The holiday season is the perfect excuse to bake the days away with breads, cakes, pies and all things sweet. I’m a huge baker—I’ve been baking sweets since I was a little girl. But as the years pass by, I seem to have less and less time to devote to baking, and I’m constantly on the lookout for great baking recipes that are quick and easy, foolproof and failsafe.
Easy holiday cookie recipes are your best bet when it comes to baking on a time crunch, or if you’re new to the flour-covered, sugar coated world of baking for others. Especially at Christmastime and during the holiday season. You can’t go wrong when it comes to easy holiday cookie recipes.
Here are my favorite cookie recipes to make during the holidays. Missing from this list are my most requested cookies of all, peanut butter blossoms. You can see my original recipe for those here. During the holiday season, I make cookies in bulk for family and friends, and take them as gifts to everyone I know, but I’ve scaled down the recipes to yield smaller batches so you can try them out first. I hope you enjoy them! If you make one, I’d love it if you posted a comment and let me know what you thought! I’d also love to hear your easy holiday cookie recipes, so I can try out yours as well.
No-Bake Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Oatmeal Cookies
2 packed, light brown sugar
4 tablespoons Hershey’s Cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups old fashioned, rolled oats
wax paper
This is one of my most easy holiday cookie recipes because there’s no baking required!
Bring the butter, sugar, and cocoa to a boil over low heat, stirring frequently until melted and the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Add in peanut butter, oatmeal, and vanilla and stir until blended. Spoon heaping tablespoons onto waxed paper and refrigerate until hardened, about 20 minutes.
Easy Coconut Macaroons
1 14 oz. bag of shredded coconut
⅓ cup of sugar (Unnecessary if coconut is sweetened already. Check the bag.)
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups of whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
¼ tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine coconut, sugar, flour, and salt. In a second bowl, lightly beat egg whites, milk, and vanilla together until just blended. Mix in with the coconut mixture and stir well.
Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet, and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool before serving.
Chewy Sugar Cookies
(Slightly modified from recipe on the Food Network’s website. You can see the original recipe here.)
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tbsp. buttermilk
Sprinkles
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, stir together the butter and sugar, mixing until smooth. Beat in the egg and the vanilla, and then blend in the flour mixture. Add just enough buttermilk to just moisten the dough.
Spoon heaping tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten each ball with your fingers so that the cookies lay flat. Sprinkle cookies with festive colored sprinkles.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until slightly golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.
