182 traditional cookie recipes

Swiss Leckerli cookies: honey-spiced almond bars with candied citrus peel and kirsch, finished with a hardening sugar glaze. Traditional Basel Christmas market sweet that improves with age.

Nut kolachky filling is a traditional Eastern European walnut filling for kolachky cookies and pastries. Ground walnuts, egg whites, sugar, and melted butter mixed into a thick paste.

Melomakarona are classic Greek Christmas cookies, olive oil dough spiced with orange zest and cognac, soaked in honey-cinnamon syrup, then sprinkled with toasted almonds. Holiday tradition perfected.

Traditional New Mexican biscochitos made with lard, egg yolks, anise, and vanilla. Rolled, cut into shapes, and baked until tender. New Mexico's official state cookie and a holiday staple.

Traditional Norwegian anise syrup cookies made with honey, dark corn syrup, and star anise, finished with a warm powdered sugar glaze. Soft, fragrant, and sweetly spiced. Makes 4 dozen.

Traditional Tuscan cavallucci spice cookies built from a hot sugar syrup kneaded with walnuts, candied orange peel, and warm spices like clove, anise, and cinnamon. Chewy, perfumed, and unmistakably medieval.

This Biscochito Cake is a modern twist on New Mexico’s traditional biscochito cookie, featuring warm notes of star anise, a tender crumb, and a sweet cinnamon-sugar topping. Paired with a vibrant peach compote, it’s a comforting yet elegant dessert that’s easy to prepare and ideal for sharing at gatherings or enjoying as a cozy treat.

Traditional Swiss Basel Leckerli: honey-spice cookie bars with cinnamon, cloves, candied peels, kirsch, and almonds under a crackly sugar glaze. Makes 50 to 60 bars that keep for weeks.

Fried diamond twist cookies with egg yolk dough, deep-fried crisp and dusted with powdered sugar. Scandinavian rosettes-meets-krumkake pastry also known as chrusciki or rosettes in other traditions.

Old-fashioned currant jelly uses just two ingredients: fresh currants and sugar. Traditional cook-and-strain method without commercial pectin. Bright tart-sweet jelly for toast, lamb, or thumbprint cookies.

Cucidati, the traditional Sicilian Christmas fig cookies, with a rich filling of figs, raisins, nuts, chocolate and rum wrapped in tender pastry, shaped into slashed horseshoes and dusted with sugar.

Traditional Appalachian stack cake with tender cookie-thin layers separated by spiced apple butter. Bake crisp golden rounds, then let them soften overnight as the apple butter melts into each bite.

Fattigmands bakkelese are traditional Norwegian deep-fried pastry cookies with cardamom, citron, and lemon juice. Rich egg yolk dough rolled thin, cut into diamond shapes, and fried until golden and crisp.

Smørkranser are traditional Norwegian butter wreath cookies made with just four ingredients: butter, sugar, egg yolk and flour. Shaped into tiny wreaths, brushed with egg white and topped with colored sugar.

Traditional Chinese almond cookies made with ground almonds, lard, and almond extract, each topped with a whole blanched almond. Crumbly, fragrant, and golden, just like the ones from your favorite bakery.

Orangenplätzchen: German orange chocolate cookies with bright citrus zest, finely chopped chocolate folded into the dough, and a tart orange-lemon glaze brushed on warm. A traditional Weihnachtsplätzchen for Christmas tins.