Santa’s Favorite Christmas Cookies Recipe

Santa’s Favorite Christmas Cookies Recipe

Bake Santa’s Favorite Christmas Cookies Recipe—chocolatey and festive! Indulge in tradition with Santa’s Favorite Christmas Cookies Recipe.

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time13 minutes
Total Time28 minutes
Yield24

Ingredients

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat and Prepare Baking Equipment

Get your oven humming at 350°F and line two cookie sheets with clean sheets of parchment paper so nothing sticks during baking. Take a moment to smooth the paper so the tray is ready for perfectly round cookies; the lined pans should sit on the white quartz as a tidy base, waiting for scooped dough. Keep one empty wire cooling rack nearby for later—this keeps the workflow smooth and focused.

Step 2: Blend the Wet Ingredients

Cream the softened unsalted butter with the brown and granulated sugars until the mixture is pale, glossy, and light—about two minutes of vigorous mixing by hand or with a mixer. Add the vanilla and the two large eggs and beat until the batter looks homogenous, slightly aerated and satiny; you should see tiny air bubbles and a soft, spreadable ribbon when the beaters lift away. This is the moment the base of flavor and structure is formed, smelling sweet and buttery.


Step 3: Incorporate Dry Ingredients and Mix-Ins

Fold the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and kosher salt into the wet mixture just until the dough comes together; stop when it’s thick and cohesive but still a bit tacky. Carefully fold in the semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, holiday red-and-green M&M candies, and the red/green jimmies so the colors and chunks are distributed throughout the dough. The final dough should be dense, deeply studded with contrasty chocolate pockets and bright candies, with visible flecks of sugar and tiny pockets of melted gloss where chips catch the light.


Step 4: Scoop and Place Dough

Use a two-tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out even mounds of dough, placing them about two inches apart on the parchment-lined baking sheets so each cookie can spread and puff during baking. Each mound should be generously oversized, domed on top, and packed with chips and candies—some pieces peeking out on the surface. Leave the baking sheets on the white quartz, the scoop nearby with a bit of dough clinging to its edge, ready to go into the oven.


Step 5: Bake to Perfection and Cool

Bake the trays for 11–13 minutes until the edges are lightly browned and the centers are set but still soft; the cookies will arrive at the perfect chewy-golden stage. Let them rest on the sheet a few minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling so bottoms remain tender. One cookie can be whimsically decorated with piped white and red icing into a Santa face, while others keep their natural crinkled tops studded with chips and colorful M&Ms—ideal for gifting or leaving out for Santa.


Notes