Great Holiday Cookie Recipes Made With Chocolate and Cheer
My 6th Annual Cookie Exchange party is coming up, and if I can manage to finish decorating the house, it should be its usual joyful, twinkly self. Good friends and kids making cookies and cheer and messes, and me being so happy for the love, the friendships and the baked goods. Here are six of my new favorites and check out last year's article for even more buttery goodness. Happy Holidays!
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Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies with Chocolate
Some people only like their chocolate chip cookies with chocolate chips. Some people don’t like raisins. Or oatmeal. Some people like all of it. I’m that some person. I like the chewy chocolateness, plus the oatmeal makes me feel wholesome. These crowded little lovelies are from my life coach (in my mind) Catherine Newman.
Ginger Chocolate Chip Bars and Chocolate Gingerbread Bars
These are two variations on a theme — a brownie like texture with ginger-y, chocolate goodness. I particularly love the bites of chocolate in the ginger bars, and the dense molasses quality of the gingerbread bars (just make sure you take them out around 27 minutes, instead of 30). You can make both and package them together with a pretty ribbon. Perfect for the cookie exchanger that doesn’t want to make 7800 cookies. From Real Simple and Martha Stewart.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
I recently made this Hershey’s recipe for a bake sale and they were a big hit. I sprinkled a bit of peppermint morsels on top of some, and did a mix of white and milk chocolate chips in the cookie, skipping the nuts. They are a rich, classic, cookie — moist and delicious, and very pretty stacked in a slender cello bag, with a peppermint striped ribbon.
These beauties are quite heavenly. All that melt in your mouth powered sugar and tart lime. I love citrus at Christmas and these are a wonderful burst of energy. Plus, the kids can help toss them in the sugar. From Queen Martha, who suggests packaging them stacked in cupcake wrappers, in a box perfectly secured with green ribbon. That’s a present you can’t say no to.
Ginger and Almond Chocolate Clusters
These tasty morsels, from Clotilde over at Chocolate & Zucchini, are my go to entertaining treat. They take 5 minutes and you don’t have to turn on the oven. The fragrant ginger bursts and the tangy dark chocolate have a lovely sophisticated flavor, and they go nicely with cocktail fare like cheeses, and, well, the spirits of the season. Very pretty stacked in a colorful plate for noshing while the kid’s decorate gingerbread cookies.
Don't forget to check out last year’s article for even more delicious recipes.
Sarah Cavill - New Jersey writer
Sarah Cavill has lived in Hoboken and New York City since 2001, and every time she contemplates living elsewhere, she has palpitations about what the pizza might taste like and decides to stay. After having two children in two years, Sarah hung up her laptop, to hang out with them. The last 6 years have been a wonderful, boring, hilarious, bittersweet, happy time of making parenting mistakes (too. much. yelling), and parenting triumphs (I don't waaaaant to go to sleep. My book is tooooo good!). There were bursts of creative energy on her now decaying blog and then Mommy Poppins came along and here she is, sharing the wonders (really) of New Jersey. When not taking her family hiking at South Mountain Reservation, or trying to avoid the giant sneezing nose at the Liberty Science Center, she likes to cook, eat, cocktail with friends, poke around museums, watch lots and lots of movies (the sadder the better), and read every night (I don't want to go to sleep. My book is too good!). She hopes that her children will grow up to be independent thinking, open-hearted adventurers, and that, like one of their literary heroes Paulie Pastrami, they will offer compassion to those in need, work hard, finish what they start, laugh at themselves and cry with others.
Sarah previously worked at Baltimore magazine and the Baltimore Sun and freelanced for Media Bistro, City Magazine and CBSlocal.com, among others.
