Tag: #Cookies

Posted in #Recipes

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These chocolate thumbprint cookies are simple but tasty, satisfying any chocolate lover’s sweet tooth. Rolled in walnuts and sealed with a kiss, they’re delightful on their own, but especially when served with a bowl of maple walnut ice cream.

Cute, easy and fun to make, this chocolate thumbprint cookie recipe delivers a tasty dessert option that’s wonderful with a glass of cold milk or mocha frappe, or even tastier when served with a bowl of your favorite ice cream. While they do require a chill time of up to an hour and have the added step of a filling, they’re easy to pull together for a little treat. The crumbly nut outside and the chocolate-kiss-filled inside make them a bit showy, making them a nice cookie to include in your holiday cookie bake-off.

Ingredients for Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

  • Butter: Soften your butter fully prior to using it in this recipe.
  • Sugar: Regular granulated sugar is fine here.
  • Egg: You’ll be separating the egg to make these cookies.
  • Milk: This recipe calls for 2%, but you can use whole milk or even cream here if that’s what you have on hand.
  • Vanilla extract: This extract helps to give the chocolate thumbprint cookies a rich, caramel-like flavor.
  • Dry ingredients: All-purpose flour and baking cocoa make up the bulk of the cookies, and the salt brings out the best in the other ingredients.
  • Walnuts: You can substitute another nut, but the walnut taste is excellent with the chocolate.
  • Filling: You’ll be using confectioner’s sugar, additional butter, milk and vanilla extract here, as well as chocolate kisses.

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

Elise Jesse’s Stuffed Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These cream cheese-filled pumpkin snickerdoodles are one of my top five favorite cookies of the season. They are generous with cozy spices, rich pumpkin flavor and a decadent creamy filling. Perfect for holiday gatherings, bake sales or a quiet night in, these cookies are guaranteed to impress—and disappear fast! —Elise Jesse, Cincinnati, Ohio

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

85 Christmas Cookie Recipes to Bake All Holiday Season

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

What would the holiday season be without Christmas cookie recipes? While we love easy Christmas desserts like fruitcakes, fudge and bread pudding, there’s just something magical about filling our homes with the scent of freshly baked cookie dough. So, we put together this collection of easy Christmas cookie desserts that will keep your oven busy all season long.

Here you’ll find classic Christmas cookie ideas like decorated gingerbread, ultra-rich spritz and snickerdoodles that are perfect for getting into the holiday spirit. Plus, fun and inventive takes like mint morsels, hot chocolate cookies and fruitcake cookies! You’ll even find international Christmas cookie must-haves like Italian sprinkle and rainbow cookies, Russian tea cakes, Czech kolache and German lebkuchen. The recipes in this collection were chosen to represent a wide range of flavors, cuisines and difficulty levels, so everyone can find something to bake.

Most of the cookies can be made well ahead of your Christmas party to cut down on your day-of to-do list. Knowing how to store cookies will keep your baked goods as fresh as possible. Grandma’s vintage Santa cookie jar might just come in handy! And if you’re gifting any easy Christmas cookie desserts, pair them with these Secret Santa gift ideas for the holiday season.

Whether you’re looking for the best holiday cookie recipes to bake and decorate with the kids, to take to a cookie exchange or to leave out for Santa, these classic Christmas cookie ideas are sure to fit the bill.

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

60 Cookie Exchange Ideas Your Friends Will Love

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

If you’re feeling the Christmas cookie exchange pressure, we’re here to help. A lot goes into picking out the perfect recipe: It must be just as delicious as it is pretty, easy to bake yet able to make a good first impression, and, of course, festive-looking or festive-flavored—no generic cookies allowed! We kept that in mind when putting together our master list of cookie exchange ideas. Any of these recipes would be a knockout at a Christmas cookie exchange party!

There is a lot of variety in this list of Christmas cookie recipes. We included all the traditional Christmas cookies (think cherry snowballs, speculaas and thumbprints), plus lots of modern cookie recipes (hello, eggnog cookies and reindeer Nutter Butters!) in case you want to shake things up. All are festive for the season and very well-reviewed, and most are attainable for even newer bakers.

Whatever cookie exchange recipes you choose, always give yourself enough time to make them without feeling rushed. I like to chill cookie dough for 24 hours so the flour can hydrate, resulting in a more flavorful and tender cookie. If your recipe needs to be decorated, wait for the cookies to cool completely to room temperature first. Depending on the recipe, decorate the cookies the night before or the morning of the cookie exchange. Anyone wanting to host a stress-free Christmas cookie exchange should follow this formula!

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

48 Thanksgiving Cookie Recipes to Make All Season

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Pie often takes center stage when it comes to Thanksgiving desserts, but Thanksgiving cookie recipes deserve just as much attention. These bite-sized treats are perfect for dunking into a hot cup of coffee after the big meal or during the day while the turkey roasts. From spiced pumpkin and maple-flavored cookies to doughs filled with cranberry, pecan and chocolate, these autumn cookie ideas are whimsical, comforting and a welcome change of pace after a feast.

