Christmas Cookies Recipes

Bizcochitos are delicate anise-flavored sugar cookies dipped in cinnamon sugar. They are made and served throughout New Mexico. The dough creates a lovely crisp cookie that is easy to cut out and handle. If you'd rather decorate these from Christmas, simply add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the dough and skip the dipping in cinnamon sugar – now you have a delicious twist on the traditional sugar cookie!

These little pocket cookies are like homemade Fig Newtons® - except the filling has currants, walnuts, and a bit of Christmas cheer from a bottle to give them a grown-up edge. Omit the alcohol, if you like, they are just as delicious.

These little meringues are great to make at Christmas time – as long as you live somewhere dry! The meringue needs to "dry out" to cook, and those crisp and airy baked egg whites will soak up moisture from the air if they can. The arid winter air and indoor heating of the Northeast, Midwest, and Mountain States is the perfect environment for these cookies to last forever. If, however, you live somewhere where rain and humidity define winter weather, file this one away for when things dry up.

These crowd-pleasers are part soft chocolate cookie and part scrumptious and spicy ginger cookie - it's a case where the sum is greater than the parts. Chocolate Ginger cookies keep at least a week when stored in a cookie tin, and they're easy enough to simply whip up another batch if you run out (and you will!).

This recipe for Gingerbread Men (or People or Santas or Reindeer!) is that perfect mix of great ginger flavor, dough that's easy to handle, a cookie that is both tasty enough to dig into and sturdy enough to hang on a tree. Don't forget to poke a hole in each cookie before baking if you want to use them as ornaments!

A little rye flour in traditional sugar cookies adds a great nutty flavor. These cookeis are common in Scandinavia and at my house, where they disappear every time I turn around.

Snowballs, tea cakes, wedding cookies... I don't care what you call these, just always make sure this beautiful, tempting cookies are around at Christmas. This recipe has the option of using some buckwheat flour in the dough – it actually enhances that sandy and delicate texture these cookies are famous for, so give it a try!