12 Days of Christmas Cookies 2022 (All Recipes)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, twelve new Christmas recipes. Well… these aren’t exactly new. I shared these recipes as part of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies series last year on Instagram and TikTok but realized I never shared the recipes here! So here is the full list from last year all in one post so you can easily choose which cookie (or cookies) are best for your holiday cookie tin. Spoiler alert: the matcha wreaths and the matcha checkerboard cookies won the popularity contest last year.

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Day 1: Matcha Wreath Cookies

This was one of your favourite recipes from last year’s 12 days of Christmas cookie series and it was mine as well. I love how versatile this dough is and I make it all year round in a variety of shapes. I usually pipe them out as little flowers with a large open star tip but during the holidays, they become wreaths or Christmas trees. The key is to use the best butter you can find! I always save all my “good butter” for this recipe. It is important to use very soft butter for the recipe (softer than room temperature), it’s okay even if a portion of the butter is melted. This will allow the dough to be piped easily. If you are still having issues with the dough coming out smoothly from the piping bag, add a tablespoon of melted butter to the dough will do the trick. After the dough has been piped, freezing the cookie wreaths before baking will help them retain their shape.

113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, very soft**
36g (5 tbsp) icing sugar
96g (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) all-purpose flour
36g (5 tbsp) rice flour
1 1/2 tbsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a bowl, combine softened butter and icing sugar. Mix with rubber spatula until the butter and sugar is creamy.

Add flour, rice flour, matcha powder, and salt to the bowl and mix until the dough comes together.

Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip. Apply pressure to pipe the dough into a wreath shape. (**if dough is too stiff to be piped, add 1-2 tbsp of melted butter to the dough and mix) leave 1 inch between each cookie; the cookies will not spread much.

Transfer the sheet of piped cookies to the freezer while you preheat the oven to 325f.

Bake the cookies until the bottoms are golden, about 15 – 18 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once cooled, decorate with royal icing and sprinkles.

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Day 2: Kettle Corn Snowman Cookies

These cookies combine two of my favourite things — popcorn and making cookies excessively cute. I could honestly live off of just eating popcorn for the rest of my life so adding popcorn to cookies just seemed like no brainer. The kettle corn makes the delicate sweet and salty cookie and the texture is like a delicate sugar cookie. The cookie is still crisp, but has a nice tenderness from the popcorn. The kettle corn cookie dough makes a great base for a variety of cutout or stamped cookie shapes but I used a round cookie cutter to make the base for the melted snowman.

Cookie Dough
30g (2 cups) kettle corn
150g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
180g (1 1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Royal icing
300g (2 1/2 cups) powdered sugar
3 – 5 tbsp water
2 tbsp meringue powder

Add kettle corn to a food processor or blender. Blitz until popcorn resembles flour, some large pieces are okay

In a bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg yolk and vanilla, mix until smooth

In a bowl whisk together flour, popcorn flour, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet and mix until combined. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness

Using a 2-inch cookie cutter punch out rounds. Place on lined baking sheet, 1-inch apart. Transfer baking sheet to freezer to chill as oven preheats

Preheat oven to 350f and bake cookies until golden brown around the edges, about 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool before decorating

To decorate: spread white royal icing on the top of the cookie and place half a marshmallow before icing dries. Using brown royal icing or melted milk chocolate, draw the face of the snowman. Add sprinkles for buttons.

Day 3: Stamped Pretzel Shortbread

Pretzel shortbread (aka. blitzing pretzels until it becomes pretzel ‘flour’) will always be part of my holiday cookie roster. People never expect pretzels to be part of a cookie in this way but every time they bite into a pretzel shortbread cookie they instantly recognize the flavour and eat the other 5 cookies in the tin. I wrote a longer blog post about this recipe and you can find the recipe here: pretzel shortbread recipe.

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Day 4: Soft & Chewy Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Is there anything more festive than seeing crushed candy canes adorn the top of a cookie? Most of my holiday cookies are crisp and buttery like shortbread, but I know the importance of having a variety of textures in a holiday cookie tin. When I want to add a chewy sugar cookie to the mix, this is the one I gravitate to. The cookie is a soft and chewy sugar cookie and its topped with drizzle of royal icing and crushed candy canes. I also added some gold star sprinkles for extra sparkle

270g (2 ¼ cups) all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
250g (1 ¼ cup) granulated sugar
227g (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
50g 1/4 cup granulated sugar, to roll
To garnish: royal icing, crushed candy canes, sprinkles

Royal icing
300g (2 1/2 cups) powdered sugar
3 – 5 tbsp water
2 tbsp meringue powder

Preheat oven to 350f

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

In a large bowl combine granulated sugar and butter, mix until smooth. Add egg and vanilla. Mix.

