Iconic Holiday Cookies Everyone Will Love

There's a reason we leave a plate of homemade cookies and a tall glass of milk for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve; everyone (yes, everyone) likes holiday cookies. Chances are good you have fond memories from childhood that involve red- and green-sprinkled sugar cookies, crunchy gingerbread men, or powdery piles of snowball-like pfeffernüsse. Why not indulge your sense of holiday spirit this year and bake up a batch of classic cookies?

Click here to see the Iconic Holiday Cookies to Make This Season (slideshow)

The great thing about holiday baking is that a lot of classic recipes can be made in advance (meaning you don't have to rush to bake fresh cookies on the day you're celebrating). Most holiday cookies can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for at least a few days. If the recipe calls for a ganache or cream-based filling, however, you should either wait to make the filling until the day you plan to eat the cookies or store your finished cookies air-tight in the refrigerator.

Another easy way to make holiday cookies in advance is to make the dough and place it in the freezer until you're ready to bake. Be sure to double-wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap before freezing it. Then, the night before you're ready to use it, move the dough to the refrigerator to thaw. Some types of cookie dough (like that for butter and sugar cookies) can even be rolled into logs, wrapped in plastic, frozen, and then sliced into rounds and baked straight from the freezer. The shape of the cookie won't change much if you bake the dough straight from the freezer and the bake time will vary, so be sure to take those things into consideration if you're using a straight-from-the-freezer method.

Whether you like your cookies thin, crispy, and slightly spiced or soft, chewy, and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candies, you'll love these iconic recipes and the warm holiday memories they evoke. Go ahead, pour yourself a tall glass of eggnog, turn on the holiday music, and bake some cookies!

(Credit: Jackie Alpers)
Biscotti means "twice baked" in Italian, and that's exactly how you achieve such a crisp cookie. The biscotti are baked in logs before being sliced and baked a second time. Make these biscotti twice as festive by dipping them in melted chocolate and sprinkles.

(Credit: Nielsen-Massey Vanillas)
Forget butter cookies from a tin; these tasty cookies are delicious and easy to make. The recipe calls for vanilla powder; if you don't have any of the powder on hand, you can substitute an equal amount of high-quality pure vanilla extract.

Kristie Collado is The Daily Meal's Cook Editor. Follow her on Twitter .