Holiday Cookies 2024

Life has been a whirlwind for the last two months and the poor blog has been neglected. But the kitchen has been as busy as ever, especially this weekend when I launched my annual holiday baking marathon and made 7 cookies/treats in 2 days- five batches on Saturday, one dough made at end of day to rest overnight, and the final two batches on Sunday. My two helpers were my 8 year old son and a sweet friend who came by to spend the afternoon and bake with us. 

5 of the 7 cookies of 2024

I tried to select recipes that was a good mix--

• Some with chocolate, some with spices, some with fruit and nuts
• Some old recipes and some new recipes and techniques
• Some plain and some decorated
• Some crunchy and some chewy

Chocolate crinkles: I discovered this cookie last year when I made this recipe twice. It is definitely a crowd favorite with a deep chocolate flavor and an interesting look. The dough needs to be chilled for 3 hours but otherwise comes together very quickly. 

Cherry shortbread: I've made various types of shortbread before, but this recipe looked interesting because it includes cornstarch, making it an especially tender cookie. This is a good choice for a low-maintenance cookie to make with kids- a stand mixer is not needed and the dough is easily made in a bowl. There is no chilling required. Kids can enjoy making balls of dough, flattening them with forks and decorating the cookie with a halved cherry or some sprinkles before baking.

Chewy molasses cookies: These cookies look quite plain but they taste fantastic and are full of the rich flavor of spices and molasses. I used this recipe which came together very easily, with a dough that requires no chilling. 

Pecan snowballs: I've seen these cookies for years- a beloved holiday cookie that is variously called snowballs, Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cookies, Swedish tea balls, etc. This was my first time trying this traditional cookie and it was probably my favorite new cookie this year. We used this recipe and the success of the recipe depends very much on careful and patient chopping of the pecans, which my friend did beautifully. 

Brownie trees: We made brownie trees last year and they were so popular and adorable. We had to make this cute themed treat again this year, included for the "aww" factor if nothing else. This was the one my son was most involved in and it was the only not-from-scratch treat. We simply used boxed brownie mix and premade cookie icing. Look at last year's post to see how to make the cuts in a 9 x 13 pan of brownies. 

Cranberry pistachio biscotti: Biscotti is a must-have in any cookie box, IMO, a very dunkable cookie in all sorts of hot beverages. 
I used my go-to almond biscotti recipe that I've made for years and simply added a lot of chopped pistachios and chopped cranberries in place of the almonds. So good! 

Pastry twists: This was probably the most ambitious recipe I tried this year. The recipe just looked so intriguing- Swedish sour cream twists. It is an enriched yeast dough that chills overnight and then is rolled and folded with sugar before being cut into strips, twisted and baked. I thoughts my results were pretty good for the first try. The twists taste quite plain but would be great with a flavorful drink like hot chocolate or mulled cider. 

I impulse-purchased some cute little paper gingerbread house boxes to package the cookies this year.

Peeking into a house box

The gingerbread house cookie box

* * *

On November 1, when we celebrated Diwali with a few friends, I wanted a fruit and nut cookie and tried this unfussy rugelach recipe. I think this came from a desire to try something adjacent to the Diwali classic treats chirote and karanji, with all the flaky goodness and sweet filling but without deep frying. 

The dough calls for mixing butter and cream cheese and flour in the stand mixer or food processor. I made some mistakes in pulling the dough together (processing the flour with cream cheese made it sticky and it did not incorporate the cold butter chunks- which were cut too big- very well) and still. This was the closest thing to puff pastry I've ever made. The dough is fantastic and worth making for many applications. This was definitely my other favorite cookie of the year.

The Diwali treat tray with coconut burfi, cookies,
and store-bought chakli and bourbon biscuits

Three of my favorite store-bought cookies:

• Bourbon biscuits from the Indian store
• Triple ginger cookies from Trader Joe's 
• La Dolce Vita classic biscotti from Costco

Happy Holidays to all, and I'm hoping to post more regularly from now on.