12 cookie recipes to sweeten your holidays
Bake the season bright with treats from traditional and trending, to spicy and plant-based.
December always promises a flurry of activity. It kicks off with decorating and shopping trips and ends in get-togethers, gift-giving, and anxiety. It can be an intense, exhausting month, but there’s another constant that sees us through its ups and downs: cookies.
Each year, like clockwork, internet users’ interest in “cookies” crescendoes in December. Be they chocolate chip, gingerbread, or pizzelle, cookies connote the holidays. Why do they take the cake in a dessert-heavy season? Maybe it’s because you can sample several in one sitting, or they’re gift-able, or they’re easy to make.
Whatever the reason, The Inquirer is here for peak cookie season. We gathered 12 recipes, from both Philly bakers and social media, that are approachable, intriguing, and sure to make an excellent addition to this year’s holiday desserts table. — Jenn Ladd
A special thanks to Drexel University’s Department of Food & Hospitality Management for baking these recipes for The Inquirer. Particular thanks to Anne Fraser-Jones, Grace Mailey, Zack Burger, Olivia Stewart, Maxel Kurniawan Suhenda, Victoria Sanchez-Galarza, Brenda Rodriguez-Leonardo, Rebekah Pelkington, Emily Wolfe, Isabella Gigliotti, Caleb Lederman, Vritika Narra, Zae’Onah Howell, and Rosemary Trout.
Some of these recipes call for ingredients that can be hard to find. You can of course order them on Amazon, but if you’d like to shop local, The Inquirer found a great selection of hard-to-find ingredients and baking equipment in the Reading Terminal Market (at Head Nut and The Herbiary) and Fante’s Kitchen Shop in the Italian Market.
While many home bakers use measuring cups and spoons to whip up a batch of cookies, professional bakers almost always measure out ingredients by weight using a scale. We have included measurements both by weight and volume. Use whatever you feel comfortable with.
If you have not yet invested in a home scale, there's a compelling reason to do so: It makes cleanup easier. When measuring out something sticky like maple syrup or honey, you can simply put the bowl it's destined for on the scale, zero out its weight, then add the ingredient directly to the bowl. No mess involved.
These classic sandwich cookies look fancy, but they’re actually “super-easy,” says baker Abby Dahan, who’s currently the executive pastry chef for Samuel’s in Center City. She recommends using Bonne Maman preserves as a shortcut for the filling. While some cookie doughs benefit from chilling, this one rolls out easiest immediately after mixing. If possible, use a fluted cookie cutter for the top cookies.
226 grams (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
120 grams (1 cup) powdered sugar
1 extra-large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
226 grams (1¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
120 grams (1 cup plus 3 tablespoons) almond flour
4 grams (1 teaspoon) salt
In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on low speed until fully combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly, scraping as needed. Add the dry ingredients on low speed and mix until well combined. The dough will be soft and pliable.
Place the dough between two large sheets of parchment paper, then roll it out to slightly under ¼-inch thickness. Place in the freezer until firm enough to cut. When cold but pliable, cut into 1 or 1½-inch circles. Transfer to a lined sheet pan. Cut a window in half of the cookies using a smaller cookie cutter or the small end of a piping tip.
Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit until very gently brown on the perimeter, about 11 to 13 minutes; rotate the tray halfway through baking. The cookies should be mostly blonde. Cool completely before filling.
Using a spoon or a piping bag, fill the cookies with jam, marmalade, or lemon curd.
