Ask the Test Cooks: How Do You Win a Cookie Swap?

And if you find yourself looking down at your tin of humble holiday cutouts, you may be wondering if you could have baked something a little more . . . unexpected.

Have no fear, we’ve got you covered. I polled my test kitchen colleagues about their favorite cookie recipes so that you can stand out in a cookie swap.

From sandwiches and bars to interesting ingredients to make those cookies pop, here’s what they suggested.

The way to stand out at a cookie swap? Make a bar cookie. These Ultranutty Pecan Bars, developed by Annie Petito, tone down the sweetness and put the emphasis on the nuts. These are so good! And definitely use the optional flake sea salt.

If you want something more traditional, how about Chocolate Sugar Cookies? They are sparkly sugar cookies, but they are chocolate. So of course they are delicious.

One of my favorite cookie swap adds is Snickerdoodles, which I made for TV some years ago—and coincidentally it’s the first cookie I learned to make in home economics class in junior high school.

I also like to make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. My sneak attack is adding marshmallow fluff in the middle of two oatmeal raisin cookies and basically making an elevated “Little Debbie cream pie.”

My very favorite cookie recipe that I’ve developed is my Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie. I NEED to give them all away because otherwise I’ll eat far too many. 

But Steve Dunn’s Baci di Dama are lovely, too, and—like the peanut butter cookie—they have a good long shelf life, which I think is important for a cookie swap, because you’re unlikely to be able to eat all your cookies in the first couple of days.

I would make our Oatmeal Creme Pies! Even if you don’t make the filling, it is one of the best cookies I have ever eaten.

This is a complete no-brainer for me. I had a tradition of baking three or four different cookies to send to friends and family across the country. I never got such rave reviews as the first year I made these Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies.

They hit all the right flavor notes: sweet yet spicy (I love the background warmth black pepper brings) with a strong, almost smoky molasses flavor. They’re the ideal specimen for shipping: sturdy enough to be tossed around, but they stay chewy for days. My holiday baking has gotten a lot simpler—I crank out batches of these molasses cookies and everybody’s happy.

Andrea Geary’s Chewy Matcha and Black Sesame Sugar Cookies, which are so stunning and intensely flavorful. Especially in a swap, a lot of cookies are rather sweet and buttery; a matcha cookie provides a complex, subtly-savory palate cleanser.

Sometimes to elevate popular recipes, I love experimenting with mochi flour (also known as glutinous or sweet rice flour). It adds a pleasing chew and mild rice flavor that is lovely in classic recipes such as chocolate chip, peanut butter, or Snickerdoodle cookies. Also, the addition of flake sea salt on top is always a must.

I’d have to say Matt Fairman’s Brownie Cookies (for the “death by chocolate” aspect of them. A chocoholic’s dream!) and my very own Baci di Dama.

The Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti I developed for the Everything Chocolate book. When people think of biscotti they often think they’re “bland” or “dry” or “teeth shattering” and these are none of the above. Cocoa and espresso powder make them intensely chocolatey. Plus, I used lightly toasted hazelnuts in two ways: chopped and finely ground. This minimized gluten development, so they’re anything but tough.

One batch makes 30 cookies, so you get more bang for your biscotti buck. Eat one with your morning coffee or nighttime tea and you’ll see why it deserves to go home with the gold.

I would (and do!) make these Orange-Cardamom Almond Thins.

The Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are probably my favorite ATK cookies, but I also like to make Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. I love the combo of chocolate and oats! I absolutely deplore the idea of oatmeal raisin cookies—or raisins put in anything, for that matter. To make the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies even better, I like to add coconut flakes to the mix for a “better than trail mix” cookie.