Our Top Prize-Winning Holiday Cookie Recipes

This holiday season, try making a new cookie recipe from this collection of our most popular Christmas cookies! From mini gingerbread houses to classic crackles, these winning cookie recipes are sure to snag top prize at the cookie swap.Watch Video
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Boot Tracks

Start to finish: 30 mins
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Patti Anderson, a professional quilter, had never entered a cooking contest before she took our challenge. This quick, no-fuss, chewy chocolate cookie is made on your waffle iron. No need to haul out the big mixer, you can mix the batter with a small hand mixer or even by hand. Kids love these!

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Chocolate Snowcap Cookies

Start to finish: 2 hrs 30 mins
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This fudgy chocolate crinkle cookie recipe is a hit with chocolate lovers. Bake the cookies right after rolling them in confectioners' sugar: if they sit, the sugar absorbs into the dough and the rich chocolaty cookies lose their snowcapped look.

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Mini Gingerbread House Cookies

Start to finish: 2 hrs 30 mins
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Holiday cookies don't get any cuter than these mini gingerbread houses that kids and adults alike will love. Use a mini gingerbread house cookie cutter to cut out all the parts (the kids will love helping with this part), then build the houses and let the kids go to town decorating. Line up your finished creations to make a gingerbread house village, eat them up or prop them up on mugs of cocoa for dipping and munching.

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Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Start to finish: 1 hr 36 mins
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Here's a low-calorie, lower-fat version of traditional sugar cookie dough. Roll out and shape it for all your favorite holiday cookies.

5 of 22

Nut & Honey Biscotti

Start to finish: 5 hrs
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This crunchy Italian cookie recipe isn't traditionally very sweet, so just a touch of honey adds flavor along with mild sweetness. Dipping them in chocolate makes them extra special.

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Joy Cookies

Start to finish: 1 hr 45 mins
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These coconut-chocolate-almond-topped shortbread cookies are reminiscent of Almond Joy candy bars.

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Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Start to finish: 50 mins
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Soft and satisfying, this chocolate chip cookie recipe incorporates toasted whole-grain oats and low-fat yogurt.

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Soft Sugar Cookies

Start to finish: 1 hr
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These easy and classic cookies incorporate mild-tasting white whole-wheat flour for extra fiber and nutrients.

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Angel Delights

Start to finish: 30 mins
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Frances Van Vynckt, 78, combined dates, toasted rice cereal and coconut into an easy no-bake treat that won EatingWell's 2008 cookie contest.

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Lava Rocks

Start to finish: 50 mins
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Strategy and operations director Josh Gitlin gave this low-fat cookie three layers of chocolate flavor with cocoa powder, grated bittersweet chocolate and cocoa nibs.

11 of 22

Yummy Molasses Crackles

Start to finish: 1 hr 30 mins
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Nancy Caverly gave her grandmother's recipe for ginger molasses cookies a little makeover--reducing the butter and adding crystallized ginger for a spicy jolt.

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Cinnamon-Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Start to finish: 1 hr 15 mins
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This recipe takes oatmeal cookies up a notch with its cinnamony, buttery, delicious take on a much-loved classic dessert.

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Pineapple Coconut Bites

Start to finish: 55 mins
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A retired writing professor and mother of two daughters, Jessie Grearson got inspiration for these mini tarts from a pineapple-coconut bar that her mother used to make. Her version successfully uses whole-wheat pastry flour and less butter and sugar.

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Cranberry-Orange-Nut Cookies

Start to finish: 1 hr 30 mins
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Crisp, moist and chewy, this cookie created by Georgene Egri of Walnut Creek, California, has the essential ingredients for the holidays: citrus, nuts and cranberries. These cookies travel well for gift-giving and lunchboxes.

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Date Bran Jingle Balls

Start to finish: 55 mins
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Trisha Kruse, an administrative assistant, created quick, easy, no-bake date-nut balls to fill that special niche in your holiday repertoire.

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16 of 22

Ginger Crinkle Cookies

Start to finish: 1 hr
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Cynthia Farr-Weinfeld, a hypnotherapist and writer, started improving the nutritional profile of a friend's mother's ginger cookie recipe by substituting whole-wheat pastry flour for all-purpose flour and canola oil for shortening. “Experiment with these cookies,” she advises, “as they taste great either slightly underdone or crispy.” She calls them “the quickest cookies you'll ever bake.”

17 of 22

One Nutty Date

Start to finish: 3 hrs
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Financial advisor Linda Croley was inspired by childhood memories of a family treat when she created these peanut butter-date cookies. “I get a great feeling when I bite into these cookies and think of my family who are around me today, and those whose memories I'll always cherish,” says Croley. Once you try them, you may never make an ordinary peanut butter cookie again.

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Princess Tea Cakes

Start to finish: 2 hrs
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Working on this makeover of a classic Russian Tea Cake made Bridget Klein feel closer to her late sister, Gina, because they are “a great match for her personality: delicate and refined, pretty to look at, and yet a definite character that inspires adoration and loyalty.” Gina's middle name, Sarah, means “princess,” in Hebrew; hence the name of these confections. Klein's mom “swore these cookies couldn't be made without butter,” she says, “until she tasted them.” Klein continues: “Gina was a traditionalist, too, but I think I might have been able to fool her with these.”

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Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

Start to finish: 40 mins
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These airy coconut cookies get an upgrade with a simple dark chocolate drizzle in this healthy dessert recipe.

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Double Nut & Date Tassies

Start to finish: 1 hr 10 mins
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The two-bite pecan tarts satisfy the sweet tooth with far less guilt than pecan pie.

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Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

Start to finish: 2 hrs 30 mins
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Looking for a fun cooking project to do with kids? Make chocolate truffles! In this easy vegan dessert recipe, we make a chocolate ganache filling with peanut butter and coconut milk instead of heavy cream. Make chocolate bark with the leftover chocolate and wrap it up together with a few truffles for a beautiful edible gift.

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