12 christmas candy recipes

No-bake peanut butter balls loaded with graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and walnuts, then dipped in glossy chocolate. A classic holiday candy recipe that yields about 2 pounds of handmade Christmas treats.

Southern pralines loaded with 5 cups of pecans in a creamy sugar candy made with sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla. A classic Cajun confection.

Italian panettone bread baked in the bread machine: a Christmas yeast bread with raisins, currants, candied citron, honey, and a hint of star anise. The Milanese holiday classic made easy.

Annie's butter cookies: one buttery, rich dough that shapes into candy canes, pinwheels, spritzes, cutouts, or drop cookies. The Christmas-cookie foundation worth memorizing.

Traditional Panforte di Siena with toasted almonds, hazelnuts, candied orange peel, citron, cocoa, and honey syrup cooked to soft ball stage. A dense Italian Christmas confection.

Holiday almond wreath cookies piped from a star tip and decorated with red and green candied cherries. Buttery almond shortbread in a festive Christmas-tin shape.

Julekage, the traditional Norwegian Christmas bread scented with cardamom and studded with dark raisins and candied citron. Made fast with a food processor instead of hours of hand-kneading.

Buche de Marrons au Chocolat, a French chestnut and chocolate log (no-bake variation of buche de Noel) with Calvados, wrapped in whipped cream bark and garnished with candied violets. A show-stopping Christmas dessert.

Creme de menthe truffle cups: bite-size chocolate candy shells piped full of minty chocolate ganache with ground almonds. A boozy, bakery-style Christmas confection made in a double boiler.

No-bake date and nut balls combine simmered dates, candied cherries and butter with rice cereal and walnuts, rolled in coconut. A retro Christmas cookie tray classic from the 1950s.

A moist Christmas quick bread with orange juice, mashed banana, prune puree, candied fruit, raisins, and nuts, topped with a thin powdered sugar icing and glacé cherries. Freezes beautifully for gifting.

Tortilla chip wreath: a salty-sweet holiday candy wreath of vanilla-coated tortilla chips arranged in a circle and decorated with gumdrops. A no-bake Christmas dessert kids can help with.