The Finer Cookie:
Holiday Delectables Collection

A delightful selection of Holidays-inspired cookies

By Kimberlie Robert

Here’s an assortment of The Finer Cookie’s best holiday cookie recipes. Whether you’re a beginner or a connoisseur, choose easy and fun, gluten-free, no-bake, low sugar, or kid-friendly recipes from the selection below. Or choose from hundreds of not-too-sweet cookies from The Finer Cookie website.
Click on the names to access the recipes and tutorials.

Toasted Flour Sablés

You make these cookies with toasted flour to prevent too much gluten from forming. Hard-boiled egg yolks keep the dough light. Toasted Flour Sablés finely crumble and melt with flavour, as perhaps the most-tender cookie you’ll ever know. A touch of dark chocolate completes their important mission: your complete satisfaction.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, these classics crinkle like a wink from St. Nick. They can be sled-stoppingly sweet, so I’ve reduced the sugar to meet your taste. The result is a rumpled family favourite, suitable for giving in a delectable Xmas gift basket.

Pecan Macaroons (GF)

“Dear Rick, do you remember the day we pedalled our bikes through the pecan orchard in New Mexico? We stopped to gather the fallen nuts in the ditch, and then worried we were stealing. The dusty desert stretched behind us and the mountains loomed before us. We’d been travelling for over a year, starting in San Francisco, the two of us new friends, bikes loaded with our gear, tent and sleeping bags. I think back how that road led us into the cool, green orchard, and how delighted we were. Life with you since has been like that day. Side by side, we still pedal under the canopy of pecan tree bows talking and laughing about everything and nothing at all. You shade me from the harsh sun and wind, and refresh me with your laughter. I made these Pecan Macaroons for you, my darling. Now let me pour you a cup of tea. Happy 23rd anniversary.”

Chocolate Macarons (GF)

The devil says: “Just one more.” The angel says: “One is enough.” You bite. The meringue shell cracks under gentle pressure. The salt crystals hidden in the swirly dark cream kindle your lust for chocolate. After all, the Master of the Macarons, pâtissier Pierre Hermé, created this recipe. You can make these in an afternoon. They’re naturally gluten-free.

Chocolate Cinnamon Date Truffles (GF)

Date palm trees were first cultivated in the Middle East about 8,000 years ago. They require 100 days in 100ºF heat and lots of water to produce the softest, sweetest dates. The rich fruit from the “Tree of Life” provide enough fibre and complex nutrients to energize you. These no-bake Date Truffles offer you the virtues of a gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan dessert. Rich and spicy with cocoa and cinnamon, they’re perfect after a holiday dinner. Use medjool dates for a sweeter truffle.

Butterscotch Cookies

Kids drink their milk and pick up their toys to earn these giant, crispy Butterscotch Cookies. Fragrant with cooked butter, brown sugar and milk, they embolden children to thieve them before lunch, or pocket them for the school bus. This recipe comes from the now defunct Schrafft’s Candy, Chocolate, Cake and Restaurant Company in Charlestown, Massachusetts. If you remember eating at Schrafft’s, tell me about it.

Bokkenpootjes (Goat’s Feet)

In the Land of Sweets, kids prance past sugarplum bushes in almond tree fields. Egg whites whip into meringue cookies and white chocolate streams through Lady Finger gardens. Plates of creamy, crackly Bokkenpootjes (Goat’s Feet) magically appear, dark chocolate dripping from their tips. They sandwich soft, white chocolate between almond meringue shells for the most satisfying of all childhood cookies.

Bacon Fat Gingersnaps

Bacon Fat Gingersnaps snap with spicy ginger and clove, crackle with smoke and pop with molasses. Using bacon fat instead of butter sounds risky, but these knockouts are among the Beauties of the Year. For the richest flavours, buy the highest quality bacon available – your stomach will rejoice.

Honey Sesame Seed Cookies

Foraging for something sweet? Here is a natural fructose snack, rich in antioxidants and flavonoids, packed with minerals and vitamins. It’s got great texture, and isn’t too sweet or sticky. Honey Sesame Cookies are so good they make bees jealous. They’re a lunchbox favourite and an office drawer must.

Chocolate chip Cookies with Orange Bitters

In 1938, Ruth Wakefield, co-owner of the Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts, created her Chocolate Chip Cookie as an accompaniment to ice cream. Ruth’s cookie became so popular that Marjorie Husted (aka Betty Crocker) featured the recipe on The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air. Nestlé then paid Ruth $1 to print her recipe on the back of their chocolate chip package. I’ve modernized Ruth’s recipe with orange bitters that cut the sweetness as they enhance the richness and complexity of this delicious classic.

Photographed by Kimberlie Robert