My favorite time of the year is here! I thought I would gather up a bunch of good vintage cookie recipes to help with your holiday baking! Bonus recipe at the end: Vintage Fruitcake!
Oh, and if you are going to make only one of these cookies, try the Chocolate-Filled Snowballs. They are awesome!
1. Annie’s Cookies
The Verdict: These cookies are GREAT!
From Tom’s Tasting Notes:
Fantastic aroma and nice and soft. Tastes like carrot cake without the carrots. Good with strong flavors and the fruit and nuts are a great combination.
2. Chocolate-Filled Snowballs
The Verdict: Very yummy
From The Tasting Notes:
The nut cookie base is good, even on its own. It has a good texture and a good vanilla flavor, but when you add in the chocolate kiss it becomes delightfully decadent.
3. Frosted Lemon Sugar Cookies
The Verdict: Very Good
From The Tasting Notes:
Cookie itself has faint but noticeable lemon flavor. Good, soft texture for a sugar cookie. The frosting was strong, but otherwise yummy. If you follow the recipe (unlike me) I am sure it would be perfect!
4. Chocolate Cherry Chews with Cherry-Chip Frosting
The Verdict: Awesome!
From The Tasting Notes:
Almost like fudge in flavor and consistency. Very rich and delicious! Easy to make and they stay moist. The Cherry Chip Frosting is a good match.
5. English Toffee Cookies
The Verdict: Very good and addicting.
From the Tasting Notes:
Chewy and buttery. They hold up really well and make a good addition to a cookie plate because of their texture. These actually age very well, and were BETTER a couple of days after they were made rather than right away. Tom made a note early in testing that they were a little bland, but then two days later crossed that out and wrote: “Nevermind. These are addicting. You just can’t stop eating them.”
6. Almond Bars
The Verdict: Good, but soft.
From The Testing Notes:
Moist bars with a good almond flavor. Tom didn’t especially enjoy the texture, but I have had a few neighbors who received the cookies tell me that the almond bars were their favorite, so it must be just a taste preference thing. I personally loved them, but I love thick, sweet almond fillings. These were excellent with coffee and stored very well without losing much of their moistness.
7. Snowflake Spritz
The Verdict: Light and sweet.
From The Tasting Notes:
Good orange and cinnamon flavor. Tasted sweet and light. We both loved it!
8. Gumdrop Jumbos: The Secret Ingredient is Ketchup!
The Verdict: Fun!
From the Tasting Notes:
These cookies ended up kind of fun. They didn’t taste bad, sort of bland really, but they were soft and thick. The gumdrops were a fun addition. If I was going to make these again I would add some cinnamon. If the thought of putting ketchup in your cookie totally freaks you out, you could omit the ketchup completely and just add more cinnamon.
9. Colorful Cookies
The Verdict: Good!
Tasting notes:
Shortbread texture. Very sweet, but not in a bad way. Glaze was good. Strong fruit flavor.
10. Butter Pecan Turtle Cookies
The Verdict: Terrific. More turtles now please!
Tasting notes:
It’s hard to go wrong with chocolate and caramel. The hardest part was waiting for these to cool. I kept wandering through the kitchen and chopping small pieces off the edge and saying, “MMMMMMM…. I mean, oh, darn, not done yet.” There’s really no reason to keep the pecan halves intact, though.
11. Chocolate No-Bake Butter Balls
The Verdict: Yes To Chocolate, No To Vanilla
From The Tasting Notes:
Mixed bag on this one. The vanilla cookies taste gritty, buttery and very sweet. Not much flavor in them. They aren’t unpleasant, but they aren’t anything special. If I was going to make these again, I would switch out some of the butter for peanut butter and add some chocolate chips. The chocolate cookies, on the other hand, were tons better. They tasted a bit like a Nestle Crunch bar, and were soft with a good texture. I guess the extra bit of water really did help!
12. Candied Crackers
*Ruth’s Note: Use Saltines instead of graham crackers for these! They are really amazing!
The Verdict: Really Good
From the Tasting Notes:
These were really good. Very sweet with a slight toffee flavor and delicious with the chocolate and nuts, but very difficult to cut and eat. In the end they were basically just fancied up graham crackers. However, I made these and two other kinds of bar cookies for a 4th of July party, and these were by far the favorites, especially among the kids even though they were difficult to eat. So if you want to make them, make sure to use the right amount of graham crackers and make sure you cram together as many crackers in the pan as you can before pouring on the boiled sugar!
13. Wesson’s Famous Fruitcake
*Ruth’s Note: Substitute rum-soaked dried fruits for the day-glow candied fruits and you will have a fantastic Christmas cake!
The Verdict: Good
From The Testing Notes:
Good fruit and nut flavor. Not too moist, but not dry either. Cake itself is good, but not very spicy. Would benefit from extra spices and some rum or brandy! Good overall-would be very tasty as a breakfast bread.
Pick of the Litter: Chocolate-Filled Snowballs!
These were the easiest to make and very good, which makes them the best in my book! Give them a try, you won’t be sorry!
This post came at the perfect time – I am behind on my cookie baking this year and was looking for easy things. The English Toffee bars are just what I needed. I used mini chocolate chips that I had on hand from another recipe and didn’t bother melting them – just sprinkled them over the hot base and they melted just fine to be able to spread the chocolate. Merry Christmas to you and your family – and I mean this in a non-stalker way, really I do, but more pictures of Alex in the new year???? She is so adorable!
I’m so excited to try some of these! I’ve been in the market for a good spritz cookie. Thanks Ruth! Happy Holidays!
Thanks for these recipes. I know I can just do a search on your site for the Chocolate No-Bake Butter Balls recipe (I remember seeing that not too long ago), but the link in the name takes you back to the jello cookies.
Off to the kitchen for more baking…
😀
I just whipped up a batch of the snowflake spritz dough and my word, that stuff smells HEAVENLY! You guys liked it, but I ADORE orange-flavored baked goods and I think these might become a permanent addition to my repertoire! Mmmm… yummy.