All-Star Holiday Cookie Recipes
Your favorite chefs from Cooking Channel shows present and past created unique holiday cookie recipes for you to rock the swap, all sweet season long.
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Emmer Schmidt
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Giada de Laurentiis ©2012, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Tara Donne ©Tara Donne
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Tara Donne ©Tara Donne
Photo By: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Kathryn Cooper
©2012, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
Photo By: Tara Donne ©Tara Donne
Photo By: Giada de Laurentiis ©2012, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.
White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
If you crushed up Christmastime and baked it into –– and sprinkled it on top of –– a cookie, this would be it. G. Garvin combines snow-white white chocolate chips and crushed peppermint candies in these uber-soft cookies, then decorates them with a flurry of extra candy for a festive red-and-white snow.
Get the Recipe: White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Spiced Ginger Rum Balls
Chrissy Teigen's colored-sugar-flecked chocolate balls are as spicy as she is sassy, and with 1/4 cup of dark rum, they're delightfully boozy –– perfect for holiday parties.
Get the Recipe: Spiced Ginger Rum Balls
S'Mores Cookies
Chuck Hughes suggests surprising Santa –– and your cookie benefactors –– with a wintry one-bite take on the s'more. The thin, crunchy graham rounds are topped with gooey chocolate ganache and a spiraling pillow of browned marshmallow.
Get the Recipe: S'Mores Cookies
Rainbow Cookies
These colorful confections are believed to have originated in the early 1900s, created by Italian immigrant communities in the United States in homage to the Italian flag. Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos' chocolate-covered almond sponge cake cookies with cherry and apricot preserves nail the classic layered creations on their Old World-New York head.
Get the Recipe: Rainbow Cookies
Almond Butter Shortbread Cookies "Mandelmusslor"
Get the Recipe: Almond Butter Shortbread Cookies "Mandelmusslor"
Pistachio and Sour Cherry Linzer Cookies
In fond remembrance of his grandmother Lola and her holiday cookie traditions, Gabriele Corcos updates a seasonal classic –– linzer cookies –– for his own daughters to enjoy with generations of loved ones. He subs pistachios for the traditional hazelnuts, amping up nutty flavor, and fills the sandwich with sour cherry jam to balance the sweetness.
Get the Recipe: Pistachio and Sour Cherry Linzer Cookies
Carmelitas
There's a reason Kelsey Nixon's Carmelitas have more than 35 five-star reviews: The recipe, which incorporates her homemade caramel sauce, yields the chewy, salty, crumble-topped bars that dreams are made of.
Get the Recipe: Carmelitas
G's Spicy Tequila Balls
Nadia G packs her usual punch into these boozy vanilla wafer, walnut and cocoa powder balls. The recipe contains a whopping 1/2 cup of tequila and is dusted with both chipotle and cayenne powders, so it's not for the faint of stomach. They're perfect for a carousing holiday celebration, gifting or bringing to a cookie swap (the recipe makes 42 balls).
Get the Recipe: G's Spicy Tequila Balls
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Chuck Hughes admits to loving shortbread cookies all holiday season long, but sometimes he wants to shake things up. Here he fuses shortbread cookies with lemon bars –– creating a gooey, lemony top half supported by a tender-but-solid shortbread cookie foundation –– and speckles them with bright, tart cranberries.
Get the Recipe: Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Oatmeal raisin (and many) cookies fall into two distinct camps: the crunchy and crumbly or, as in this recipe from Kelsey Nixon, fall-apart-in-your-hands soft and gooey. In a clever twist, she pulses the raisins in a food processor along with all the other ingredients, creating the sort of raisin swirl you might find in a cinnamon-raisin bagel. Old-fashioned oats give the cookies just enough heft and chewiness to let you linger over each bite a little longer.
Get the Recipe: Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Whoopie Pies
Get the Recipe: Whoopie Pies
Homemade Fudge Brownies
Kelsey Nixon suggests serving these brownies like tiny tiered cakes, using a range of biscuit cutter sizes to form each fudgy layer. Dusting them with powdered sugar and topping each with a cherry adds a fancy flourish.
Get the Recipe: Homemade Fudge Brownies
Peanut-Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Sometimes all you need is a classic pairing like peanut butter and chocolate. Roger Mooking's peanut butter cookies are filled with giant chocolate chip chunks and salty roasted peanuts, so they've got that perfect salty-sweet, chewy-soft balance. Dust them with either cocoa powder or confectioners' sugar (or half and half) to give them a festive snowy finish (and an extra hint of flavor).
Get the Recipe: Peanut-Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Holiday Biscotti
Giada De Laurentiis gives her light-and-airy biscotti cookies a holiday makeover with the addition of red cranberries and green pistachios to the dough. Dipped halfway in white chocolate and covered with red and green sprinkles, they are extra indulgent (and celebratory).
Get the Recipe: Holiday Biscotti
Pecan Jewel Cookies With Spicy Jam Filling
Never one to take the mild route, Nadia G kicks up these thumbprint-style cookies by spiking her jam with cayenne pepper. But the most prominent flavor in the Pecan Jewels is the pecans themselves — coarsely chopped, roasted and studding the dough.
Get the Recipe: Pecan Jewel Cookies with Spicy Jam Filling
Biscotti al Rosmarino e Pinoli (Rosemary and Pine Nut Cookies)
Get the Recipe: Biscotti al Rosmarino e Pinoli (Rosemary and Pignoli Cookies)
Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze
Lemon lovers will appreciate Giada's light, bright ricotta cookies. The best part about these sweets? They travel well, making them a great holiday gift for friends and family.
