Fa-La-La Fabulous! 12 Cookies for the 12 Days of Christmas


Hi Reader,

Take a hike, lords-a-leaping—we've got stand mixers-a-mixing.

Instead of twelve drummers drumming, may I introduce you to a dozen friends who are far more attractive and certainly more tasty!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies

And, unlike those golden rings everyone's singing about, these won't require a second mortgage on your house.

Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

These festive cookies are adorned with sweet-tart dried cranberries and crunchy pistachios. They're the perfect addition to your holiday cookie collection.
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Italian Rainbow Cookies

Italian Rainbow cookies are popular at Christmas, when they are called Neapolitan or Venetian cookies, perhaps to denote the colors of the flag of Italy.
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Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

These peanut butter blossom cookies are, like chewy and chocolatey like the classic but they also go a little glam with the addition of Guittard milk chocolate wafers. Otherwise, they're exactly the same as the kiss cookies your mom had waiting for you after school.
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Christmas Sugar Cookies

This Christmas cookie recipe has evolved over the years. These days, I prefer to roll out a softer, 1/4-inch (6.5 mm) thick cookie compared to when I was younger and desired a thinner, crispier cookie.
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Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

These old-fashioned peanut butter cookies, made with sugar, flour, peanut butter, and eggs, are like the cookies you grew up with, crispy, chewy, and peanut buttery.
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Gingerbread Men Cookies

Gingerbread men cookies are that are simple to make and subtle in taste. Our kinda Christmas cookie.
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Classic Shortbread Cookies

These classic shortbread cookies are made with just 5 ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and a pinch of sea salt. A simple, perfect approach to a beloved Scottish tradition that's a perfect Christmas cookie.
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Viennese Crescent Cookies

Viennese crescent cookies are a tradition in Austria. They're made with hazelnuts, shaped like a half-moon, and dusted with confectioners' sugar. One nibble and we think you'll understand why they're a classic.
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Biscochitos

These biscochitos are a New Mexican Christmas cookie classic. Their trademark flaky texture and flavor comes from using lard in the dough, along with cinnamon, sugar, anise, and brandy.
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Chocolate Ginger Crinkle Cookies

These chocolate ginger crinkle cookies are a pleasing riff on a familiar (and easy!) Christmas standby. Chunks of crystallized ginger and dark chocolate make for a rather grown-up experience of a childhood classic.
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Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen are traditional German Christmas cookies that are subtly reminiscent of gingerbread. Although actually, we prefer to refer to them as "moments of perfectly spiced cut-out cookie deliciousness."
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

It’s simple: chocolate cookie dough surrounds a peanut butter center, and the whole is dredged in sugar before baking. In the oven, the cookie spreads out, and like magic, you end up with a peanut butter center between two wonderful chocolate layers.
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