14 Christmas Cookies and Bars for Your Holiday Cookie Box

Crisp on the edges, soft in the center, with milk chocolate chunks in the dough and on top. Beat the butter and sugars for a long time: that air is what makes the middle tender. The first cookie to disappear from the box!

Old-fashioned molasses cookies with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg, a cracked top and a soft center. The secret is chilling the dough. Shape the balls before the trays go in the fridge and the cookies stay nice and thick.

The real thumbprint cookie: a well pressed with your thumb halfway down, filled with raspberry jam before baking. Press firmly or the jam spills over. The edges crack a little and that’s perfectly fine.

Dark chocolate, cocoa and butter cookies whisked by hand, with a crackled top and a center that’s still soft when they come out. A pinch of flaky salt right before serving. For the real chocolate lovers!

A molasses and spice dough that rolls out easily, cut with cookie cutters and finished with royal icing. Keep the thickness even: the baking time decides if they come out soft or crisp. A Christmas classic.

The Christmas classic to make every year: white chocolate and macadamia nuts in a soft dough, golden on the edges. They come out of the oven very soft, and that’s normal. Don’t put them back, they finish setting on the tray.

Soft oatmeal raisin cookies made with melted butter and cinnamon. Keep the dough balls modest in size and pull the cookies out before they look done: they finish setting on the tray and stay tender.

Fudgy chocolate cookies with crème de menthe, crisp outside and tender inside. Use the clear crème de menthe, never the green one, so the dough keeps its color. No alcohol? Mint syrup works just as well.

Melt-in-your-mouth vanilla shortbread, eggless, with cornstarch to keep them tender. Cut with cookie cutters, they make pretty shapes for the holiday box. Weigh your flour: that’s the secret to keeping them from drying out.

One giant cookie baked in a cast iron skillet, with dulce de leche milk chocolate chips and pecans. The butter melts right in the pan, you mix the rest and bake. Eat it warm with ice cream on top!

Soft pumpkin cookies with the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top instead of rolled in. The dough is sticky, and that’s normal. They come out soft and firm up on the hot tray as they cool.

Chocolate orange cookies, crisp on the edges and soft in the center, with a splash of orange liqueur in the dough, or the alcohol-free version. Use softened butter, never melted, or they spread like pancakes.

Vanilla meringue cookies, crisp outside and melting inside, with no flour or butter. The trick: turn the oven off and keep the door closed, and they finish drying on their own. No cracks, and a lighter box!

No-bake crispy bars: puffed rice coated in a melted mix of chocolate hazelnut spread, speculoos cookie spread and peanut butter. They set in the fridge, you cut them into squares, and the box is full!