Our holiday cookie recipes range from soft and chewy classics to crispy creations, flavored with everything from fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, to apple and caramel. They are rich in flavor and ideal for gatherings big and small. Many can be made ahead and stored in airtight containers, so they stay fresh for days.

For extra holiday charm, these fall cookie recipes can be decorated with playful touches (one even looks like a turkey) and seasonal colors, making them perfect for pretty dessert trays and gift baskets. Pair them with French hot chocolate or hot apple cider throughout the season for a cozy treat. A few cookies next to the best Thanksgiving pies will create a memorable dessert spread.

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

53 Cookies to Keep in Your Freezer for Craving Emergencies

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Can you freeze cookies? Absolutely. These chewy, crispy, chunky, chocolaty recipes can all be made ahead and stored in the freezer—so you’re always only minutes away from homemade cookie bliss.

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

28 Cookie Recipes from Vintage Church Cookbooks

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These vintage cookie recipes will bring up all the nostalgia—and all the compliments!

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Chewy, soft and sweet, these oatmeal cranberry cookies take the cookie box staple out for a more grown-up spin. Although we promise, this will be popular with all members of the family.

The combination of tart cranberry, zesty orange and sweet white chocolate makes this oatmeal cranberry cookie recipe a good choice for the holidays or whenever you’re craving something sweet. Not to mention, with the combination of red berries and white chocolate chips, cranberry oatmeal cookies look lovely on a dessert tray.

If you have any leftover oatmeal, try them in these no-bake fudgy cookies.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookie Ingredients

  • Butter: Providing that buttery richness we love, butter also helps the texture when it’s creamed with the sugar. Don’t substitute in shortening—this could dry the cookie out.
  • Sugar: Sugar keeps the cookies sweet and locks in moisture.
  • Eggs: Eggs are binding agents and help keep all of the ingredients together.
  • Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract helps make the cookies sweeter and lifts up the other flavors.
  • All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour is ideal for cookie baking because of its protein levels.
  • Baking powder: Baking powder is a leavening agent that helps cookies rise and remain fluffy.
  • Baking soda: Another leavening agent, this also helps cookies spread through a reaction that releases carbon dioxide gas.
  • Oats: Quick-cooking oats are your best bet here for chewy, soft cookies.
  • Raisins: Chewy and sweet, raisins add some texture and moisture to the cookies.
  • Cranberries: You can use fresh or frozen—the cranberries’ tartness helps balance the sweetness of the other ingredients.
  • Orange zest: Zest adds bright, citrus notes that offer some more dimension in combination with the fruit and the white chocolate.
  • White baking chips: White chocolate adds sweetness and creaminess.

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

49 Fall Cookies That’ll Make Your House Smell Amazing

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These fall cookie recipes are the perfect treats for the changing season. From pumpkin and apple to cranberry and pecan, we’ve got fall cookies covered.

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

As it turns out, snickerdoodles are one ingredient away from becoming the perfect fall cookie. They already have the quintessential fall spice (cinnamon) in the sugar coating, so adding canned pumpkin seems like the perfect addition. Include a few other fall spices like nutmeg and ground ginger, et voila! Pumpkin snickerdoodles are chewy, pumpkiny and lightly spiced with the signature snickerdoodle tang and crackly coating. These are some of my very favorite fall cookies.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

  • Butter: Soften the butter to room temperature so it creams nicely with the sugar. Creaming the butter and sugar together the right way adds a lot of nice volume and chewiness to the cookies.
  • Sugars: Our pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe uses a mix of granulated and brown sugars. Granulated sugar creates a crispy outside, and brown sugar maintains a moist center and a subtle caramel flavor.
  • Canned pumpkin: At Taste of Home, we’ve found that canned pumpkin delivers more consistent results than homemade pumpkin puree. And yes, there is a best canned pumpkin brand that beats out the rest!
  • Egg yolk: We’ll need just one egg yolk to bind the ingredients. Egg yolks add richness and fat, while egg whites can dry out cookies a bit. Save your egg white for an egg white cocktail (like a pisco sour or gin fizz) or for tomorrow morning’s scrambled eggs.
  • All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour is the best flour for cookies. Its mix of hard and soft wheat creates a tender cookie that’s strong and sturdy enough not to break apart in your hand.
  • Cornstarch: Cornstarch soaks up some of the liquid in the pumpkin puree so the cookies stay chewy instead of becoming cakey.
  • Spices: Our pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie recipe has a lot of spice from cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger. I always like to grate my nutmeg fresh for the boldest flavor.
  • Cream of tartar: True snickerdoodles contain cream of tartar to give the cookies that signature snickerdoodle tang and pillowy texture.
  • Leavening agents: A perfect mixture of baking soda and baking powder makes our pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies even more pillowy soft.

Taste of Home