This week Bon Appétit hosted its annual cookie swap in the Test Kitchen—the event of the season, if we do say so ourselves. Staffers baked up a storm at home and proudly toted their treats to work. There were tea-speckled shortbread, no-mixer-required peppermint bark cookies, and date balls with chickpeas! Wow. Also a 12-foot-long sub and coquito in a slushy machine. Read on for our favorite recipes from the swap.
For me, a holiday cookie will always be a molasses cookie. The warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, and clove take me right back to childhood, gobbling as many treats as I could before I’d get caught. Sadly, this year the rest of the Upper West Side seemed to have the same craving, as my neighborhood grocery store was fresh out of the crystalized ginger I needed to make my family recipe. So I pivoted to Alison Roman’s Chewy Molasses Cookies. While I will always favor the sharp surprise you get when you hit a chunk of candied ginger, these generously spiced rounds stand well on their own. —Carly Westerfield, associate manager, audience strategy
I turned to an old family favorite for Bon Appétit’s cookie swap this year, but I was faced with a conundrum. See, my go-to holiday cookie, a date ball recipe I published a few years ago on Saveur, gets much of its flavor and crunch from pecans. But like many swaps, ours was nut-free. If you’re in a similar scenario, I have a solution: crispy chickpeas. I used the same volume, ½ cup of whole chickpea snacks, then crushed them lightly and didn’t add any other salt to the recipe. I’m happy to say it was a success: The beans retained more of their crunch than nuts tend to do. Plus, it renders these a nut-free and gluten-free holiday cookie option. —Joe Sevier, senior editor, SEO and cooking
Deciding on a recipe for our staff cookie swap (admittedly a daunting task!), I sought out one crucial criterion: no mixer. Luckily, I had five great options in our 2024 cookies from senior Test Kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk, all of which fell under that umbrella. I found myself most drawn to his Peppermint Bark Cookies, a fudgy, almost brownie-like treat that features a shard of white chocolate in the middle and a shower of crushed candy canes. The recipe was so easy, requiring little handiwork other than a bit of whisking and molding the balls by hand. They looked supremely festive lined up in neat rows on the cookie swap table. —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor
I’m a neophyte when it comes to baking. But for our team swap, I was determined to not bring something store-bought like I have in the past, so I turned to cookie wizard Jesse for his advice. He pointed me to his Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, and recommended that I use a scale. Though I didn’t brown my butter long enough (I got nervous), they still tasted magnificent. —Nick Traverse, director of editorial operations
When I think cookie, I think chocolate, a lesson passed down to me from my grandmother. With her in mind, I settled on these mesmerizing Obscenely Chocolatey Chocolate Cookies for the swap. The dough’s base includes Dutch-processed cocoa powder, then chopped chocolate gets folded in, becoming melty pockets of joy. Be sure to rest the dough for the full hour for a richer flavor. While the dark rounds were snagged from the table, the real nod of approval came from the ultimate judge, my grandmother, deeming the leftover cookies just perfect. —Jaia Clingham-David, research fellow
I’ve made Italian butter cookies every year since my former colleague Zoe Denenberg developed a winning recipe for them. They’re simple and unfussy and usually the first to get picked out of a tin because once you try it, you’re hooked. All butter, a little warm vanilla, toasty edges, it checks all the holiday cookie boxes. If you’d like to heal your inner child, may I suggest baking a double batch of these cookies and smuggling them into a charming old tin. —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor
I kid you not that I’ve had three cookie swaps all in one week (send thoughts and prayers). In preparation, I made a triple batch of a tried-and-true classic, these Brown Butter Toffee and Chocolate Chip Cookies, portioned out the dough with this cookie scooper, and froze the balls. The recipe calls for chocolate toffee bars, Skor specifically, but I didn’t have the forethought to purchase them in advance. C’est la vie! The Heath bars from my local bodega worked in a pinch. I did find and splurge on these Guittard baking wafers: monstrous mounds of bittersweet chocolate that create pools of molten goodness (worth it). A hit among many, these cookies went fast. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking
For me, it is hard to imagine a better afternoon pick-me-up than a piece or three of shortbread with a cup of tea or coffee. So, when it came time to choose a recipe for our office cookie swap, I couldn’t resist this smart idea from my coworker Jesse: Instead of serving separately, you mix tea or coffee into the shortbread dough. I picked hojicha—roasted green tea popular in Japan—which I had a surplus of at home. It has an earthy, almost smoky flavor, a lovely contrast to the sweet, salty cookie. And a little dose of caffeine for good measure. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking
