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Sarah's Christmas Cookies for 2024

The 2024 Christmas Season started at the tail–end of our home siding redo project, so Sarah's baking routine was a bit hurried and harried trying to catch up. She managed to not only catch up, but finish a bit ahead of her plan, and all the cookies were shipped off in record time. Everyone should be enjoying their cookies very, very soon. We'll be enjoying the results of the siding redo for much, much longer (we hope).

For this year, Sarah has created thirty–one different varieties of cookies, biscotti, and candies, including three new recipes, all made with her trademark loving touch.

  Cookies of Christmas Past   ☆   Don's Christmas Ornaments  

Almond Toffee Biscotti

Start with a typical biscotti dough, then jazz it up with toffee bits and sliced almonds, a great flavor combination. For a real treat, try dunking them in almond herbal tea, hot cocoa, or coffee with amaretto!

Almond Toffee Triangles

Not your typical bar cookie shape, these chewy triangles are made with a shortbread base coated with a topping of toffee and sliced almonds.

Biberli

An irresistible combinaton of honey and nuts, Biberli cookies originated in the Appenzell District of Switzerland in the 16th Century! An outer cookie that mellows with age is wrapped around a marzipan filling. Great with coffee or tea!

Cherry Almond Biscotti

A deliciously wonderful combination of dried cherries, almonds, and amaretto flavor these biscotti, and make them pretty, too! They taste great dunked in almond herbal tea or amaretto coffee, but hot cocoa really brings out the cherry flavor.

Cherry Chocolate Marshmallows new

Everybody loves home–made marshmallows because they're so much better than store–bought. Just imagine cherry flavored marshmallows with mini chocolate chips on top for decoration and flavor! Better yet, just try one!

Cherry Covered Chocolates

A rich blanket of shortbread dough, flavored with cherry and almond, is hiding a chocolate kiss inside!

Chocolate Almond Hazelnut Cookies

Start with chocolate flavored shortbread. Add lots of hazelnuts and almonds. Then dip the end in semi–sweet chocolate for a little extra decadence. Yum!

Chocolate Cherry Crackles

Chocolate Cherry Crackles are deliciously rich drop cookies with a moist, chewy center and a slightly crunchy, cracked shell. These are pumped–up versions with dried charry bits that have been soaked in Kirsch.

Chocolate Dotted Orange Biscotti

Orange and chocolate go together so well. These biscotti are loaded with chocolate chips and orange zest with a little dip of dark chocolate for that finishing touch. They're even better when dunked into hot cocoa!

Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

These sandwich cookies start with chocolate wafers which are joined by a minty cream filling.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Patties

Everybody's favorite, Reese Cups, turned into a cookie! Intensely chocolate butter cookie hand–wrapped around a sweet peanut-butter filling.

Christmas Biscotti

Red and green candied cherries give this classic biscotti recipe the colors of the season. A hint of anise adds a spicy touch. They taste even better dunked into spicy herbal teas.

Coconut Macaroons

The first macaroons were almond meringue cookies made from egg whites and almond paste. Over time, coconut was added to some recipes, and eventually replaced the ground almonds. These drop cookies are an all–time classic, but what do they have in common with pasta?

Double Chocolate Biscotti

For those who can't get enough chocolate, these chocolate flavored biscotti are made with both semi–sweet and white chocolate chunks. Should they be called Triple Chocolate? Dunk them in hot cocoa for a chocolate overload.

Lebkuchen  

Also called Pfefferkuchen, Lebkuchen is German gingerbread. Probably the very first Christmas cookie, it is one of the oldest of all cookies. You can trace its roots back to the ancient Egyptians in 1500 BC! These are made with Aunt Jean's recipe.

Lemon Snowdrops

These delicate little morsels start with a light butter dough which is refrigerated, sliced and baked. The individual cookies are then sandwiched using lemon curd filling (made from scratch) and dusted with powdered sugar for a snowy effect.

Lime Coconut Marshmallows new

Some flavors were just made to go together. Lime and coconut is one of those combinations. The only thing that could make it even better is to have it in the form of a creamy, soft, chewy marshmallow! "Put de lime in de coconut..."

Malted Cashew Balls

Russian Tea Cakes with a twist! These butter cookies are flavored with malted milk powder, and have a wonderful crunch added by toasted cashews. They're rolled in powdered sugar as a finishing touch.

Orange Creams

These little one–bite cookies are similar to Lemon Snowdrops. Start with an orange–flavored butter dough which is refrigerated, sliced and baked. The cookies are then sandwiched using orange curd filling and dusted with powdered sugar.

Peppermint Marshmallows

You won't believe how much better these little clouds of flavor taste than the kind of marshmallows you float in your hot cocoa. You might be tempted to drop one or two of these pink minty treats in your cocoa, but that would be a waste of their delicate flavor and the chewy bits of peppermint stick on top.

Petticoat Tails

The patterns in these peppermint flavored sliced shortbread cookies are made by variously arranging, rolling, and slicing alternately colored sheets. Their name comes from one of the classic shapes for Scottish Shortbread, which was often baked in a large circle that was cut into pointy wedges called "petticoat tails"

Praline Shortbread Buttons

As if shortbread wasn't delectable enough already, imagine one made with brown sugar and pralined pecan pieces (Say that 5 times fast!). These little button–shaped gems are amazing!

Rainbow Cookies

Take three layers of almond flavored cake and sandwich them together with orange marmalade and raspberry preserves, then top it all with dark chocolate and slice into these delicate treats. Are they bar cookies or petit fours? When they're this delicious, who cares!

Raspberry Palmiers

Start with flaky, rich puff pastry, then layer it with homemade raspberry jam before rolling it into the classic palmier shape

Soft Caramels

The same delicious flavor of caramel in an extra soft, melt–in–your–mouth form. Toasted pecans add a nutty crunch. These taste like the inside of a turtle candy – you won't miss the chocolate.

Spiced Chocolate Macaroons

The original macaroon recipe called for almond paste and meringue. The recipe for these cookies is reminiscent of that 500 year old recipe with ground almonds, meringue, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and cloves forming a crunchy shell around a soft center.

Spiced Pistachio Biscotti new

Unlike most biscotti, these pistachio biscotti are non–dairy, but with all the flavor and richness added by the pistachio nuts and warm spices, including cardamom, you won't the butter at all.

Springerle

Springerle is an anise–flavored German cookie with a picture. An embossed design is made by pressing a mold onto the rolled dough and allowing the impression to dry before baking to preserve the details.

Toffee Cranberry Crisps

Not your ordinary oatmeal cookie, these are stuffed with toffee pieces, dried cranberries, and mini chocolate chips!

Viennese Shortbread

These beautiful spritz sandwich cookies are made with a shortbread dough, filled with coffee flavored creme and dipped in milk chocolate.

Zimtsterne  

"Zimtsterne" is German for "Cinnamon Stars" – which explains their shape, and the touch of cinnamon added to highligh their flavor. Similar to a traditional macaroon, Zimtsterne starts with a meringue base, with ground almonds and hazelnuts added for body. A meringue glaze gives them a sweet coating.