There are a lot of things to love about Christmas, and cookies are certainly one of them. In fact, today is National Cookie Exchange Day!
But which holiday cookie is the best? “Today” set out to find out just that with their “Ultimate Holiday Cookie Bracket” pitting eight holiday favorites against each other to determine the champ. And not surprisingly, the Sugar Cookie came out on top beating Shortbread in the final round, with 63% of people choosing the Sugar Cookie as their fave.
In the spirit of Christmas Cookie Swaps and the Ultimate Holiday Cookie Bracket I thought I'd share the recipes for my favorites. I got these recipes from my grandmother, who I'm pretty sure got most of her recipes from the back of a Land O'Lakes box.
Heirloom Cookie
Similar to, but not the same as, Swedish Heirloom Cookies.
These are my favorite. Yes, at one point this year I did make multiple batches in one week and I ate them all. I also bought a treadmill the following week, so there's that.
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks of butter
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 tablespoon of water
- 1 tablespoon of almond flavoring
- 2 cups of flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
Directions:
- Cream butter and sugar.
- Add flour and salt alternately with water and almond flavoring.
- Bake at 325 for 12 to 15 minutes.
Note: I use my grandmothers cookie stamps when making these. Without a design they taste great but look very plain.
Norwegian Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 2 hard boiled egg yolks
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon or vanilla flavoring
Directions:
- Cream butter.
- Stir in egg yolks, pressed through sieve.
- Beat in sugar.
- Add flour and flavoring.
- Put through cookie press and bake at 375 for 10 minutes.
FYI, if you haven't heard of a cookie press - it's basically a cookie gun that you fill with dough and you can shoot out different designs/shapes. You can get them on Amazon for around $20 and you can always buy different discs for new designs.
Enjoy!