A Big Box of Cookie Recipes Guaranteed to Impress This Holiday Season
Discover delicious cookie recipes to fill your gift bags and cookie jars.

How do you like your cookies? Yeah? We’ve got that.
However you or your holiday giftees prefer their baked goods—chocolaty, lemony, soft, crunchy, spicy, fruity, jammy, powdery, buttery, round, square, or something in between, chances are we’ve got a recipe below that will work for you.
A lot of these cookies have year-round staying power, and some tend only to get broken out around Christmas, but all would be a welcome sight any day in a festive bag or basket, with no special occasion needed.
Some of these recipes look elaborate but really aren’t. Some do take some time, although it’s usually chilling and freezing time where you don’t even have to be in the kitchen. Some, though, make large numbers of easily prepared cookies, making them your friend at the holidays. Need a last minute gift? Dozens of these cookies can be whipped up and packed in present form with not much more than an hour’s notice so you’ll never have to show up to a holiday party empty-handed.
Marmalade Sandwich Cookies
These elegant treats come from my Aunt Charon, who has made the recipe every Christmas for as long as I can remember, and sent cookies to family and friends around the world. When I was a child, they were my least favorite because I found the marmalade filling bitter; as an adult, I’ve come to my senses.
Recipe: Marmalade Sandwich Cookies
Chocolate Peppermint Surprises
Fudgy and rich, like brownies, these hide a treat inside—a melty peppermint patty. The cookies are made with a pound of chocolate, so buy the best quality available. For exactly 40 cookies, measure level tablespoons of dough; for a thicker “envelope” (but fewer cookies), think generous tablespoons.
Recipe: Chocolate Peppermint Surprises
Ginger-Lime Thumbprints
While you often see ginger cookies flavored with chocolate, caramel, or even raspberry, adding a bull’s-eye of tangy lime curd transforms them entirely. The brilliant citrus flavor is especially welcome amid the season’s sea of peppermint and warming spices.
Recipe: Ginger-Lime Thumbprints
Classic Sugar Cookies
Iced cookies are an essential part of our annual spread, beloved by the kids, who jockey for the ones with the most toppings. I generally choose a few shapes and make several dozen of each. I’ll let my sons have their way with decorating a stack, then do the rest myself. A single color of royal icing simplifies things; you can add color and sparkle with sanding sugar or sprinkles.
Recipe: Classic Sugar Cookies
Elsa’s Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons
These macaroons are the most delicious we’ve ever tasted in the Sunset Test Kitchen. The recipe comes from Karen Dannenbaum of Topanga, California, who inherited it from her mother, Elsa, an outstanding cook. Of all the recipes Elsa left behind in her handwritten notebooks, “this was one of her best, and a family favorite,” Dannenbaum says.
Chocolate Thumbprints with Caramel and Sea Salt
The starting point for this cookie was a recipe that reader Colette Tihista-Longin of Great Falls, Montana, found in a recipe collection at a yard sale. “I adapted it to include caramel and sea salt. It’s a hit every year at our cookie exchange.” Despite the cookie’s name, a wooden spoon makes a neater depression than your thumb will.
Chocolate Lace Sandwich Cookies
“I call these the ‘backache’ cookies because I always make a double batch, sitting hunched over at the table,” says Fran Pepoon of Roseville, California. She has been baking these chocolate cookies, which have a subtle hit of orange and vanilla, every Christmas for 30 years, adapting them over time from a recipe given to her by a friend. Two tips: The cookies tend to stick and spread, so be sure to use a nonstick baking-sheet liner or parchment, and don’t bake more than 12 cookies on each sheet.
Recipe: Chocolate Lace Sandwich Cookies
Donna’s Molasses Cookies
“This recipe is from my mother-in-law’s box of typed 3- by 5-in. cards, handed down from her mother,” says Beryl Schwartz of Ojai, California. “Nothing reminds us of the holidays like the aroma of molasses wafting through the house!” Schwartz adds cloves and ginger for extra spice and rolls the cookie balls in turbinado sugar for crunch.
Recipe: Donna’s Molasses Cookies
Tout Sweet Russian Tea Cakes
This version of the melt-in-your-mouth butter-and-nut cookies called Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cakes is from Yigit Pura of Tout Sweet Pâtisserie, in San Francisco and Palo Alto, CA. We love it for its extreme crispness and toasty brown-butter flavor, and because it’s not too sweet; most of the sugar is on the outside.
