30 traditional cookie recipes

Simple and colorful, which makes it perfect for the holidays!

Italian meatball cookies with warm spices, cocoa, raisins, nuts, and chocolate chips rolled into small round drops. A traditional Italian-American holiday cookie that looks like its dinner-table namesake.

Old-fashioned rolled and cut oatmeal cookies with raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg. A spiced, crispy oat cookie made the traditional way with a cookie cutter.

Authentic Tuscan almond biscotti twice-baked until crisp and golden. A traditional Italian cookie with toasted almonds, almond extract, and an egg wash finish.

Traditional Italian fig cookies (cucidati) with a sweet filling of dried figs, raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon wrapped in a buttery dough. A classic holiday cookie from Italian-American bakeries.

Kwarezimal, traditional Maltese almond cakes with cinnamon, citrus zest, and orange extract. Baked in logs and sliced into crisp biscotti-style cookies.

Pfeffernuesse are traditional German Christmas peppernut cookies, fragrant with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and a hint of black pepper, studded with citron and almonds and a touch of brandy. A heritage holiday cookie.

Traditional Italian anise pizzelle cookies pressed on a pizzelle iron with orange and lemon zest. A huge batch recipe that makes up to 20 dozen crisp, lacy waffle cookies.

Braune Zucker Platzchen, traditional German brown sugar cookies with cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, raisins, and nuts. Spiced drop cookies that store well in airtight tins.

Hillary Clinton's chocolate chip cookies with rolled oats, shortening, and brown sugar. The famous 1992 cookie recipe that started the presidential bake-off tradition.

Traditional Sicilian fig cookies stuffed with ground figs, dates, raisins, walnuts, and orange, then iced and topped with colored sugar. Makes 10 dozen for the holiday cookie tray.

Apricot tea cookies are buttery thumbprints rolled in chopped almonds and filled with apricot preserves. A traditional European-style cookie with citrus zest and almond extract for elegance.

Italian rainbow cookies (seven layer cookies): three almond paste sponge layers tinted red, green, and yellow, stacked with raspberry jam, and coated in chocolate. A classic holiday bakery tradition.

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.

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

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