With Christmas just months away, I'm thinking cookies!   Every year I go out and buy a bunch of magazines that feature Christmas cookies and I swear, many of them repeat their recipes.  Does anyone have a great cookie recipe they'd be willing to share?  Despite having all the books, I'm leery of trying something no one else has done so I stick to my same ones every year.   Oh! And if you have a great sugar cookie and icing recipe, that would be most wonderful - I've been trying to find one I like FOREVER!  

Much Thanks! 

I make these ridiculously simple Chocolate Snowflake Cookies every year.  Only 4 ingredients.  And the one year I did not make them, boy did I hear about it....

1 box Chocolate Cake Mix with Pudding in the Mix
1 egg, beaten
I tub Cool Whip, thawed
Confectioners Sugar, at least 2 cups, maybe more...

Place confectioners sugar in a bowl, set aside.  Mix together the cake mix, egg and Cool Whip.  The batter will be very thick, but it will come together.  Roll into balls about the size of a walnut or golfball,  Roll each ball in the confectioners sugar until well powdered.  Place about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, or so.  Watch them carefully, do not let them get "too done", because ideally they are chewy, not crisp.  Cool on sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  These are chewy and delicious!!!!!   Hope you enjoy!

my favorite Christmas cookie are Molasses Cookies.  

These are some of my DH favorites.  Love to share with all of you!

Oatmeal Carmelitas

Crust

2 C flour

2 C quick cooking oats

1 ½ C firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 ¼ C butter, soft

Filling

1 (12.5 oz) jar caramel ice cream topping (I like Mrs. Richardson’s and use the entire jar)

3 T flour

½ C chopped nuts

To make the crust:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 pan or line with foil and grease to take out easier.

In large bowl, combine the flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and butter.  Mix at low speed until crumbly.  Reserve half of crumb mixture, about 3 C for topping.  Press remaining crumb mixture in bottom of pan.  Bake for 10 min.

To make the filling:  In small bowl, combine caramel topping and flour.  Drizzle over crust.  Sprinkle with crumb mixture and nuts.

Bake18 to 22 min. or until golden brown.  Cool at least an hour.  Cut into bars.

 Wow!  Thank you!  These all sound wonderful and I'm definitely going to try the all out - i have to confess that I usually make the oatmeal recipe from the Quaker Oats box. 

If you want an icing that hardens (great for packing cookies for gift giving), I love this one:

16 oz. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp meringue powder
1/3 cup warm water

In mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and meringue powder. Slowly add warm water and and mix at low speed until well combined. Mix at medium speed until a knife drawn through the center leaves a clean-cut path (about 7 minutes, give or take a few).

Tint with food coloring as desired and thin with a little warm water as needed.

We really like these:

No flour Peanut Butter Cookies:

1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients on low speed until well combined. Shape into balls (using 1 tablespoon of dough per ball). Place on ungreased baking sheets, two inches apart. Flatten with fork in a criss-cross pattern and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. (Makes about 40 cookies).

I make Egg Nog cookies every year and they always get rave reviews.  Just take any sugar cookie recipe, add one tablespoon of nutmeg to the dry ingredients, proceed with the batter, then roll and bake as usual.  In the icing, instead of vanilla, use rum extract.  I usually cut these in bell shapes and call them Egg Nog Bells.

I found a book called "The Best of Cooking With 3 Ingredients" at a garage sale, and it contained a recipe for "Miracle Peanut Butter Cookies----only 3 ingredients--which I didn't believe would work or that they'ed be any good.  So I made a half batch today, and they are delicious!  You can't get any simpler than this:

Miracle Peanut Butter Cookies

1 Cup peanut butter (I used smooth, but the recipe called for chunky, so either will work!)
1 egg
1 Cup sugar

Combine all.  Roll into balls about the size of a walnut and put on greased cookie sheet.  Flatten balls criss-cross with a fork dipped in sugar.  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.  Cool on sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  These are so good!