Get the Recipe: Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze
Maple and Pecan Shortbreads
Get the Recipe: Maple and Pecan Shortbreads
Peppermint Meltaways
Get the Recipe: Peppermint Meltaways
Cherry and Coconut Whoopie Pies
Chuck Hughes offers a tropical, fruity take on his popular red velvet whoopie pies by swapping out that cream cheese frosting for a coconut cream and adding a hint of cherry flavor to the cookie halves. Dotted with syrup-drenched cherries and rolled in toasted coconut slivers, these cookie sandwiches are far from holiday traditional.
Get the Recipe: Cherry and Coconut Whoopie Pies
Lemon Curd and Stem Ginger White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ching-He Huang never disappoints with her creative Asian-inspired twists on traditional cookies. Here, she adds stem ginger (young ginger that's been preserved in a sugar syrup and canned) and lemon curd to cookie batter to add spicy, citrus notes. White chocolate chips keep these cookies sweet and holiday appropriate.
Get the Recipe: Lemon Curd and Stem Ginger White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Giada's dense treats are like a cross between a biscotti and a classic cookie. Serve them with tea or coffee so you can dip them if they're a bit too crunchy for your taste.
Get the Recipe: Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
S'mores Bars
It's hard to improve on the classically simple s'more, but Kelsey might have done just that with her thick and gooey cookie bar stacks.
Get the Recipe: S'mores Bars
Fire Roasted Chestnut Caramel Cookies
Inspired by Nat King Cole's "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," Roger Mooking concocted a cookie that captures that sweet, deeply nutty flavor of fire-roasted chestnuts and dressed it up for the holidays with a caramel coating and snowflake-sized sea salt crystals.
Get the Recipe: Fire Roasted Chestnut Caramel Cookies
Sugar Cookies
Alton Brown's favorite sugar cookies can be stored for up to one week, so they're a great make-ahead option for your holiday party.
Get the Recipe: Sugar Cookies
Pistachio Macarons
Bring a bit of Parisian flair to your holiday celebration with Julia Baker's pistachio macarons. The cookies themselves are tinted this festive shade of green and are filled with (and flavored by) a homemade caramelized pistachio cream –– the kind ever present throughout France during the Christmas season.
Get the Recipe: Pistachio Macarons
Boozy Marmalade Shortbread Cookies
Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark's shortbread sandwich cookies bring all the elements of a seasonal cocktail into cookie form. The sandwich filling is made out of orange marmalade, orange liqueur and a dash of bitters, so you can have your cocktail and eat it too.
Get the Recipe: Boozy Marmalade Shortbread Cookies
Green Tea and Orange Chocolate Chip "Crownie"
Part brownie, part chocolate chip cookie, Ching-He Huang’s bite-size Crownies are more cake-y than cookie-like, which makes them even more irresistible. Matcha green tea powder and orange zest infuse this recipe with Asian-inspired citrus flavors and a hint of color, which will make these powder-dusted cookies stand out on any holiday party table.
Get the Recipe: Green Tea and Orange Chocolate Chip "Crownie"
Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
Kelsey adds moisture and an extra layer of flavor by adding mashed banana to her chocolate chip cookie recipe. Oatmeal gives them additional heartiness, so they're great as an afternoon snack or a breakfast on the go.
Get the Recipe: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
Red Velvet Gems
Get the Recipe: Red Velvet Gems
Chocolate Dipped Coconut Rocher
Kelsey Nixon loves coconut macaroons, with their crispy golden exterior and soft chewy center. For the holidays, she likes making the traditional French coconut rocher –– a variation on the macaroon, shaped like a pyramid and dipped in chocolate. The best part? These cookies are easy to prepare in little more than an hour.
Get the Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Coconut Rocher
Milk Chocolate Chip Maple Syrup Glazed Bacon Cookies
Bacon may be the not-so-secret ingredient in these smoky cookies from Nadia G, but it's the maple syrup that adds just the right amount of sweetness that really takes them to the next level. Sprinkle sea salt over each one to take these treats over the top.
Get the Recipe: Milk Chocolate Chip Maple Syrup Glazed Bacon Cookies
Almond Shortbread Cookies
Ching-He Huang's shortbread cookies may not look like the most-exciting pick of the dessert spread, but ground almonds and lemon zest add welcome nutty flavor and citrusy brightness.
Get the Recipe: Almond Shortbread Cookies
The Oatiest Oatmeal Cookies Ever
Get the Recipe: The Oatiest Oatmeal Cookies Ever
K and C Thumbprint Cookies
Get the Recipe: K and C Thumbprint Cookies
Warm Chewy Macadamia White Chocolate Cookies
Get the Recipe: Warm Chewy Macadamia White Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate Coconut Balls
Get the Recipe: Chocolate Coconut Balls
Eggnog Cookies
Get the Recipe: Eggnog Cookies
Chocolate Espresso Cookies
A powdery coating of confectioners' sugar makes these dark, fudgy espresso-chocolate cookies from David Rocco look like they've been dusted in just-fallen snow.
Get the Recipe: David Rocco's Chocolate Espresso Cookies
Kourambiethes
Michael Symon loves his family recipe that's a unique take on the traditional Greek cookie: "These cookies are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. This is my mother's recipe, and I cannot think of a time when we didn't have these cookies for the holidays. The holidays just wouldn't be the same without them; I love them!"
Get the Recipe: Kourambiethes
Lemon Madeleines
Get the Recipe: Lemon Madeleines
Cranberry Pecan Oat Cookies With Bourbon Glaze
Get the Recipe: Cranberry Pecan Oat Cookies with Bourbon Glaze
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Get the Recipe: Triple Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches
Get the Recipe: Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches
Madras Coconut Cookies
Get the Recipe: Madras Coconut Cookies
Honey Fleur de Lys
Get the Recipe: Honey Fleur de Lys