Add dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until just combined

Using an ice cream scoop, portion out dough. Roll each dough ball between palms of your hands then toss in granulated sugar

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until the edges are golden but the centers are still tender. Tap the pan on the counter several times to create ridges. Cool the cookies on the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes

While cookies are cooling, making the royal icing. In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, water, and meringue powder. If icing is too thick, add more water, 1 tbsp at a time.

Drizzle royal icing on cooled cookies and sprinkle with crushed candy canes and gold sprinkles

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Day 5: Peppermint Mocha Nutella Stars

These peppermint mocha nutella star cookies are a festive take on classic linzer cookies. Inspired by my favourite holiday drink (peppermint mocha, half sweet and no whip), these cookies feature a not-that-sweet chocolate cut out cookie filled with nutella topped with a chocolate drizzle and crushed candy canes.

150 g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
160 g (1 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
30 g (5 tbsp) cocoa powder
1 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup nutella, to fill
1/4 cup melted dark or milk chocolate, to drizzle
Crushed candy canes, to garnish

Preheat oven to 350f

In a large bowl combine butter and granulated sugar, mix until smooth. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Mix until combined

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet and mix until just combined.

Lay down a piece of parchment paper and transfer dough to the parchment. Lay a second piece of parchment over the dough and roll out dough to 1/4-inch in thickness. If the dough is too sticky at this point, transfer the rolled out dough to chill I the fridge for 15 min

Using a star-shaped cookie cutter, stamp cut outs. Using a smaller star cutter, stamp a cut out on half of the cookies. Transfer the cut outs to a lined baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to refrigerator or freezer to chill cut outs until firm — this will prevent spreading

Bake for 10 – 13 minutes, until edges the cookies are set. Wait 10 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Using a spoon or offset spatula, add nutella to the centre of each cookie. Place a cookie with a cut out on top.

Drizzle with melted chocolate and garnish with crushed candy canes

Day 6: Matcha Checkerboard Cookies

I’ve never attempted to make checkerboard cookies until last year when I saw Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for chocolate checkerboard cookies. I always assumed each square was stacked one by one and it was a very labour intensive process. After reading Deb’s instructions a few times and staring into space a few times to picture the process, I successfully made my first batch of checkerboard cookies… and I couldn’t stop. I made several flavours during the holidays and my favourite ones were the matcha version.

Having trouble with the pattern? Check out my video tutorial here.

Vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt

1 egg white
Coarse sanding sugar

For the vanilla dough: in a bowl, combine butter and powdered sugar. Mix until smooth. Add vanilla. Add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. Do the same for the matcha dough.

Place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. Slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. Repeat this step with the other portion of dough

Remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the vanilla and matcha dough layers. Press on them gently with your hands. Cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles and stack the halves. Press the layers gently to adhere them. Return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min

Using a sharpe knife, cut it the long way into six slices. Arrange the first three into a checkerboard log, flipping two of the slices over so the opposite flavour is on top. Repeat step to form the second checkerboard log. Return to the freezer as oven preheats.

Preheat oven to 350f. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk egg white. Using a pastry brush, brush log with a thin coat of egg white and roll in sanding sugar. Slice sugar-coated log into 1/4-inch-thick cookies, and arrange on lined baking sheet with 1-inch space between them.

Bake for 11 – 14 min, or until golden brown underneath. Let cookies rest on tray for 5 minutes, before transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling

Day 7: Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

Stained glass cookies are such a classic at Christmas time and are always the star of holiday baking magazine covers. Usually they’re quite simple, a star or heart-shaped cookie with a cut out for the candy centre. I decided to use royal icing to decorate the candy centre so they look like little snow globe cookies. You can use any hard candy of choice, but jolly ranchers are always a good pick!

50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
Zest of one lemon
150 g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temp
2 tsp vanilla
160 g (1 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Jolly ranchers hard candies, crushed

Preheat oven to 350f and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Zest lemon over the bowl of granulated sugar. Using your fingers, rub lemon zest and sugar together until fragrant.

