17 Easy Cookie Recipes to Satisfy Your Inner Cookie Monster
I’ve been known to go big (some friends would say overboard) when it comes to my cookie baking, especially during the holidays. One year, I offered a 12-cookie selection made up of elaborately decorated festive cut-out, sandwiched, and dipped cookies that almost killed me (not an exaggeration). Unless I’m baking for a special occasion or prepping for a bake sale, however, my everyday cookies of choice are almost always quick and easy. By “everyday” I mean you can easily whip up a batch in about 30 minutes—or better, you can prep a batch of dough to freeze and bake whenever the mood strikes. A log of Easy Chocolate Rugelach is a Whether you want a wonderful slice-and-bake option like chocolate rugelach or something festive like spritz butter cookies, there’s an easy cookie recipe in this collection to satisfy any cookie craving or occasion.
New-Fashioned Snickerdoodles
Snickerdoodles are perhaps one of the first and easiest cookies to make for newbie bakers—it certainly was for me in home economics class way back when. For her new version of an old classic, Stella favors refined coconut oil over the traditional shortening used in many recipes, and blends two types of cinnamon for a more complex flavor.
Easy One-Bowl Oatmeal Cookies
Melted butter and resting the dough a bit are the keys to these marvelously chewy oatmeal cookies with crisp edges, butterscotchy middles, and tart dried cranberries (or cherries).
Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies
The secret to BraveTart’s (a.k.a. Stella Parks) chocolate chip cookies is to use hand-chopped bar chocolate—which has better flavor and forms larger pockets of oozy melted goodness when baked—instead of commercial chocolate chips. Another is to use American over European butter to ensure a chewy texture.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
This excellent vegan version of Stella’s chocolate chip cookie swaps in refined coconut oil for butter and an oat slurry for eggs. A bit of dry malt extract imparts toasty notes that mimic the taste of brown butter.
Soft and Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies
These soft, chewy cookies double down on peanutty flavor with both chunky peanut butter and whole roasted peanuts, which add a desirable crunch. Light brown sugar imparts butterscotch notes.
Dark Chocolate Easter Cookies
The extra dark, bitter chocolate dough provides the perfect backdrop and foil for an assortment of leftover Easter (or Halloween for that matter) chocolate candies. Easy ultra-chocolate cookies? Yes, please!
Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies
Rolling balls of vanilla dough in rainbow sprinkles is like putting party dresses on plain cookies. These are reminiscent of the cookies you’d find at an Italian-American bakery.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
These classic crinkle cookies are appropriately fudgy with a slightly bitter edge, thanks to espresso powder and unsweetened cocoa, that perfectly balances out the powdered sugar coating.
Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies
Melted butter and light brown sugar produce a denser, chewier cookie, made all the more irresistible with a crackly brown sugar crust. It takes only about 30 minutes from start to finish.
Easy Mexican Wedding Cookie
Whether you call them “Russian tea cakes,” “snowballs,” or my favorite, “butterballs,” there’s no denying these powdered sugar-coated, nut-studded cookies are an absolute melt-in-your-mouth delight. They belong in everyone’s cookie repertoire.
Gingerbread Cookies
This recipe comes together in no time and doesn’t require chilling the dough before rolling, making it that much easier to bake and decorate festive cut-outs for the holidays.
Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
Not everyone has the time or the inclination to roll, cut out, and frost sugar cookies for the holidays. These soft and chewy sugar cookies offer a quick and simple alternative—all you need is an assortment of colorful sugar crystals and you’re good to go!
Spritz Butter Cookies
The key to making these easy fun little cookies is to cream the butter, sugar, and eggs well with a mixer, then stir in the flour by hand to avoid over-developing the gluten. The result is a wonderfully crisp exterior with a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Buttery Gluten-Free Corn Cookies
This is Elizabeth Barbone’s gluten-free take on Momofuku Milk Bar’s famous corn cookie—a tasty ode to Captain Crunch cereal. The dough itself is simple enough to put together, and you can easily purchase freeze-dried corn powder online.
Lemon Meltaways
A cross between lemon shortbread and cotton candy, these impossibly delicate cookies get their distinctive texture from a mix of powdered sugar and tapioca starch, which results in a richer, more buttery flavor. Feel free to substitute the lemon with lime or a combination of citrus zests.
No-Bake Cookies With Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Chewy Oats
No one has to know that these rich, salty-sweet morsels are really just fudge masquerading as no-bake cookies. All you need is a clip-on digital thermometer to ensure that the fudgy base is cooked to the right temperature.
Easy Chocolate Rugelach
This classic Jewish cookie features a simple, rich cream cheese dough rolled with a chocolate filling—though you can always swap it out for a dried fruit or nut filling. Rolling them up into logs and cutting them into slices instead of forming individual crescents streamlines the process.
