (we have a Kitchen Aid mixer). If you don’t have one, a good old fashioned hand mixer will do fine as well.
What cookies or other baked goods remind you of Christmas? Let us know in the comments below!
Well, that’s it friends. Another year down and in the books for us. We want to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Holidays! Hopefully wherever you are, you are able to get some rest and spend time with those you love. Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and we will be back soon with more food shenanigans!
-Brittany & Trevor