Christmas Cookie Recipes

Christmas cookie recipes can fill your home with wonderful aromas while filling your heart with joy.

Cookies are little morsels of happiness and in this season of joy and celebration, they not only spread that joy but also make your home smell fantastic. Christmas cookie recipes usually include spices, with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and, especially, clove as major players in holiday cookies.

I like to make ginger snaps because the recipe makes a lot of tiny cookies, which allows my friends to indulge in several cookies without feeling too much guilt.

• ¾ cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 well-beaten eggs
• ½ cup of molasses
• 2 teaspoons of vinegar
• 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Using your stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy.
3. While the butter and sugar are mixing, sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
4. To the butter, add the 2 eggs, molasses, and vinegar.
5. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture about ½ a cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl periodically.
6. Form the dough into half-inch balls.
7. Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet or half-sheet pan with parchment paper or spray it with non-stick spray.
8. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes.
9. Makes about 30 cookies.

These cookies are packed with chocolate and the clove adds a bit of a surprise to them.

• 1 ¼ cups of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon ground clove
• 1 stick of butter
• 6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate
• 6 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate
• 6 ounces of milk chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

1. Don’t worry if you do not have a scale. Most bags of chocolate chips weigh about 12 ounces, so just use half a bag of each or double the recipe and use one whole bag of each kind of chocolate chip.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. In a small saucepan over a very low flame, melt the butter and the bittersweet chocolate.
4. Once the butter and chocolate are completely melted, remove them from the heat and let them cool.
5. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and clove.
6. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, and brown sugar.
7. Add the cooled butter/chocolate mixture to the egg mixture.
8. Using a whisk or a fork, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients.
9. Fold in the remaining chocolate chips.
10. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it chill in your refrigerator for at least two hours.
11. Once the dough is completely chilled, form it into one inch balls.
12. Place the balls on a cookie sheet or half-sheet pan with parchment paper or spray it with non-stick spray.
13. Space the balls at least one inch apart.
14. Bake the cookies for 14 minutes, rotating the pan front to back after seven minutes.
15. Makes about 24 cookies.

Struffoli are an important part of the Christmas celebration, at least they were when I was growing up. Struffoli aren’t actually cookies, but once you try them you’ll be hooked.

• 1 cup of all purpose flour (you will need a little more for dusting the dough as you knead it)
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 cup of honey (this is used for coating the struffoli)
• Multi colored nonpareils (used to coat decorate the struffoli after you coat them with the honey)
• Vegetable oil (enough to fry the struffoli)

1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Add the eggs and stir with a fork until fully incorporated.
3. Place the dough onto a lightly floured cutting board.
4. Knead the dough until it becomes soft and smooth being careful not to overknead it. Only knead it for about five minutes or so.
5. Shape the dough into a ball.
6. Cover the dough lightly with plastic wrap. Don’t cover the dough tightly, the plastic is just there to keep it moist.
7. Let the dough rest for half an hour.
8. Slice the dough into 1 inch thick slices.
9. Roll the slices into ½ inch strands.
10. Cut the strands into ½ inch long bits.
11. Set up a drying rack by placing a rack in a half sheet tray or on a cookie sheet.
12. You may want to place parchment paper under the rack to catch the oil.
13. Using a medium sized pot, pour enough vegetable oil to come up about half way to the top of the pot.
14. Heat the oil to 370 degrees. If you don’t have a frying thermometer, turn the flame up to a medium and wait a few minutes. The oil is hot enough when a test dough dropped into it turns golden brown in about a minute.
15. Once the oil is hot enough, place a dozen or so struffoli into the oil.
16. Fry them until they are golden brown, then use a slotted spoon to move them to the drying rack.
17. Continue frying the struffoli until all the dough is fried.
18. Using a small sauce pan, heat the honey until it is just simmering.
19. Place the struffoli in a large bowl.
20. Pour the honey over the struffoli and toss them to coat them with honey.
21. Pour the struffoli onto a large plate and sprinkle them with the nonpareils.
22. Watch them disappear.

This is a good start to your Christmas cookie recipe collection. As you find cookies that you like, add them to your recipe box and start your own traditions.

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