118 christmas baking recipes

Bizcochos are traditional New Mexican holiday cookies creamed with lard, scented with orange zest, baked golden, then rolled in cinnamon sugar. The state cookie of New Mexico for Christmas and weddings.

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.

Pfeffernuesse (German pepper nut cookies) are tiny round spice cookies flavored with cinnamon, allspice, clove, nutmeg, and mace, finished with a drop of brandy before baking. A traditional Christmas cookie from Germany.

Secret kiss cookies hide a whole chocolate kiss inside a buttery, walnut-flecked shortbread, baked until just set and rolled in powdered sugar. Bite in and the soft chocolate center is the surprise. A Christmas cookie tin favorite.

Bizcochitos are the official state cookie of New Mexico: lard-based shortbread perfumed with anise and sweet wine, dusted in cinnamon sugar, and baked into delicate flaky rounds. The traditional Christmas and wedding cookie of the Southwest.

Mandel-Halbmonde are German almond crescents: buttery shortbread cookies shaped like half-moons, baked pale, then rolled twice in powdered sugar. The kind of melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookie every German bakery puts on the holiday plate.