Recipe: Tout Sweet Russian Tea Cakes
Chocolate Gingerbread Snowflakes
Romina Rasmussen, owner of Salt Lake City’s Les Madeleines bakery, makes these stunning holiday cookies. “Some gingerbread cookie recipes have chocolate in the dough, but using chocolate glaze offers an opportunity to decorate,” says Rasmussen—which, although a bit painstaking, produces cookies so lovely it’s worth the effort. The glaze retains an appealing softness even after it’s set, so serve the cookies on a platter—in a single layer—to preserve their prettiness.
Recipe: Chocolate Gingerbread Snowflakes
Sheet Pan Scottish Shortbread
There is shortbread, and then there’s this shortbread, ultra-buttery with a light crunch. The secrets are rice flour for the sandy texture and a slow-and-low baking process to develop the flavor. It’s a recipe that lends itself to easy, festive riffing (sprinkles! snowflakes!)—and one you’ll be happy to have in your back pocket for years.
Recipe: Sheet Pan Scottish Shortbread
Sprinkle-Top Shortbread Bites
Add colorful sprinkles to this batch of shortbread, and cut them into 1-in. squares to create these little bites.
Recipe: Sprinkle-Top Shortbread Bites
Shortbread Messages
Carefully cut hot shortbread with 2 1/2- to 3-in. chunky letter-shaped cookie cutters (we used 3-in. Ann Clark alphabet cookie cutters) to spell holiday messages such as fa la la, joy, or the initials of recipients.
Recipe: Shortbread Messages
Speculaas Snowflakes
With brown sugar, cloves, and a Nordic Ware snowflake shortbread pan, these little snowflake squares look almost too good to eat.
Recipe: Speculaas Snowflakes
Chocolate-Peppermint Pocky Sticks
“I loved to eat these when I lived in Asia,” says Romina Rasmussen, owner of Salt Lake City’s Les Madeleines bakery. “Pocky sticks are Japanese but they’re all over Taiwan and Hong Kong too.” The flexible dough lends itself to myriad shapes, but long pocky sticks look great on a dessert bar in a glass because they bring height to the table.
Lemon Meringue-Filled Gingersnap Snowflake Cookies
With a simple cookie cutter, you can create glamour from dough.
Chocolate Hazelnut Cutout Cookies (Nocciolini)
Submitted by reader Lynn Lloyd, Mt. Shasta, CA
Cornstarch gives these cookies a delicate, sandy texture. You could also fill them with thick caramel or frosting.
Chai-Spiced Shortbread Cookies
Submitted by reader Anissa Shea, Walnut Creek, CA
Although the flavors here are rich and complex, the recipe is very easy to make.
Recipe: Chai-spiced Shortbread Cookies
Sicilian Dried Fruit and Nut Bars (Cuccidati)
Submitted by reader Marilyn Perata Berg, Saratoga, CA
Instead of making traditional, individually shaped cuccidati, Marilyn came up with a simplified bar cookie technique to fill and shape her recipe.
Snickerdoodles
These cinnamon-sugar cookies disappear quickly, so keep plenty on hand!
Recipe: Snickerdoodles
Triple-Threat Chocolate Cookies
Prepare to abandon all restraint when you try one of these cookies, made with melted chocolate and chocolate chips in the batter and layered with a chocolate ganache filling.
Recipe: Triple-Threat Chocolate Cookies
Pecan Balls
Submitted by reader Heather Allen, Aptos, CA
A low oven temperature is the secret to developing the melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Recipe: Pecan Balls
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Whether you like thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies, prefer them thin and crisp, or crave them double chocolatey, we’ve got the perfect recipe for you.
Recipe: Thick, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe: Thin, Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies
Like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, only better.
Gingerbread People
The holidays are not complete without crisp, molasses-flavored gingerbread men and women.
Recipe: Gingerbread People
Cranberry Thumbprints
This delicious fall treat offers the perfect way to make use of your Thanksgiving leftovers. Instead of using jam, fill these bite-sized cookies with your extra cranberry sauce.
Recipe: Cranberry Thumbprints
Alfajores de Dulce de Leche (Caramel Sandwich Cookies)
Dulce de leche, a thick, rich caramel made with sweetened milk, is sold in Mexican markets and some well-stocked supermarkets. If it’s unavailable, use a thick caramel sauce or caramel ice cream topping.
Recipe: Alfajores de Dulce de Leche (Caramel Sandwich Cookies)
Almond Butter Cookies
These rich, delicate almond cookies are perfect with a cup of tea.
Recipe: Almond Butter Cookies
Bourbon Snaps
Bourbon adds spark to these wafer-thin spice cookies.
