My favorite time of the year is here! I have to admit making cookies is one of the highlights of Christmas for me – I have already started planning for this year. Since I just looked up all these vintage recipes to decide what to make, I thought I would gather them all up for you guys into a fun cookie round-up. 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. Christmas Snowballs
The Verdict: Okay. Cookie was plain and crumbly.
From The Tasting Notes:
A little floury and crumbly, almost a chalky taste. Not very sweet, but cherry inside was a nice touch. Tastes a bit like shortbread on the outside. Cookie could probably be improved significantly by upping the flavoring of the cookie itself or by subbing chocolate for the cherry inside.
9. Gumdrop Jumbos: The Secret Ingredient is Ketchup!
The Verdict: Fun!
From the Tasting Notes:
These cookies ended up not being disgusting, but actually 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.
10. Fancy Layer Cookies
The Verdict: Not Good
From the Tasting Notes:
Baking a cake batter for extra time and drying it out does NOT make it into a cookie. The bake time on these was way too long. I would say start checking these after 20 mins, and go from there. Also, these could really use some butter, so I would say sub at least half of the shortening for butter. And make sure you space out your graham crackers. Maybe then you will get a good piece of cake out of this.
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!
I made the chocolate snowballs last year and they were a huge hit. They’re extra easy and delicious. Next is the English toffee bars!
I was just looking at this post in the archives and thinking of making the lemon cookies–I love a sugar cookie! But the snowballs sound fun–we are having heating problems at work, so I promised treats, maybe I’ll make them tonight!
My Momma made a version of the chocolate filled snowballs with PEANUT BUTTER cookies instead of just plain/sugar dough. OMG. Better than a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup!
Thanks for your post, helps narrow down all the cookie recipes to consider. Inspired by the chocolate-filled snowballs, hoping they’ll be an unexpected twist, the english toffee cookies (old fav), and perhaps the almond bars. I love soft textured cookies. Any recommendations for a chocolate-mint or perhaps a mint cookie?
What about holiday cookies with green and red sprinkles?
Signed, Confused in Monaco
Yum Yum Yum, I love to bake and can’t wait to try some of these. My question is, do you know from when these cookie recipes hail? I’ve working on a sequel to the novel The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress and besides swing dancing, vintage clothes and sewing, there is quite a bit of cooking and recipes (Cuz I love FOOD!), so in the next one I wanted to add a Holiday with vintage baking. Are any of these recipes from the 40s? Or Popular in the 40s? Thanks.
As I’ve said before I was not lucky enough to be raised in a family of good (or even mediocre) cooks. However one good memory was essies sugar cookies. I haven’t bothered to search for it because my son is nut allergic and the recipe calls for almond extract. Maybe one of your readers is also familiar with it and could pass the recipe on.
I just made a big batch of the chocolate snowballs! But I made a small alteration: Instead of nuts, I added in a hint of cinnamon and three tablespoons of cocoa powder and called them mudballs. DELICIOUS! And they’re so insanely simple, too! Only six ingredients! I already made one kind of Kiss-themed cookie on Christmas (peanut butter cookies with Kisses in them), so I guess I’ll add another to my repertoire! Not sure if I want to cut back on the cocoa powder a little (they came out INSANELY rich), or leave them as-is to discourage excess holiday snacking… (“Ugh, no, really, I couldn’t eat another bite!”)