Dessert, Christma Recipes

Old-fashioned Christmas sugar cookies made with a full pound of butter, sour cream, and baking soda. The dough chills overnight for easy rolling and clean cookie cutter shapes.

Christmas crackers are sweet honey-wheat holiday cookies stamped with cookie cutters and sprinkled with sugar. Makes 45 crispy-edged rectangles for gifting or dipping.

Christmas surprise cookies: brown sugar drop cookies with a hidden jam center and a dusting of sweet coconut on top. A vintage holiday thumbprint for the cookie tin.

A European-style almond and cinnamon torte with a buttery shortcrust pastry, raspberry jam filling, and a lattice top dusted with powdered sugar. Elegant enough for Christmas, simple enough for any weekend.

This co-winner in the filled-cookie category from Gerry Cofta of Milwaukee has a great, rich flavor in the filling.

Mexican wedding cookies shaped into crescents with butter, crushed pecans, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Tender, crumbly, and melt-in-your-mouth with just six ingredients.

Eggnog thumbprint cookies filled with rum-spiked buttercream and dusted with nutmeg. A buttery shortbread base with a creamy holiday filling. Perfect for Christmas cookie tins.

Old English yeasted Christmas cake spiced with cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, and caraway seeds. A buttery yeast-risen holiday loaf, closer to brioche than to fruitcake.

Vienna crescents are flaky yeast-leavened butter cookies filled with sweet pecan meringue and shaped into delicate crescents. A traditional Christmas cookie from Austrian and Hungarian baking.

Jewish rugelach with a flaky cottage cheese dough, apricot jam, cinnamon-sugar, walnuts, and currants rolled into golden crescents. A holiday cookie jar essential for Hanukkah or Christmas.

German chocolate cookies are a 4-ingredient shortcut bake using German chocolate cake mix, vanilla yogurt, an egg, and a topping of coconut-pecan frosting. Soft, chewy, and ready fast.

Hazelnut chocolate toffee layers crunchy buttery brown-sugar candy with toasted hazelnuts and a melted-on chocolate chip topping. Holiday gift candy that breaks into rough shards.

Kalyan made this for us while visiting for Christmas. He called it "paravannam."

Classic Linzer squares and thumbprint cookies with toasted hazelnut dough, cinnamon and raspberry jam filling. Austrian-style Christmas cookie baking from one batch of dough.

Macaroon meets chocolate chip cookie in this co-winner in the drop cookie category, with a twist of cinnamon, nutmeg and mint; it's from Jessica Wall-Valadez of Milwaukee.

Great and simple gift-idea! And the result tastes great as well.