52 traditional cookie recipes

Polvorones: traditional Mexican pecan cookies made with butter and lard, spiced with cinnamon and anise seed. Sandy, crumbly, and sugar-coated.

Sandbakelse, traditional Scandinavian butter cookies with cardamom, pressed into mini tart tins and filled with jam. Delicate, sandy-textured holiday cookies dusted with powdered sugar.

Cardamom wedding cookies: buttery shortbread balls rolled in powdered sugar with cardamom, citrus zest, and ground almonds. A fragrant twist on traditional Mexican wedding cookies.

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.

Butter Cookies are one of those traditional Christmas cookies that everyone adores. This homemade butter cookie recipe is much better than what you find in the tins at the store during the holidays.

Beverwyks are old Dutch spiced cookies with cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and chopped raisins rolled and cut into shapes. A traditional holiday cookie from New York's Dutch heritage.

Traditional German lebkuchen: honey-and-molasses spice cookies studded with citron and nuts, finished with a brushed sugar glaze. A heritage Christmas cookie that gets better as it ages.

German honey spice cookies rolled into bite-sized balls with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, mace, and black pepper, then dipped in a sweet vanilla glaze. A traditional Pfeffernusse-style holiday cookie.

Pfeffernüsse-style German spice cookies with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, and allspice, finished with a drop of brandy before baking. A traditional holiday cookie that keeps for weeks in a tin.

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.

Honey-dipped cookies, the Greek melomakarona, are oval spiced cookies fragrant with orange, cognac, and cinnamon, soaked in honey syrup and showered with walnuts. An irresistible Christmas tradition from the Aegean kitchen.

Spiced molasses hermit bars with apple butter, raisins, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Chewy, warmly spiced, and lighter than traditional hermit cookies.

Buttery anise-scented cookies with star anise seeds and extract, chilled overnight and baked golden for traditional New Mexican biscochitos.

Norwegian sandbakkels are delicate almond shortbread tarts pressed into fluted tins. Traditional Scandinavian Christmas cookies with buttery, sand-textured crumbs.

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.

Kourabiedes are traditional Greek butter cookies with ground almonds and brandy, dusted heavily in powdered sugar. Fragile, sandy, and meant for celebrations.