Post a recipe, what is your favorite Christmas cookie?

So baking some cookies for a bake sale to benefit a dog rescue I volunteer with I was thinking about what kinds of Christmas or other holiday cookies you enjoy baking or eating growing up? This isn't one from growing up, but a newly discovered one that I absolutely love.

Sparkling Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Butter, softened
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract(I usually double this becuase I love peppermint)
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup crushed mini candy canes or peppermint candies
1/4 cup crystal or sparkly sugar

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

Combine 3/4 cup sugar, butter, egg, vanilla and peppermint extract in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Beat until well mixed. Stir 1/4 cup crushed candy into dough.

Stir remaining 1/4 cup crushed candy into 1/4 cup sugar.

Shape dough into 3/4-inch balls; roll in sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. (DO NOT OVER BAKE.) Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire cooling rack. Cool completely. Recipe Tip- To crush candy canes or peppermint candies, place into resealable plastic food bag; smash with rolling pin or bottom of heavy saucepan.

- For a more sparkling affect, mix finely crushed candy canes with coarse grain sugar.

Too bad not more love to this thread. Christmas cookies are important.

Missed this thread the first time. While it's technically more appropriate for getting rid of the left-overs from a different holiday, I've become a big fan of Chocolate caramel matzah crunch. It's easy and fun to make, and has always turned out great.

Is it bad to just like the plain old sugar cookie? They come in all shapes, and taste like sugary buttered goodness!

This thread has reminded me to get a recipe from my mom though... if they come out as good as I remember, I may be adding an actual contribution here.

I'll have to dig out the recipe later, but I love Anise Sugar Cookies with a thin glaze of icing. My grandma always had them when I was growing up. My mom never liked them, but that meant more for the rest of us. I think the trick is to find a good Sugar Cookie recipe and substitute Anise extract for the Vanilla extract, but I'll double check and get back with you.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/scottis...

Basic Scottish Scortbread.

2 cups of butter

1 cup of dark brown sugar

4-4.5 cups of AP flour (depends on the humidity around you).

These cookies are very bad for your heart.

Sand Tarts (Pennsylvania Dutch variety)

Dough

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
2 egg yolks, 1 egg white (save extra egg white for wash)
3 c. flour (sifted)

Topping

1 egg white
Sugar and cinnamon, ground/slivered almonds, colored sugar, or whatever else you desire.

Cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
Add 2 egg yolks, 1 egg white, and flour. Mix well.
Place dough in refrigerator for 2 hours until chilled.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove dough as needed from refrigerator. Work with small amounts on a floured surface. Roll out as thin as you can! (If you can see through it slightly, that's good.)
Cut cookies into shapes.
Whip egg white, and brush on cookies.
Sprinkle cookies with topping of choice.
Place cookies on parchment-covered cookie sheet and bake for up to 10 minutes. Watch them - they burn easily.

This makes a LOT of cookies, depending on how thin they are. They're also a lot of work to make.

Swedish pepparkakor

Pfeffernüsse
"Peppernuts"

6.5 ounces of honey
2.5 ounces of sugar
13.25 ounces of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of gingerbread spice
3/8 teaspoon of white pepper
2 eggs

Powdered sugar and water for a glaze.

(I strongly recommend using a mixer. Nothing says 'arm-cramp' like trying to manually mix honey and flour!)

Put the flour, baking soda, and spices into a bowl and mix together.
Warm the honey, add the sugar, and stir until the sugar is fully dissolved in the honey.
Add the honey into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Once there are no more pockets of flour add the two eggs and continue mixing. The mixture should first crumble, and then slowly begin forming clumps.
Take the dough and form small balls. The process I use is to scoop enough dough to fill a table-spoon and then break that in half to form two balls. Using this process you should get about 45- 60 cookies.
Arrange the balls on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10-13 minutes. The tops should just start getting just a hint of brown when they are finished.

If you prefer a gingerbread texture, let the cookies cool, then glaze.
If you would like to try the more 'nutty' texture, allow the cookies to dry overnight, then glaze.

I'm a huge snickerdoodles fan. Simple cookie but delicious.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mrs-siggs-snickerdoodles/

Apologies for not posting the actual recipe, but it's not easy to copy things off of Allrecipes.

Giada de Laurentiis's fig and walnut cookies:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/g...

Tanglebones wrote:

Giada de Laurentiis

FTFY

Forgot i had posted this...too many batches of cookies ago....and one more new one I discovered that I like, the cornmeal gives it a bit more texture, decorate as you choose...

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup plain white cornmeal
Sparkling sugar

Preparation
Preheat oven to 300°.

Beat granulated sugar and butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy.

Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

Whisk together flour and cornmeal; gradually add to sugar mixture, beating just until blended.

Roll to 1/4-inch thickness on a heavily floured surface.

Cut with a 3 1/4-inch star-shaped cutter; decorate with sparkling sugar.

Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake 14 to 16 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool completely on wire racks (about 20 minutes).

Technically not a holiday snack, Monster Cookies.