Recipe: Bourbon Snaps
Buttery Semolina Currant Cookies
The sandy texture of these shortbreadlike cookies comes from semolina, made from durum wheat and usually used for pasta. Orange zest and currants impart lots of flavor.
Recipe: Buttery Semolina Currant Cookies
Brown Butter Sandies, Apricot Buttons & Soft Ginger Cookies
Tita Owre of Pecos, New Mexico, says that her mother’s apricot buttons were more than just a Christmas cookie―they were an essential part of every family celebration.
Recipe: Apricot Buttons (front)
Recipe: Brown Butter Sandies (middle)
Recipe: Soft Ginger Cookies (back)
Inside-out Carrot Cakes
Fun and portable, this easy dessert stuffs sweet cream cheese icing between two flat cylinders of spiced carrot cake.
Recipe: Inside-Out Carrot Cakes
Ginger Chocolate Cookies
These moist, chewy chocolate cookies have a pleasant ginger kick and are a real crowd pleaser.
Recipe: Ginger Chocolate Cookies
Raspberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Use a sharp knife, a 1/2-inch cookie cutter, or the narrow end of a 1/2-inch plain pastry tip to cut holes out of half the cookies before baking.
Recipe: Raspberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Dulce de Leche Gingersnap Sandwich Cookies
Dulce de leche is a thick, rich sauce made by reducing milk for hours. It’s a staple sweet in many Latin American countries.
Walnut Shortbread Cookies with Flake Salt and Citrus
Flake salt retains its shape during baking, so you get a little crunch.
Recipe: Walnut Shortbread Cookies with Flake Salt and Citrus
Candied Ginger-Citrus Cookies
These spice-filled cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Recipe: Candied Ginger-Citrus Cookies
Candy Cane Cookies
The dough for these peppermint-flavored cookies can be made and then frozen for up to two weeks.
Recipe: Candy Cane Cookies
Caramelized-Sugar Cookies
These easy (only 5 ingredients!) caramel cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Recipe: Carmelized-Sugar Cookies
Raspberry Window Shortbread
Rich, buttery shortbread sandwiches raspberry jam for an easy but elegant cookie.
Recipe: Raspberry Window Shortbread
Chinese Almond Cookies
These almondy cookies are a snap to make, and you can store them airtight for up to 3 days.
Recipe: Chinese Almond Cookies
Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti, Gingerbread Biscotti & Cornmeal Biscotti
Biscotti is the ultimate cookie for dunking. Try one of our favorites with a steaming mug of coffee.
Recipe: Gingerbread Biscotti
Recipe: Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti
Recipe: Cornmeal Biscotti
Chocolate Orange Cookie Cups
These flourless cookie bites are a delicious cross between a brownie and a soft cookie—the orange zest adds a bit of contrast.
Recipe: Chocolate Orange Cookie Cups
Chocolate-Macadamia Nut Clusters
These rich drop cookies taste like chocolate-covered macadamia nut candies.
Recipe: Chocolate-Macadamia Nut Clusters
Chocolate Thumbprints
These cookies are best the day they are filled, but you can make both the cookies and the filling up to 3 days ahead.
Recipe: Chocolate Thumbprints
Coffee Meringues
For fun, top these airy coffee meringue cookies with a single espresso bean.
Recipe: Coffee Meringues
Cranberry Rugelach
A trip to New York inspired Jeannie Lee of Marin County, California, to develop this rich, cranberry-filled cookie.
Recipe: Cranberry Rugelach
Dutch Spice Cookies and Cashew Stars
These pretty star-shaped cookies are full of buttery cashews. Crisp buttery rounds taste like Christmas in a cookie jar.
Recipe: Cashew Stars
Recipe: Dutch Spice Cookies
Favorite Cutout Cookies
Cut these cookies in any shape; decorate them with powdered sugar icing and large-crystal sugar, if you like.
Recipe: Favorite Cutout Cookies
Florentines
If you like, you can decorate these lacy, candylike cookies with more chocolate, piped in fine lines.
Recipe: Florentines
Cardamom Brown-Sugar Palmiers
These palmiers look impressively hard to make, but actually, the opposite is true. As with any super-buttery dough, chilling it makes it much easier to slice.
Recipe: Cardamom Brown-Sugar Palmiers
Frosted Ginger Cookies
We love these frosted ginger cookies’ soft texture and bright spice flavor. Frosted ginger cookies are perfect for gifts and Christmas cookie swaps.
Recipe: Frosted Ginger Cookies
Florentine Wedding Cakes & Louisiana Pecan Balls
Heather Allen of Aptos, California, grew up making Louisiana Pecan Balls every Christmas with her parents; now she makes them with her children.
