The Ultimate Christmas Cookie Tray

It’s that time of year again. Time for the cookie list.

I’m a bit behind this year. Usually I prepare the cookie list the week after Thanksgiving. But Owen has been monopolizing my time (also why I haven’t posted in a while – sorry!). I don’t even have our tree decorated yet. It’s just standing in our house, completely bare. I’m tempted to leave it that way. Maybe I’ll start a new trend…au naturale trees, a simple forest-y look for the season.

Anyway, each December, I look through my recipes and decide which cookies to make for Christmas. I usually plan to make about 10 different cookies, but I always end up making more than that. This year I’m determined to make no more than 7 different kinds. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew with Baby O around.

The cookie tray is really an art form. Seriously, people, it’s not easy to come up with the perfect combination of cookies. You can’t have too many drop cookies or bar cookies. They can’t all have chocolate or nuts in them. Different shapes and different flavors are essential. It’s all about variety and making sure there’s something for everyone in the cookie selection.

Here are some of my favorite cookies, ones that I make every year:

• Lemon Lime Sugar Cookies
These are a classic sugar cookie with some lemon and lime zest and frosted with a confectioner’s sugar and lemon and lime juice icing. I cut them into snowflakes, stars, trees and candy canes and decorate them with tinted icing and sanding sugar.
• Caramel Heavenly Bars
A recipe that I created a few years ago. These really do get better with age. A week after making them, they taste divine (hence the “heavenly” name). The cookie includes a butter-brown sugar crust covered with a cinnamon caramel and topped with coconut, almonds, and mini marshmallows.
• Gingerbread Cookies
It’s not Christmas without a gingerbread cookie. I like to dip mine in white chocolate. Simple and delicious…enough said.
• Cornflake Wreaths
Okay, so these never actually look like wreaths. They are basically rice crispy treats made with cornflakes instead and tinted green. The original recipe says to shape them into wreaths, but it’s pretty much impossible to make the sticky marshmallow mixture into anything. You’re just lucky to get it off your hands. So they’re more like green blobs. But addictive, yummy green blobs.
• Peanut Butter Munchies
Every cookie tray needs a peanut butter and chocolate cookie. These are little balls of peanut butter, rice crispies, and sugar dipped in chocolate. The perfect bite to pop in your mouth.
• Butterscotch Oaties
I just love butterscotch chips. The recipe I have for Butterscotch Oaties is a bit different from others I’ve seen. In my recipe, the butterscotch chips are melted and added to the oatmeal cookie dough.
• Rugelach
These, along with pizelles, are the not-too-sweet cookies needed for some balance. In fact, rugelach is a great breakfast treat with coffee. I like the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe, with a simple raisin, walnut, and cinnamon sugar filling.
• Mint Wafers
Taste just like Girl Scout thin mints. I decorate mine with white nonpareils and crushed candy canes and they look and taste perfectly Christmas-y.

Other cookies that I like to make include mini elephant ears, snickerdoodles, pizelles, magic cookie bars, classic chocolate chip, pecan tassies, walnut crisps, meringues, and a cherry bar cookie. And, even though it’s not a cookie, I like to make fudge too.

While making your Christmas cookies, my one tip for you is to keep them small. Don’t make chocolate chip cookies the size of your hand. With so many cookies to eat, it’s best to make them bite-size – people can sample more cookies this way. I admit that it takes more time to make smaller cookies, but it’s worth it.

Hope you all get to enjoy plenty of Christmas cookies! Let me know if you would like any of the recipes for the cookies above.

Now it’s time to get back to baking…