Holiday Cookies

A Cookie for Everyone

A great holiday cookie platter is a big mix — of flavors, textures, colors, and more. To put together the ultimate spread, choose one of the flavors below, then pick a few recipes from that category, making sure to select a variety of textures and styles. Repeat until you have a collection of recipes that every cookie eater — from the fudgy cookie fanatics to the snappy shortbread buffs — can dig in to.


Choose Your Flavor

Flavor

Chocolate

Gooey

Chocolate-Molasses Thumbprints

Chocolate Molasses Thumbprints

Here’s what you get when you cross a ginger-molasses cookie with a brownie.

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Crispy

Chocolate Cutout

Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies

Espresso powder and two types of cocoa make these chocolate cookies dark, deep, and compelling.

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Chewy

Hot Chocolate Cookies

Spiced Hot Cocoa Cookies with Marshmallow Middles

Inspired by Mexican chocolate, these deeply fudgy cookies have warm notes of cinnamon and a pinch (or two!)  of cayenne if you can handle the heat.

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Soft

Double Dark Chocolate Cookies

Keto-Friendly Double-Dark Chocolate Cookies

Tailor-made for anybody who’s eating keto, these cookies are also great for people who are serious about their cocoa.

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Buttery

Checkerboard Sables

Checkerboard Sablés

With a fashionable upgrade, the classic sablé gets a gorgeous look — with none of the piping.

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Flavor

Spice

Gooey

Ginger-Molasses Biscoff Cookies

Ginger-Molasses Biscoff Cookies

For fans of cookie butter spread (and soon-to-be fans of cookie butter spread).

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Chewy

Spiced Rye Ginger Cookies

Spiced Rye Ginger Cookies

Lightly crisp on the edges, but bendy and chewy in the middle, these one-bowl cookies get their holiday flavor from rye flour, molasses, and spices like black pepper and ginger.

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Buttery

Solstice Shortbread

Candied Ginger Shortbread

No scooping or rolling required! This six-ingredient cookie is shaped into one big round, then cut into wedges while warm.

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Soft

Soft Snickerdoodle

Soft Snickerdoodles made with Baking Sugar Alternative

The buttery, soft, cinnamon-coated cookies you love, but remade for bakers avoiding sugar.

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Crispy

Speculaas

Spiced Star Cookies (Speculaas)

Speculaas aren’t speculaas without cardamom, cloves, mace, and cinnamon — in other words, everything in our Speculaas Spice Mix.

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Flavor

Fruity

Chewy

Mochi-Stuffed Ube Crinkles

Mochi-Stuffed Ube Crinkle Cookies

An ode to the flavor of ube: slightly fruity, slightly vanilla-y, yet completely distinct.

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Buttery

Rugelach

Rugelach

These pastry-like cookies — filled with dried fruit, cinnamon, or chocolate — are so flaky, they’re like little bites of pie crust.

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Soft

Neapolitan Cookies

Neapolitan Sugar Cookie Bars

When you can’t choose between chocolate, vanilla, and raspberry ... don’t! These slightly cakey, slightly chewy glazed bars are the best of all worlds.

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Crispy

Pistachio-Crusted Icebox Cookies

Pistachio-Crusted Icebox Cookies

Are these slice-and-bakes sweet or savory? They’re both, which makes them impossible to stop eating.

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Gooey

Guava Pinwheels

Guava Pinwheels

Jammy, tender, and crisp, with the classic flavor profile of cream cheese and guava.

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Flavor

Nuts

Soft

Peanut Blossoms

Organic Peanut Butter Chocolate Buttons

Good news: This nostalgic recipe works with that jar of natural peanut butter in your pantry.

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Crispy

Free Form Florentines

Free-Form Hazelnut Florentines

For the caramelized crunch of a florentine with none of the fuss, skip the shaping.

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Buttery

Wedding Cookies

Wedding Cookies

If you don’t have this sugar-dusted classic on your cookie plate, is it even the holidays?

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Gooey

No-Bake Almond Butter Bars

No-Bake Almond Butter Bars

Make these fudgy, nutty, graham cracker-packed bars when your oven is otherwise occupied.

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Chewy

Almond Cloud Cookies

Almond Cloud Cookies

The undisputed champ of gluten-free cookies: sweet, ethereal, and a little chewy.

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Flavor

Vanilla

Soft

Vanilla White Chocolate Drops

Vanilla White Chocolate Drop Cookies

Perfect for gifting, these two-biters get caramel notes from a long chill (so plan ahead).

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Buttery

Vanilla Polka Dots

Vanilla Polka Dots

A coating of crunchy Swedish Pearl Sugar takes these cookies from simple to chic.

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Chewy

Vanilla Sugar Cookies

Piped Vanilla Sugar Cookies

By piping shapes rather than decorating with royal icing, you ensure that your cookies turn out looking elegant (and not like a kids’ craft project gone wrong).

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Gooey

Gooey Butter Vanilla Cake

Gooey Butter Vanilla Cake Bars

Ooey, gooey, and perfectly buttery, these cookies are actually cake (and no one will mind).

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Crispy

Pizzelle

Pizzelle

We swapped the anise in these buttery Italian cookies for vanilla (sorry, nonna).

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Flavor

Citrus

Crispy

Vanilla Grapefruit Palmiers

Glazed Ginger-Citrus Shortbread

Like little bites of sunshine, these zingy rounds are studded with dried peel and candied ginger.

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Gooey

Fiori Thumbprint Meltaways

Fiori Thumbprint Meltaway Cookies

The secret to their ornate shapes isn’t great skill – it's our Thumbprint Pop Out Cutters. And the secret to their beguiling citrusy vanilla flavor and tender texture? Our Fiori di Sicilia.

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Soft

Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

Double Lemon Thumbprints

When lemon cookies just aren’t lemony enough, fill them with tart curd. Major bonus points if you decorate them to look like little lemons.

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Chewy

Vanilla-Orange-Cranberry Cookies

Soft and Chewy Cranberry Orange Cookies

Actually, there’s a third texture in these homey cookies: the light crunch of the sparkling sugar that coats them.

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Buttery

Whipped Lemon Shortbread

Whipped Lemon Shortbread

Shortbread, but make it citrusy and soft. Creaming the butter with the sugar until super light and fluffy gives these cookies their texture; a little masa harina gives them a compelling undercurrent of corn.

Get the recipe
Holiday Cookies

Ready to create the perfect cookie platter? Shop our cookie collection and (virtually) share your cookies with @kingarthurbaking! 

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