In a large bowl combine butter and lemon-sugar. Mix until smooth. Add in egg yolk and vanilla. Mix until combined

Add flour and salt. Mix until just combined

Lay down a piece of parchment paper and transfer dough to the parchment. Lay a second piece of parchment over the dough and roll out dough to 1/4-inch in thickness. If the dough is too soft at this point, transfer the rolled out dough to firm up in the refrigerator for 15 min

Using cookie cutters of choice, stamp out cut outs. Using a smaller cookie cutter, stamp cut outs at the centre of each cookie

Transfer the cut outs to the lined baking sheet. Fill the centre of each cookie with crushed jolly ranchers

Transfer baking sheet to refrigerator or freezer to chill cut outs until firm — this will prevent spreading

Bake for 10 – 14 min (time will depend on shape and size of cookie), until edges the bottom of each cookie is a light golden brown

Wait 20 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely

Optional: decorate cooled stained glass cookies with royal icing

Day 8: Grinch’s Three-Sizes-Too-Small Heart Chewy Pistachio Sugar Cookies

I try to keep my holiday cookie boxes nut-free because I want to make sure everyone can enjoy the cookie tins I give out each year. But if I know

75g (1/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
40g (1/3 cup) pistachios
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Green sanding sugar or sprinkles
Heart sprinkles
Gold luster dust

Preheat oven to 350f and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

In bowl, combine butter and sugar. Mix until creamy. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Mix until smooth

Add pistachios to a food processor and blitz pistachios until it resembles flour. Some large pieces are okay

In a bowl, whisk together pistachio flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt

Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture and mix until just combined

Portion out dough into golf ball-sized balls (about 1.5 – 2 tbsp of dough each). Roll each dough ball in green sanding sugar and place on baking sheet 2-inches apart

Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until sides are set and centres are still tender. Give the baking sheet a tap on the counter when you’ve taken it out of the oven to create a nice ripple around the cookie

Remove from oven and while cookies are still warm, place a heart sprinkle on each cookie. Apply a little pressure for the sprinkle to stick. Dust with gold luster dust

Day 9: Matcha Neapolitan Slice And Bake Cookies

These slice-and-bake cookies are inspired by the of the most popular recipe on the blog, my classic matcha neapolitan cookies. If you want the flavours of the OG cookies, but want to be able to prep all your holiday baking before the big day, this is a good alternative. The dough can be made ahead of time, frozen, and sliced and baked when you’re ready to gift them or enjoy them.

150 g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
1 large egg, yolk and white separated
1 tsp vanilla
160 g (1 1/3 cup ) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
1 tbsp culinary matcha powder
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
Coarse sanding sugar

In a large bowl combine butter and granulated sugar, mix until smooth. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet and mix until just combined

Divide the dough into three equal portions and place each portion in a small bowl. Add matcha powder to one portion, freeze-dried strawberry powder to one, and additional flour to the last. Mix until combined

Roll each dough into an 8-inch log

On a piece of parchment, combine the logs and roll the combined log until the edges are smooth. Wrap the log tightly with parchment and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour

Preheat oven to 350f and line a baking sheet with parchment

Using a pastry brush, brush the log with the reserved egg white. Roll the log in coarse sanding sugar

When you’re ready to bake, use a sharp knife to slice each dough log into 1/2-inch thick cookies. Place each cookie on the lined baking sheet 1 inch apart

Bake for 12 – 14 minutes, until edges the cookies are golden. Wait 10 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely

Day 10: Decorated Shortbread Wreaths

Without fail, you will always find shortbread wreath cookies part of any cookie tin I make. To me, they’re a low effort but high reward cookie. Wreath cookies are simple to make but are so impressive after all the garnishes. I like to use a variety of garnishes of different colours and textures. My favourite combinations include pistachios and rose petals or candied rosemary and citrus. I always top them with edible gold leaf because ’tis the season.

Shortbread recipe of choice (I used the pretzel shortbread recipe from day 3)
480g (4 cups) icing sugar
3 tbsp meringue powder
8-10 tbsp water, or more if needed
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or flavouring of choice, almond or rose would be nice too!)
Freeze-dried berries, chopped pistachios, dried rose petals, sprinkles, to garnish

Make shortbread dough of choice according to directions. Roll out shortbread to 1/4-inch in thickness. Using a large scalloped round cutter, punch out circles. Using a smaller scalloped round cutter, punch out smaller circle at the centre of each cookie, removing the dough. Bake cookies until edges are golden, about 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.

