Southern Plate’s Must Make Christmas Cookies
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I have so many family Christmas recipes that I tend to rotate them each year, never making all of them in one particular season but some this year, and different next. There are a few, though, that are absolute must makes every holiday season. These must make cookies are the ones I’m sharing with you today.
Christmas Baking:
I don’t do all of my baking at once, but spread it out instead. I’ve been working on Holiday baking for well over a month now. I’ll bake treats and give them to different folks here and abouts as they get made. What friends and family get all depends on when I happen to catch them and we have a constant fun variety around home. There isn’t ever a whole table of a variety of cookies or anything like that, because I make different cookies throughout the season and wait until we’ve enjoyed those (or given them away) until I make the next batch. This keeps our holiday baking a light and fun experience and it never seems like a chore or work because we don’t ever have that one day where we feel like we have to bake ourselves to death in order to make a cookie tray look nice :).
Must-Make Christmas Cookies:
Cut Out Christmas Cookies
These cookies were a very important part of my childhood. So important, in fact, that I just couldn’t wait to make them with my firstborn. The fact that he was just shy of six months old when his first Christmas rolled around didn’t deter me, either! I had my husband hold him up on the counter (he couldn’t even sit up on his own yet) as I rolled out the dough. I’d place a cookie cutter down on the dough and use his little hand to gently press it in. Brady would light up and laugh with each new cookie, even though he had no idea what we were doing!
World’s Best Chewy Sugar Cookie
This is always a hectic time of year. For me, though, commercialism isn’t to blame – I finished my Christmas shopping a few months back. It is just that there is so much to celebrate and so many wonderful things to do in such a short time. If I had my way, the Christmas season would last twice as long. But it doesn’t and last I checked no one was interested in my opinion on the matter :). That is why these cookies are such a wonderful lifesaver. For that day when you planned on coming home and making cookies with your kids but just found yourself one thread short of being completely frazzled, these chewy sugar cookies make life easy again – without sacrificing taste, beauty, or the fun of getting into the kitchen with your younguns.
Spritz Cookies
In my younger days, I thought these beautiful Spritz cookies looked so painstakingly perfect that they could surely only be made in factories. Then I purchased my first cookie press and was surprised to find they were the easiest shaped cookies I’d ever made! All it takes is mixing up the dough, chilling it, and then spooning it into the press. A light sprinkling of candies or colored sugars gives that magical Christmas look that has folks veering to the cookie platter first thing!
Chocolate Chip Cloud Cookies
There is something about taking a bite out of the soft crunch of a meringue cookie and having it instantly melt in your mouth. When you add in studs of chocolate, these cookies get even better. My nephew likened the experience to eating clouds the first time I made them for him, thus the name. Meringue cookies are surprisingly simple to make, too!
Snowball Cookies
I love this recipe for Snowball cookies. I used to find my buggy steering towards the grocery store each year for the store bought ones. I’ve always wanted to make my own and wondered if they would be even better at home. Well the good news is, a few years ago I FINALLY got a recipe for them from Mama!
Fruitcake Bar Cookies
I’m not a fruitcake gal, especially the liquor soaked ones that you can smell long before you even have a chance to take a bite. But I love these deliciously spiced, moist, fruit studded bars. They take fruitcake to a whole new level for me. It helps that they start out with baking mix, are stirred together by hand in just one bowl, and then patted into a pan to keep the low fuss momentum going.
And here is the secret about these cookie bars – you can switch up the ingredients and morph them into pretty much any cookie you want.
We hope these Christmas cookies become a beloved part of your family Christmas celebration!!
Christy, thank you so much for all your recipes throughout the year and your inspirational writing of you and your family I thoroughly enjoyed it all. So nice to see your children getting older they are both so adorable. Want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year 2015. God Bless each and everyone of you. I care lmxxx
A very Merry Christmas and a year full of blessings to you Lo !! Thank you so much for all of your love and support, I cherish each of you more than you could ever realize!!
Christy, this is the best looking compilation of holiday cookies that I’ve seen yet! I want at least one batch of each. 🙂 Pinned! I look forward to taste testing soon!
Thank you so much Blair!!! I can’t seem to stay out of them 🙂
So glad to get your new book on Kindle as well… now I can carry it with me on my tablet. Also got it for my daughter so we both have it to enjoy. I just hate Kindle because I don’t get the pretty pictures but at least have the recipe when I want it. Cooked with my laptop in the kitchen over Thanksgiving but decided not to do that again unless I get a key cover for it for the stuff that got over in the keyboard. Merry Christmas and God bless you real good!
Blessings to you as well Cheryl!!! A little hint on what I do to cover my keyboard when I have my laptop in the kitchen is to cover it with plastic wrap 🙂
Christy, I can’t wait for that third book. Do you know about when it’s coming out?
I don’t have any idea just yet Marsha, but as soon as I do I will let you know!!
What a good idea about spreading the cookie baking over a month. I usually pick one day and my house becomes cookie central, them I am exhausted and I don’t enjoy. ! I am anxiously awaiting your candy recipies. Love and make several you have posted the last years. I love Holly Jolly’s. I use white choc. And cranberries and in some I put some pecans. OMG they are so good. Thanks for all your hard work through out the year and may you and your family have a Blessed and very Merry Christmas ! Bert
Dumb question but how do you substitute all purpose with self rising flour?
No such thing as stupid questions here :). When substituting self rising for all purpose, it is important to know that self rising already has leavening agents in it so you need to look over the recipe and remove those. In particular, omit salt and baking soda or baking powder. Now keep in mind that some recipes have more or less leavening than is in the standard of self rising flour so your final product may rise higher or less than the original recipe intended. However, in my personal experience, it is very rare that the desired result isn’t the same, just with less fuss from having to use fewer ingredients and do less measuring. In fact, I can only think of two times in my cooking history that the substitute didn’t go off without a hitch. For me, it’s worth the risk :). If I ever substitute and it doesn’t work out, I just make a note not to do that again on that recipe (unless I like the new results better!).
Hope this helps!
Please advise where I may find a way to make VANILLA STRIPS COOKIES from Almond Paste not the traditional ground almonds and powdered sugar.
Thank you so much for sharing all of your wonderful recipes and experiences with us. I can relate to all of your stories about family because we were always close and had family dinners. Love all of them!!!!