Here we provide you with essential information to get started and drive your enjoyment of Christmas cookies. We include products that we believe our readers will find useful.
From melted fingerprints to cheesy but classic peanut butter colors to crunchy cookies, there’s hardly a bad Christmas cookie. (We can’t say the same about every holiday dessert)
If you’re wondering where to start with that eye-catching cookies after dinner, we’ve got you covered. We’ll show you everything you need to know about sweet success, including individual biscuit types, baking tips, and interesting recipes that your grandma won’t appeal to.
A brief history of Christmas cookies
The butter-and-flour delights we all enjoy at Christmas don’t just come from the holiday mood. Indeed, delicious traditions have an interesting background.
Since prehistoric times, people have gathered to celebrate the changing of the seasons – especially the winter solstice – and have always served up the most decadent of food. After medieval merchant ships brought “exotic” spices and fruits such as oranges and lemons to European shores, chefs began incorporating them into their cookies for special occasions, along with other valuable ingredients such as butter, lard, and sugar. From here, the very special spicy and fruity holiday dishes flow into the modern era.
Oh, and the habit of leaving cookies and milk for Santa? He has his own funny story. During the Depression, parents want to encourage their children to think of others as they enjoy their own gifts — and also thank cheerful donors in red suits. A plate of cookies is a thank you for Santa’s generosity.
What Makes a Holiday cookie?
There is no official recipe requirement to enter the holiday biscuit canon. While many use spices like cinnamon, ginger, or cloves – which date back to the Middle Ages – and many use butter and flour as a base, anything that looks festive (and tastes great) can be called festive.
In fact, certain recipes that are only saved for the holidays are what make them unique and special. Knowing that you only bake your famous new Mexican cookies or chocolate icing sugar cookies once a year, you’d expect a lot more.
- Make Christmas cookies very special.
- It’s starting to look like Christmas. Try these tips to enhance that holiday feeling.
- Add a little paint by spraying.
- Make festive decorations with crushed candies.
- Enhance common cookie recipes with mixtures such as mini marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, or dried or candied fruit.
- Rub the orange zest or add chopped fresh herbs to a bowl of a light batter.
- Presentation is everything! Serve Christmas cookies in unique tins, on beautiful trays, or in boxes with colorful ribbons.
- When sharing your cookies, match them with a handwritten note for a happy holiday.
Common types of Christmas cookies
You can create unique signature cookies during the holidays. (Would you like to make neon pink stickers or cookie cutters for Taylor Swift and her cat? You can!) However, some varieties appear more frequently at the end of the Christmas buffet. Here are five classic types.
Pressed cookies
No pressure! Indeed, wait – a lot of pressure! Cookies of all kinds are made with a tool that presses the dough into a unique shape. A popular example is the spray biscuit extruded from a biscuit gun with a stencil-like disc attached. The result is a thin, greasy star, a wreath, and a happy tree.
Likewise, pizza, also known as traditional Italian waffle biscuit, is pressed with an iron. (Like a waffle iron, but smaller and with a more sophisticated pattern.) Depending on the ingredients, pizza can be crispy like a waffle or softer like a breakfast waffle. However you prepare it, the iron tip or color pattern allows you to actually put your own stamp on the Christmas cookies.
Drop cookies
For simple cookies, you may be able to opt-out of cookie recipes at any time. It’s exactly what it sounds like: Place the dough on a baking sheet and bake. Chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal crackers, and peanut butter crackers all fall into this culinary category – but so do other more festive treats like cherry jam fingerprints, chocolate chips with powdered sugar, and white pumpkin sweet.
Sliced cookies
Sliced cookies begin with butter dough (usually a sugar cookie recipe) that is rolled flat to about a quarter-inch thick, sliced, and baked. From now on, it’s a cool blank canvas – so if you’re looking to make a firm biscuit, cutouts are the place for your creativity to shine. Quirky cookie cutters in the shape of a ninja gingerbread man or an ugly sweater, add fun and humor to the dessert.
Not a fan of regular sugar cookie dough? You can always make the clippings with additional herbs, add grated orange zest or fresh herbs, or opt for the chocolate version.
Cookies with freezer compartment
For that old-fashioned holiday charm, there’s nothing better than an ice cream pie. Today we know things as simple as cutting cookies and baking, but when they were first introduced, they had a real name because their dough could be pulled, cut, and baked right out of the fridge.
We all buy store-bought diary cookies for cookies when time is short, but homemade ice cream crackers have more potential. Cutting the rolled dough vertically is an excellent opportunity to display swirls of color in a biscuit with a rotating wheel. Or roll whole stems in spritzers or grated coconut to crisp the outer edges of cookies.
Cookies bar
Do blocks really count as cookies? We will give them passports for the holidays. After all, who can resist classics like warm and spicy gingerbread and gooey cookies? In addition to their delicious thickness, the grate offers easy, hassle-free grilling in the pan. Cutting and serving is often easier than molding or sculpting cookies.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that the taste or presentation of the bar has to be simple. Seven-layer bars, copies of candy-like homemade Twix bars, and bars with cinnamon sopapila are impressive and comforting treats.
How to make delicious cookies every time?
- Which butter temperature is better for the dough? (Say three times quickly!) The best level is usually just below room temperature, around 65 degrees.
- Away from the mixer! Too much dough can make the cookies tough, too hard, so stir until the ingredients light up.
- When measuring flour, spoon and flatten in cups instead of scooping cups into flour bags.
- Choose a light-colored cookie sheet. The dark ones absorb heat by making crispy pastries.