While cookies are cooling, prepare the glaze. Pour icing sugar, meringue powder, and 8 tablespoons of water into a large bowl. Use a rubber spatula to mix all the ingredients until very smooth. If it’s too thick, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time. The icing should drizzle slowly but easily. Transfer icing to a shallow bowl for dipping. (** I like to divide the icing into two bowls so if cookie crumbs start getting into the first bowl of icing, you can swap to the second bowl for dipping. This makes cleaner cookies)

Dip the tops of cookies into the icing, letting the excess drip off. Transfer to a wire rack and decorate as desired with garnishes. I like to dip and decorate one cookie at a time to make sure the icing is still wet when I add the garnishes

Allow icing to fully dry before stacking

Day 11: Candy Cane Matcha Cookies

These candy cane matcha cookies are inspired by one of my favourite holiday cookies from the New York Times. Instead of dark chocolate, I swapped in white chocolate and added matcha powder to tame the sweetness of white chocolate and to add another layer of flavour to the cookie. They’re fudgey, creamy, chewy, and when topped with crushed candy canes is reminiscent of a peppermint matcha latte.

55g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter,
60g (1/3 cup) white chocolate, roughly chopped
1 large egg
70g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
50g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
60g (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp culinary matcha powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a small pot, heat up butter on medium heat until fully melted

While the butter is heating up, roughly chop white chocolate. Place into a bowl.

Pour melted butter over white chocolate. Allow the mixture to sit for five minutes before stirring until smooth.

In a bowl, combine egg and sugars. Whisk together until smooth and slightly pillowy. Add melted white chocolate mixture and mix until combined.

In a bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add to the wet ingredients and fold until just combined. The dough will be quite sticky and looser than a traditional cookie dough. (if the dough is too runny to be scooped, cover the bowl and chill dough for 10 min to firm up a bit.)

Preheat oven to 350f and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Using a standard ice cream scoop, portion out dough into six equal portions. Place cookies at least 2 inches apart, they will spread.

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Tap the pan on the counter when you remove it from the oven to de-puff the cookies. Immediately sprinkle crushed candy canes. You can use a butter knife or offset spatula to help shape the perfect circular cookie if needed

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

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Day 12: Cookie Butter Cheesecake Sandwich Cookies

Holiday baking wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t put my favourite cookie stamps to work. I’ve made so many variations of snoopy sandwich cookies, but this version is perfect for any holiday cookie tin. A Christmas sprinkled-studded shortbread cookie sandwiches a cookie butter cream cheese buttercream and at the centre is a generous dollop of cookie butter. These are great both at room temperature and chilled!

170 g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
86 g (1 cup) powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
195 g (1 1/2 cups and 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sprinkles

125g (1/2 block) cream cheese, room temp
55 g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
180g (1 1/2 cup) icing sugar
80g (1/4 cup) cookie butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup cookie butter, lightly warmed

Preheat oven to 350f and line baking sheet with parchment paper

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla at medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 min. Add flour and salt and mix on low speed until combined. Fold in sprinkles with a rubber spatula

In between two sheets of parchment paper, roll out dough to ¼-inch in thickness. Lightly flour the cookie stamp/cutter and press. Transfer cut outs to prepared baking sheet, placing cookies 1 inch apart. Transfer the baking sheet to the freezer for 10 min. Freezing cut out cookies before baking will help preserve the design and shape of the cookies

Bake until the edges are lightly golden brown, about 12 – 14 min. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the pan for 5 min before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely

While cookies are cooling, combine cream cheese and butter in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Add icing sugar, cookie butter, vanilla, and salt. Mix on low speed and gradually increase to high. Mix until smooth and fluffy, about 2 min. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with an open star tip

Assembly: turn over half of the cookies, they will be the bottom cookies. Pipe a ring of cream cheese buttercream on the bottom cookie. This will act as a barrier for the cookie butter centres. Take half a heaping tablespoon of warmed cookie butter and fill the centre. Sandwich the top cookie and press lightly. Repeat with remaining cookies until all cookies are filled