Christmas Cookies (Hardcover)

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie? Is it made of chocolate or spice? Is it an iced and decorated sugar cookie or a molasses ginger round? Or maybe it's a crisp, chocolate-covered toffee bar or a jam-filled Linzer sandwich cookie. There are so many choices!

Christmas cookies are loved for their special shapes, cheery colors, and seasonal flavors. They bring joy to our gatherings, help preserve the magic and tradition of the holiday season, and make heart-warming gifts. Christmas Cookies offers fifty wonderful recipes for holiday treats, such as light-as-air Cocoa Meringue Kisses, Chocolate Peppermint Cookies that perfectly complement a mug of hot chocolate, sweet-tart Iced Lemon Rounds, the much-beloved classic Pecan Sandies, Ginger Coins with the right amount of snap, and many, many more.

Avid holiday baker Lisa Zwirn baked hundreds of cookies to come up with these fabulous fifty recipes. There is something for everyone: treats for chocoholics, hol­iday shapes that children will love (that can be baked and decorated by the little ones, too), luxurious sandwich cookies, and plenty of spiced rounds, buttery wafers, and decadent bars.

Christmas Cookies will also show you how to make the most of your time in the kitchen with these useful tips and ideas:

• Cookie baking guidelines for successful baking
• Options for freezing dough so you can bake cookies when the mood strikes
• Storage suggestions to help keep treats fresh for as long as possible
• Child-friendly recipes, such as Peanut Butter Chocolate Kisses, Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints, Gingerbread People, and Molasses Ginger Cookies, which are easy and fun for beginners
• The best cookies to mail and how to wrap them
• How to host a holiday cookie swap and cookie-decorating party

Whether you've baked Christmas cookies for years or are just starting a tradition of holiday baking, you'll find all the recipes you need right here. Christmas Cookies is an essential collection for the cookie baker, featuring color photographs, clear, detailed recipes, and irrepressible Christmas spirit.

A food writer and recipe developer, Lisa Zwirn is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe and has written for a number of publications, including Cooking Pleasures, Intermezzo, Fine Cooking, Cooking Light, and Pastry Art & Design. She lives in Massachusetts.