Holiday baking time is right around the corner! To get you excited (and let’s face it – drooling) here’s 35 holiday cookie and candy recipes. Divided into types of cookies for those who favor a particular type of cookie, most of these can be made ahead of time and frozen.
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
In November I start making batches of cookie dough and freezing it for my holiday baking sessions in December. Some cookie doughs I freeze in Ziploc 32 oz Freezer Containers. Each container holds 4 cups, or a single batch of cookie dough. I wrap slice and bake cookie dough in plastic wrap and store it in the freezer in gallon freezer bags
.
I always defrost the cookie dough in the fridge before baking. Most cookie doughs last 3 months in the freezer. If you find a batch after Christmas that you froze in November, it should still be good.
Cake-like cookie doughs will not freeze well. I prefer to bake them after making the batter. Don’t freeze batters with sour cream or cream cheese either.
Follow Barb Hoyer: A Life in Balance’s board Christmas Ideas, Gifts, and Recipes on Pinterest.
How to Store Holiday Cookies
Always let the cookies cool completely before baking. You want the cookies to be as dry as possible before putting them in storage containers. I love using a stackable 3-Tier Cooling Rack for cooling the cookies since it takes up less counter space.
If you want to bake certain cookie recipes early like gingerbread cookies, store them flat in a gallon freeze bag with a layer of parchment paper or wax paper in between. Personally, I wait until the gingerbread cookies are defrosted before baking them to keep the decorating from being messed up. Thaw the cookies at room temperature before decorating.
Cooled, baked cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. Cake-like cookies should be stored in the fridge since they tend to have more moisture which encourages the growth of mold. Gluten-free cookies should also be stored in the fridge since they tend to get moldy after a few days.
Store crisp and soft cookies separately. The soft cookies will moisten the crisp ones, and increase the possibility of mold growth.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
One Cookie Recipe to Rule Them All | Crafting Chicks
Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies | Crunchy Creamy Sweet
Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies | Girl Gone Mom
Gingerbread Cookies
Christmas Cookie Decorating Ideas | Val City Gal
Joe Froggers | A Life in Balance
Ginger Toffee Cookies | The Cafe Sucre Farine
Soft Ginger Cookies | A Life in Balance
Easy Gingerbread Cookies | Snap Creativity
Gingerbread Cookies | A Life in Balance
Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate Hazelnut Phyllo Cups | Feeding Big
Gluten-Free Peppermint Brownie Bites | A Life in Balance
Flourless Chocolate Almond Cookies | Two Peas and Their Pod
Sugar Cookies
The Easiest Way to Frost Sugar Cookies | It’s Always Autumn
How to Put Sprinkles on Sugar Cookies | Smart Schoolhouse
20 Tips for Fabulous Sugar Cookies | Snail Pace Transformations
OLD FASHION SUGAR COOKIES | Faith Filled Food for Moms
Butter Cookies
Cinnamon Butter Cookies | Your Home Based Mom
Gluten Free Scandanavian Thumbprint Cookies | Coconut Recipes
Salted Caramel Browned Butter Cookie Cups | Buns in My Oven
Papa Bill’s Butter Cookies | A Life in Balance
Tangerine Butter Cookies | Better Homes and Gardens
Piped Vanilla Spritz Cookies | The Spiced Life
Italian Butter Cookies | Chef Tess Bakeress
Confectioners Sugar Cookies
Snowball Cookies Recipe | Girl Gone Mom
SNOWBALL COOKIES | Faith Filled Food for Moms
Other Cookie Recipes
Clementine Cakes | The Woks of Life
Eclairs | Gigi Eats
Italian Anise Cookies | A Grande Life
Strawberry Lemon Linzer Cookies | It’s Yummi
Chocolate Kiss Sprinkle Cookies | Shugary Sweets
Sweet Lavender Vanilla Shortbread Cookies | The Vintage Mom
Candy Recipes
Gluten-Free Cookie Dough Truffles | Chocolate and Carrots
Easy Salted Caramel Fudge | Something Swanky
The Best Homemade Caramel | Tastes Better from Scratch
The Best Toffee Ever | Let’s Dish
Holiday Cookie Baking Resources
Shared at Pin Worthy Wednesday, Pinworthy
Thanks for this great collection!
Mami Made It recently posted..A Lovely Walk – Ein schöner Spaziergang
You’re welcome! I wanted to make all of these cookies, but I’m going to try to limit myself to 5.
Need to book mark this post, this is an amazing post and thank you so much for giving us 35 options…I love it, so much easier to find holiday cookie recipe in one place.
Thanks for linking this to the happy holiday linkz party.
Simi Jois recently posted..Sweet potatoes curried chips ( baked)
Great collection of cookies, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop. pinning.
swathi recently posted..Pain au Romarin
It’s times like these i wish I baked and was not a personal trainer so I could give them as gifts. I guess it would be job security. 😉 Thanks for sharing these yummy cookies at The Weekend Social. Always happy to see you. Thursdays 9:00 PM EST. Pinned. http://www.theKitchenChopper.com
LOL Thank you!
These all look delicious! Thanks for sharing and pinned!
Kim @ The Baking ChocolaTess recently posted..Pumpkin Butter Pecan Poke Cake! It’s Insane!
Hey Barb! You’ve been featured AGAIN!
Thank you for linking up to Pin Worthy Wednesday, your post was beyond Worthy and you have been Featured! http://bajantexan.blogspot.com/
As a featured poster you have the opportunity to join our Pinterest Group Board. To do this just follow the Pin Worthy Pinterest Board at http://www.pinterest.com/bajantexan
Head back to http://www.bajantexan.blogspot.com to see your feature and to grab the ‘I’ve been featured Button’.
The Bajan Texan
keitha (The Bajan Texan) recently posted..Pin Worthy Wednesday #9
These all look really gorgeous. I am going to pin this on my Christmas board! Thank you for linking to #PoCoLo
x
Verily Victoria Vocalises recently posted..Silent Sunday and My Sunday Photo 30th November 2014
Thanks for including my snowball cookies
Heather recently posted..My Holiday Style Wish List
I’m totally in love with everything! Yummy! Pinned and tweeted. We appreciate you being a part of our party, and I hope to see you on tonight at 7 pm. We love partying with you!
Happy Monday! Lou Lou Girls
Lou Lou Girls recently posted..DIY Christmas Wrapping Paper
Thanks for the shout out! I adore holiday cookies–so I am super excited to check out everything here!
Laura recently posted..Chocolate Meringue Nests with Salted Caramel Sauce and Cacoa Nibs