Every year I make a Christmas cookie plate with different cookies, usually with around 10+ cookies. I wanted to share my two plates with you for inspiration. How to ship cookies is explained in this blog article, another article looks at how to deal with sugar cookies. If you want to freeze egg whites, this article may be for you. So let’s start with the cookies I made in 2023 and 2022:
I learned recently that it is common in Germany to serve a plate full of Christmas cookies on the first of advent (this year on November 27th). I know, this is different than in the U.S. Christmas is already full in force here as we don’t have Thanksgiving. So I figured I would show you more than 20 cookie recipes to choose from. I decided to pick unusual recipes, recipes you haven’t tried yet, many of them from the U.S., but also from Latin America and some German ones that are not that common. I hope you find some to your liking.
#1 Brownie cookies from the U.S.
Finally some cookies on the blog again. I haven’t posted a recipe for 9 (!) months, can you believe that? This is extra crazy because of course there were cookies in our house during those nine months, believe me. I find it sad that Germans tend to bake cookies only for the season, there even is a special word for these cookies, instead of Kekse you will say Plätzchen. But I ignore that, for me cookies can be eaten all year long. We had brownie cookies, my favorite chocolate chip cookies and Nutella chocolate chip cookies, recently we have had vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting.
Chocolate chip cookies with a nice nutty flavor, coming from tahini, that’s what you will get today! I am excited to present the third vegan recipe in January. If you would like to know why I am doing a vegan January, please check out my previous post. In my opinion, chocolate chip cookies are the best thing in the world, they are souldfood, a simple dessert, easy to prepare, they make children happy as well as adults. Regardless if filled with caramel, plain, with brown butter, I have quite a few recipes on my blog, even including a chocolate chip cookie cake, that’s how much I love this flavor. I have been wanting to try chocolate chip cookies with tahini for a while now and finally managed to give it a try. I love the vegan version, even my husband gobbled up the cookies happily and gave his stamp of approval. These vegan cookies contain tahini, the sesame paste as a replacement for the egg. You can also check out my vegan chocolate chip cookie with pumpkin.
I am not the conventional German cookie maker. Yes, of course I have all the traditional German cookies on my blog, such as vanilla crescents, cinnamon stars, gingerbread aka Lebkuchen and Linzer. However, my favorite cookies, even during the season, are usually not the traditional Christmas cookies. I usually prefer cookies you can eat all year round. Many German cookies are based on some version of sugar cookie or even pie crust, if you are looking for tips how to deal with this type of sugar cookie, check out this blog post. I also have one full blog post on how to freeze leftover egg yolks and egg whites. If you are looking for some different cookie, below list may be for you. I usually make a full plate with different cookies and many times one of the below cookies was declared the favorite from the receiver of the cookie plate.
Guys, it is a shame I haven’t posted any cookie recipe in a while! This needs to be rectified immediately. Especially since I am a huge cookie monster. Below pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are my favorite cookie recipe when in comes to a vegan version. I am telling you, they are super easy to prepare and will be gobbled up in a jiffy. I at least have made them many times over. Maybe you are also interested in trying them?
If you can’t decide whether you want a cookie or a cake, this chocolate chip cake is for you! It combines the flavors of a chocolate chip cookie with a cake and a glas of milk. My hubby ate it very happily and confirmed that this had been by far his favorite cake in a long time. Since he got so excited about it, I decided to publish it as a possible “Valentine’s cake”, even though it most definitely is not the most common Valentine’s cake. No red hearts, no kitsch, but if hubby is happy, who cares? By the way, I love all the combos of cookie/cake. I also have a gigantic cookie in a pan with the cookie monster on top or this cookie cake with peanut butter frosting.
Today is December 6, which is Nikolaus in Germany! Children will put their freshly cleaned boots outside the door, which are going to be filled with sweets and cookies. So for that reason we need cookies today! I decided to make a variation of the most baked, rated, and clicked recipe on this blog, which are the brownie cookies. I decided to make these brownie cookies with sourdough. Yes, you read right. When I heard about this the first time, I thought people were crazy. But then I made these vegan brownies with raspberries and was sold. Since my husband bakes all of our bread, we always, always have sourdough in our house. This in turn means that we often have to throw sourdough as it needs to be fed. Since I liked sourdough in brownies, I figured they it would be as good in brownie cookies.
Have you ever heard of Pfeffernüsse aka German spice cookies? I live in the south of Germany in the city Munich. Once I asked in a bakery whether they sold any and they look at me as if as were from Mars. So I checked, since there are so many German dialects, maybe they use another word in Bavaria, but no, I quickly learned that they are also called Pfeffernüsse here. However, they seem to be more common in the north of Germany, the Dutch and Danish also have similar versions. The handwritten recipe book from my grandma contains about ten different recipes. Many of her recipes contain peppermint extract and this one is closer to gingerbread or German Lebkuchen. Pfeffernüsse literally translates as “pepper nuts”, probably they are called “nuts” because they are the size of walnuts. At least the ones I grew up with are rather small.
Snickerdoodles are America’s answer to German cinnamon stars! I love snickerdoodles and I find it super exciting every time a German tries one and declares it the new favorite cookie. Snickerdoodles are easy to prepare and are similar to how sugar cookies are created. You will need cream of tartar for these beauties to stay soft and puffy. The recipe does not require any chilling.
