126 ice cookie recipes

Soft, warmly spiced gingerbread cookies made with molasses, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Roll and cut into festive shapes for Christmas decorating with simple icing.

Heart-shaped sugar cookies made the old-fashioned way with lard, sour milk, and a hint of nutmeg. Tender, slightly flaky cut-outs ready for royal icing or sprinkles. A Valentine's Day classic.

Three-layer Southern cookies: a buttery shortbread round spread with gooey caramel-pecan filling, then drizzled with rich chocolate icing. Named after the wildflower and just as eye-catching on a cookie tray.

Family tree cookies are giant chocolate cookies shaped like trees with branches for piping family names. A fun baking project with kids using cocoa dough, chocolate chips, and royal icing.

Nancy's ice cream kolacky: a three-ingredient Eastern European-style cookie where vanilla ice cream replaces liquid and eggs, creating a tender pastry dough filled with jam and dusted with powdered sugar. A Christmas cookie-tray favorite.

Festive lebkuchen cookies made with honey, brown sugar, allspice, and lemon. A traditional German Christmas cookie decorated with white icing.

Orange custard cookies are mini tartlets with buttery shortbread shells filled with an almond-orange flower water custard, baked in muffin tins. Two dozen elegant bite-sized desserts with a Mediterranean fragrance.

Maria's Ischli cookies are Austrian sandwich cookies with ground hazelnuts or almonds, filled with raspberry jam and topped with chocolate icing. A classic European holiday cookie.

Cranberry-oatmeal cookies with chopped fresh cranberries, walnuts, warm spices, and a tangy orange icing drizzle. Chewy, tart-sweet, and built for the holiday cookie tin.

Spiced drop cookies loaded with raisins, candied fruit, dates, and walnuts, topped with a vanilla icing. A fruitcake-style cookie perfect for holiday gift giving.

Eye Love Mom cookies are peanut butter thumbprints filled with raspberry jam and decorated with chocolate eyes and royal icing. Crafty Mother's Day cookies kids can help decorate.

Giant apple cookie bakes a 12-inch pizza-style cookie loaded with reduced dried apples, walnuts, golden raisins, and cinnamon, drizzled with a tangy lemon icing. Sliceable shareable dessert.

Pecan thumbprint cookies, the classic shortbread-style holiday cookie. Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth dough rolled in finely chopped pecans with a thumbprint well ready for jam, chocolate, or icing.

Lemon poppyseed spritz cookies are pressed into star and swirl shapes, baked tender, then iced with a pale lemon glaze and finished with a poppyseed sprinkle.

Chocolate chip pecan cookie dough shaped into festive wreath rings, baked golden, iced in white, and decorated with red and green gumdrop flowers. Makes 4 wreaths for holiday gifting, cookie swaps, or edible centerpieces.

Austrian Ischil tartlets with a buttery almond-cinnamon shortbread, sandwiched with apricot jam, and topped with a glossy cooked chocolate icing. Elegant European cookies.