Recipe: Louisiana Pecan Balls
Recipe: Florentine Wedding Cakes
Gingerbread Pinwheels
These cookies are a holiday twist on traditional pinwheels, in which plain and chocolate doughs are swirled together.
Recipe: Gingerbread Pinwheels
Greek Almond Tea Cakes
These cookies, less sweet and slightly richer than classic tea cakes, are baked in S shapes.
Recipe: Greek Almond Tea Cakes
Lemon Fruit Swirls
You can store these fruit- and nut-filled cookies airtight for up to 2 days.
Recipe: Lemon Fruit Swirls
Hazelnut Nutella Sandwich Cookies
What’s better than nutella? Having it in sandwich-cookie form!
Mint Chippers
Store these crisp mint-chocolate chip cookies airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Recipe: Mint Chippers
Peanut-Butter Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches
These soft, yielding cookies have a double dose of chocolate. They’re the perfect foil for rich, gooey peanut butter ice cream.
Orange Butter Shells
Madeleine pans have shell-shaped indentations and are usually used to make the sponge cake-like cookie traditional in France, but it’s a charming shape for any cookie.
Recipe: Orange Butter Shells
Double Chocolate Cookies
These rich, fudgy cookies are better when slightly underbaked, as our recipe directs.
Recipe: Double Chocolate Cookies
Palmiers
Look for large-crystal decorating sugar to coat theses super-simple cookies (2 ingredients!) at cake-decorating supply stores or well-stocked supermarkets.
Recipe: Palmiers
Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Cookies
The best accompaniment to these indulgent cookies is a cold glass of milk. The recipe was developed by Marlene Sorosky Gray, the award-winning author of The Dessert Lover’s Cookbook.
Zucchini Cookies
You can’t taste the zucchini in these cookies, but it adds vitamins, fiber, and a nice moist texture.
Recipe: Zucchini Cookies
Peanut-Chocolate Macaron
For best results, bake these French-style macaron on cooking parchment.
Recipe: Peanut-Chocolate Macaron
Sandbakelser (Sand Tarts)
The Sandbakelsers come from Florence Erickson Burrows Fowler. They’re traditionally baked in small, fluted tart pans, available where specialty or Scandinavian bakeware is sold.
Recipe: Sandbakelser
Scottish Shortbread and Brown Sugar Masa Shortbread
Masa flour (available in well-stocked supermarkets) and coconut give these buttery wedges of Brown Sugar Masa Shortbread an earthy flavor and texture.
Recipe: Brown Sugar Masa Shortbread
Recipe: Scottish Shortbread
Stained-Glass Cookies
These pretty cutouts have translucent candy windows.
Recipe: Stained-Glass Cookies
Twin Stars & Lemon Sugar Cookies
Decorate these thick, soft Lemon Sugar Cookies with powdered sugar icing and chopped candied peel, or, before baking, sprinkle them with large crystal sugar, available at baking supply stores.
Recipe: Lemon Sugar Cookies
Recipe: Twin Stars
Walnut-Lemon Packets & Napoleon’s Hats
Napoleon’s Hats are almond-filled pastries shaped like three-cornered hats. When she smells them baking, Ellen Taylor of Rathdrum, Idaho, always remembers her grandmother’s Christmas baking.
Recipe: Napoleon’s Hats
Recipe: Walnut-Lemon Packets (pictured)
Crisp Oatmeal-Fruit Strips
You can store these crunchy oatmeal-raisin cookies airtight for up to 3 days.
Recipe: Crisp Oatmeal-Fruit Strips
Sugar- and Spice-Dusted Ginger Chew Cookies
These may look humble, but they have big, beautiful flavors.
Almond Butter Crescents
Warmed with a hint of cinnamon, these delicately sweet cookies have a slightly sandy texture and taste great with a glass of Moroccan mint tea.
Recipe: Almond Butter Crescents
Chocolate Hazelnut Domes
You won’t be able to stop at just one of these of these rich, nut-studded chocolate cookies.
Recipe: Chocolate Hazelnut Domes
Matcha Whoopie Pies
“I grew up inhaling whoopie pies, bless my mother’s soul,” says cookbook author Eric Gower. “Although I would like to offer her recipe, I’m afraid that just reading the quantity of trans fats (Crisco) called for might incite cardiac arrest! This healthier version tastes even better.”
Recipe: Matcha Whoopie Pies
Ice Cream Gingersnap Sandwiches
The trick to a good ice cream sandwich: Make it and freeze it only briefly before eating, or thaw until at least slightly pliable.
Recipe: Ice Cream Gingersnap Sandwiches
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