182 traditional cookie recipes

Deep-fried Hanukkah cookies with lemon zest, dusted in cinnamon sugar while still warm. Crispy on the outside and soft inside, these traditional fried dough balls celebrate the holiday's oil tradition in every golden bite.

Spritzgeback, the traditional German pressed butter cookie made with rich butter, powdered sugar, and almond or lemon extract. Tender, melt-in-your-mouth shapes pressed through a cookie gun for the holiday tin.

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.

Peppernuts cookies with ground raisins, coconut, and nuts in a brown sugar-buttermilk dough, rolled into ropes and cut into bite-sized pieces. A Mennonite holiday tradition.

This recipe is a tradition in my husband's Swedish family. It makes enough cookies to feed the Swedish Army.

Traditional German sauerbraten marinated for 3 days in vinegar and spices, then braised until fork-tender with a sweet-sour gravy thickened with gingersnap cookies. Authentic old-world pot roast flavor.

Crisp, lacy Italian pizzelle cookies flavored with anise and lemon, pressed golden on a traditional pizzelle iron. These thin wafer cookies are an Italian-American holiday staple your nonna would approve of.

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.

Traditional New Mexican biscochitos with anise seed and cinnamon-sugar topping. These shortening-based cookies are crisp, fragrant, and cut into festive shapes.

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

Melomakarona are traditional Greek honey cookies made with orange juice, olive oil, and butter, filled with a walnut-cinnamon mixture and dipped in warm honey syrup.

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

Traditional New Year's portzelky cookies are pillowy fried dough studded with plump raisins, dusted with icing sugar for celebration breakfasts.

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

Traditional Sicilian fruit-filled pastries stuffed with figs, dates, chocolate chips, nuts, and warm spices, glazed with a lemon icing. A holiday cookie tray showstopper.