Topic: Christmas cookies

Please Stop Bringing Me Unhealthy Cookies For Christmas

Please Stop Bringing Me Unhealthy Cookies For Christmas

Dear neighbors, friends, co-workers and other well-meaning holiday-spirited individuals,

Please stop bringing me unhealthy Christmas cookies. It’s not that I’m not grateful for your thoughtfulness, because I truly am. And it’s not that I don’t love sweets, because, ask anyone who knows me, I do. But here’s the thing: I don’t want them.

I can only imagine how much work it takes to bake all of these cookies, but if you’re going to go to so much trouble, might I be so bold as to suggest a few alternatives? More »

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Brown Sugar Pecan Sandies

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Brown Sugar Pecan Sandies

If you didn’t get around to all the holiday baking you’d hoped, good news: The 12 days of Christmas officially began yesterday, so you’ve still got an excuse to keep making cookies like these Pecan Sandies. The other good news is that these are extremely simple to make (you don’t even need cookie cutters), but they taste and look like you’ve labored over them over your entire holiday weekend. More »

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Healthy Orange-Cardamom Madeleines

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Healthy Orange-Cardamom Madeleines

Madeleines aren’t a conventional holiday cookie (and they’re not usually that healthy) but they’ve always been one of my favorite treats, so I’ll always lobby to put them on a holiday cookie platter. I love the fluffy, buttery traditional kind that Dorie Greenspan makes in her cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours, but I’ve been feeling the weight of a lot of white flour and sugar over the last couple of weeks (you try the cookie (or two)-a-day diet and see how it feels!), so I added some whole wheat to her recipe, and changed the spices to make these a little more festive. More »

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Raspberry-Filled Swedish Rye Cookies

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Raspberry-Filled Swedish Rye Cookies

I adapted these cookies from a recipe on one of my favorite cooking blogs, 101 cookbooks, and have loved them ever since. They’re completely whole grain, and though they do contain sugar, they’re not over-sweet, making them healthy and, in my opinion, delicious. My addition of raspberry jam not only complements the rye and cream-cheese flavors in the cookies, but it also makes them look particularly festive this time of year. More »

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Ginger Brownie Buttons

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Ginger Brownie Buttons

I love: holiday baking. I hate: holiday dishes. A lot of cookie recipes call for multiple bowls, mixers, tools, and pans, which result in lovely cookies and a very un-lovely kitchen sink. That’s why I’m a fan of these ginger brownie buttons: They require very few tools and no complicated gadgets (and the ingredients are just about as simple) but they’re no less impressive or tasty once they’re on the table. The ginger adds a spice to the chocolate that makes them way better than those chunks of plain chocolate fudge your Mom used to make, and because they’re made in miniature muffin tins, they also bake quickly and are far less messy than a traditional brownie bar. More »

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Blue Cornmeal Shortbread

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Blue Cornmeal Shortbread

Cornmeal is one of my favorite “surprise” baking ingredients – it lends great texture, and unlike a lot of other whole grain flours, the flavor isn’t so strong that it overshadows the vanillas, spices, or fruits placed alongside it. It also happens to fit perfectly with a very traditional cookie recipe’s ubiquitous this time of year: Shortbread. There are endless variations on shortbread, but blue cornmeal makes these stand out. These cookies also make me think of luminarias and eating “Christmas” enchiladas in the southwest; not bland, store-bought shortbread that begs for some kind of beverage to make it palatable. More »

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Mint Chocolate Thumbprints

12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes: Mint Chocolate Thumbprints

On the first day of Christmas, doesn’t everyone want their true love to just give them a really good cookie? We think so. We do a lot of nagging about all the things you should and shouldn’t eat, but this time of year, it’s time to indulge in some really awesome cookies. So for 12 days, from now until Christmas, we’ll give you one mouth-watering good cookie recipe a day. We promise they’ll be worthy of busting your diet and busting out your mixer, and we’ll give you plenty of options (from crowd-pleasers to last-minute bars).

We’re kicking it off with Chocolate Mint Thumbprints, from the new book Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. More »

Best Christmas Cookies to Ship for the Holidays: One Girl Cookies

Best Christmas Cookies to Ship for the Holidays: One Girl Cookies

Our personal favorites? One Girl Cookies, based in Brooklyn, New York. Any and all cookies from this tiny, independent bakery/cafe run by a husband and wife team ship extremely well. Each delicate cookie bears a pretty girl’s name in either the Classic or Chocolate Collection. (We’re big fans of Lucia, Lana, Penelope, and Cecilia.) But you really can’t go wrong: They’re all fresh, delicious, and lovingly made by hand from the best available ingredients. And small enough so that you can eat a lot of them and not feel totally guilty. More »

50 Cute and Tasty Christmas Cookie Ideas

50 Cute and Tasty Christmas Cookie Ideas

I love baking Christmas cookies, and every year I’m on the hunt for cute new Christmas cookie ideas. I thought I’d do a little roundup of some of the best christmas cookies I’ve found this year. If you have a favorite or unique christmas cookie recipe please be sure to add it to the comment section. I’m always on the lookout to add to my collection. More »