Santa's favorite cookies for this holiday season

Katie Mazanec and Maya Horton
Staff Writer

This holiday season impress your friends and family with a new holiday cookie recipe: 

Christmas Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened to room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract (makes the flavor outstanding)

2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

In a large bowl using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamed and smooth should take about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat on high until fully combined, for about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Whisk the flour and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Turn the mixer down to low and add about half of the flour mixture, beating until just barely combined. Add the rest of the flour and continue mixing until just combined. If the dough still seems too soft, you can add one more tablespoon of flour until it is a better consistency for rolling. Roll out onto a piece of parchment to about 1/4″ thickness. Refrigerate for at least one hour and up to 1 day. Chilling is essential to the process.

Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. The number of batches will depend on how large/small you cut your cookies. Remove one of the dough pieces from the refrigerator and using a cookie cutter, cut in shapes. Transfer the cut cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-11 minutes. Make sure you rotate the baking sheet halfway through.

Review: The almond extract makes these sugar cookies different from the others. The cookies are flavorful and addicting.  

Eggnog Cookies

¾ cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

⅔ cup prepared eggnog (store-bought)

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon nutmeg

3 cups flour

Frosting:

6 T. prepared eggnog

2½ cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, eggnog, and vanilla, and mix well. Add salt, soda, and nutmeg and mix well. Add flour and mix until combined. It should form a very soft dough. Drop spoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes, until lightly brown. Let cool before frosting.

For frosting, combine all ingredients, mixing until smooth. Frost cooled cookies, and store between layers of wax paper or parchment paper.

Review: These cookies are delightfully cakelike with a very subtle taste of Eggnog. I usually do not like eggnog but loved these cookies! They are a great treat for the holidays and the frosting adds an additional sweetness.

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated (white) sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups (12-ounce package) Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large mixer bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE in preheated 375 F oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; place on to wire racks to cool completely.

Review: This classic cookie is superbly easy to make!  When adding in the chocolate chips if you really love a loaded cookie, add a few more handfuls of. Make sure that the box says baking SODA and not baking POWDER otherwise you’ll end up with an awkward concoction.  They came out delicious and gooey when straight from the oven and remained just firm enough to hold their shape when dunked in a glass of cold milk.

Easy Red Velvet Cookies

1 box of Red Velvet cake mix

2 eggs

½ cup of oil

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Mix all the ingredients together to form a cookie dough texture. Form small spoonfuls and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Place cookies two inches apart on greased baking cookie sheets. Bake in pre-heated oven for about 10-12 minutes.

Review: These cookies did not turn out the way Pinterest showed them. They came out of the oven flattened like a pancake and dense like a brownie.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1 cup shortening

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar for decoration

2 bags milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, cream together shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Mix in milk and vanilla. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture until well blended. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into balls and roll in remaining white sugar. Place cookies two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 to12 minutes. Remove from oven, and immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Allow space to cool completely; the kiss will harden as it cools.

Review: This classic peanut butter cookie turned out perfectly. It remained moist and delightful even after a couple days.

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

3/4 cup butter softened

3/4 cup brown sugar packed

1 package of butterscotch instant pudding

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, dry pudding mix and egg in a large bowl until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Then slowly add ingredients from the other bowl to the butter mixture. Refrigerate for at least one hour or until dough is firm. Roll dough out on a floured work surface to 1/4-1/2-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to shape cookies. Place cutouts on a greased baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes, until edges are lightly brown.

Review: This cookie dough when refrigerated came out hard as a rock and crumbed a lot when I tried to roll them. I ended up rolling them into spoonfuls and baking them that way. The final product was delightful. It would have been even cuter if I could bake them into gingerbread men.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1 stick butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cup peanut butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups oatmeal

Waxed paper

Directions:

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

Review: The ingredients in these cookies are commonly found in a household pantry.  No oven baking means these cookies are practically foolproof.  That being said, I accidentally skipped over the melting and mixing bit called for and therefore had to make an adjustment using the microwave.  Make sure you have a lot of patience with the cooling down time as well.  Overall they came out tasting like a cookie bar version of Reese’s Cups! Which was delicious.  Highly recommended if ovens frighten you.