- Refrigeration: Weather permitting, refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes before baking. This will help mix the flavors and solidify the fat in the dough.
- Always cool the cookies completely before storing them and store them in an airtight container.
Luxury cookies on vacation
These allergy-safe cookies are naturally gluten and dairy-free – no fussing. The simple list of four ingredients includes a gluten-free flour mix and vegan butter. Get your cookies gun and hit it!
Christmas cookies with wheels
Elevate the baking sheet to a bakery-level presentation by crushing these eye-catching swirls. With swirls of red and white on the inside and splashes of color on the outside, they disappear before you can say “happy and bright”.
Hot chocolate cookies
Everyone loves to drink hot chocolate by the fire – how about a biscuit version of your favorite chocolate drink? These brownie-like cookies are covered with half-melted marshmallows and then topped with chocolate icing.
Christmas cookies for special diet
Since butter and flour are the two main ingredients in most cookies, the prospect of holiday baking can be daunting for those on a gluten and dairy-free diet. Others who need to follow a low-sodium, low-carb, or vegan eating plan may also fear the cookies-free holiday is coming.
Fortunately, there is a one-ingredient solution to almost every dietary restriction.
When baking, the universal gluten-free flour mix can usually be substituted 1 to 1 with regular flour. And people without dairy have other options than butter. Vegetable oil, vegetable or olive oil, apple puree, and even avocado puree can add creamy goodness to most cookies recipes. Aren’t you making eggs? Try flaxseed or buy a vegan egg substitute. With a little trial and error, you’ll be doing something great cookie.
FAQs
What is the most popular Christmas cookie recipe and what is a traditional Columbian Christmas cookie recipe?
Classic Cookies – These peanut butter colors are easy to make and perfect for your holiday cookie plate or to replace sweets. They make great Christmas cookies, but all year round!
Ingredients
Flour: we use regular all-purpose flour.
White Sugar and Brown Sugar: Mixing sugar is essential in this recipe. In addition to sweetening the cookies, the sugar mixture helps the texture and moisture of the cookies. And did you know that brown sugar is acidic (it’s made from molasses) so it helps activate baking soda?
Baking Soda: You will need baking soda to rise and rise the cookies.
Salt: Salt helps balance the taste.
Vegetable fat: we usually use butter in cookies, but we like to use fat for this recipe. If you are using butter, be sure to place the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to prevent the dough from spreading. While we usually like the buttery taste of cookies, we prefer buttery cookies, not only because of the texture but the peanut butter flavor that stands out so much in these cookies.
Peanut butter: For baking, we always recommend avoiding natural peanut butter. we like to use Jif or Skippy – if you use natural peanut butter, you get drier, crumbly cookies.
Dairy: You only need a small amount of milk, so whatever you have will work.
Vanilla: we always say to use pure extract. The taste will shine!
Eggs: You will only need one egg for this entire batch. This will add a bit of fullness to the cookie and help with texture and lift.
Chocolate Kisses: Fun Chocolate Center! we’ve only ever used a simple chocolate kiss. You can add any flavored kiss, but make sure it goes well with the peanut butter.
How to make peanut butter flowers?
MIXING: Mix the ingredients until a firm dough forms.
ROLLER: Roll into a ball. we like to use a cookie spoon so they are the same size. Roll the balls in sugar and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or parchment paper.
BAKING: Bake the cookies until golden brown. Don’t let it boil!
After: As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, press a kiss in the center of each biscuit. This will melt a little on the hot cookies which will help them stick. Don’t forget to do this as soon as you take the cookies out of the oven!
what is a good and spicy Christmas cookie recipe?
- 1 cup packaged brown sugar
- 2 cups molasses
- a glass of butter
- vegetable oil glass
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 4 cups universal flour
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cloves
Preparation tips:
Step 1
Mix sugar, molasses, butter or margarine, and oil together. Add 2 cups flour and baking powder, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. Mix the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is firm. Press flat against the slices and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Step 2
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Step 3
Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface and use a cookie cutter to cut into the shape you want. Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake at 175°C for 8 minutes.
How the grinch stole the Christmas cookie recipe?
- These green cookies start with my easy sugar cookie recipe. They’re soft and chewy, and the best news is the no-refrigeration recipe! Because it’s a holiday, right? There is no time to wait for cookie dough to cool.
- These ornate grin cookies are easy too! Just a little green food coloring and a splash of heart will suffice.
- They are so cute and perfect for a biscuit plate or gift. Or make a bunch of these Christmas Grinch cookies and mess them up for Christmas movie night!
- Grinch Cookies set on the metal rack after cooling
- ingredients
- Butter and sugar: I always use unsalted butter and soft granulated sugar in my sugar cookies
- Whole egg plus yolk: my secret to chewing sugar cookies!
- Vanilla extract, baking powder, salt, flour: the signature ingredients of cookies
- Cream of tartar: keeps cookies soft
Decorations: Green food coloring and a splash of hearts to make a GRINCH!
How to Make Grinch Cookies?
- Beat butter and sugar until smooth: Beat butter and sugar in a blender (or large bowl with a hand mixer) until frothy. This only takes about a minute.
- Mix the dough: add the whole egg, additional yolk, and vanilla, and continue to mix until smooth. Mix baking powder, tartar, and salt.
Add flour and mix until a cookies batter forms.
- For the green: Add a few drops of food coloring to the cookies mix and stir until the mixture is well combined.
- Spoons: Form two tablespoons of dough to form each cookie dough ball. Put them on the baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Decorate and Bake: Place a heart on one side of each biscuit, then bake the cookies for 11 to 15 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden brown and the tops are no longer shiny.