Roly-Poly Santa Cookies & Other Favorites from our Cookie Box

THE FARMHOUSE

The holiday cookie box tradition is alive and well at the Farmhouse! The kids and I baked for 2 days, making some of our favorite classic recipes and some new ones too. Roly-poly Santas, chocolate chunk cookies with walnuts, traditional biscotti, chocolate caramel cookies, eggnog blossoms, and more. Can you just smell the cookie goodness wafting from our oven?! For anyone else out there who’s caught the holiday baking spirit, I’m sharing the recipes we loved most below.

Roly-Poly Santa cookies and other favorites from this year's holiday cookie box | the Grit and Polish

The holidays aren’t the holidays without baking treats for me. There’s something about the smell of fresh baking cookies as your arms ache with the effort of rolling out dough to the beat of classic Christmas carols that just cannot be beat. And this year I went all in on the cuteness factor…I’m looking at you Roly-Poly Santas!

Roly-Poly santa cookie made from sugar cookie dough and buttercream frosting | the Grit and Polish

cute as a button Roly-Poly Santa cookies | the Grit and Polish

Aren’t those Roly-Poly Santa cookies cute?! They’re made with sugar cookie dough and surprisingly easy to shape. The chocolate caramel cookies won the most decadent cookie award. And the easiest cookie award goes to the classic chocolate chunk cookies. They bake up in an hour from start to finish, no refrigeration required, and are a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Our 2022 Cookie Box

Here are our favorite recipes from this year’s cookie box….

Roly-Poly Santa Cookies

I’ve seen these cookies called Jolly Santas and Roly-Poly Santas and I tried a couple batches, experimenting with different recipes and toppings. In the end this recipe is best for walking you though the steps and I liked the dough and buttercream. But really you can use any sugar cookie recipe - I tried these with Nana’s recipe and they were great, too. Half the dough gets tinted red with gel food coloring for a nice deep color and half stays plain. The dough is rolled into balls, lightly pressed together, and mini chocolate candies added for the eyes and nose. The beard and fur details are generously piped on with a buttercream and then topped off with candy cane sprinkles and a small red nose. These cookies earn a 10/10 on the cuteness level and tasted just like sugar cookies with a buttercream frosting.

Eggnog blossoms

A delicious twist on the classic peanut butter blossom, these cookies turned out delicious! I followed this basic peanut butter blossoms recipe and swapped the nut butter for this insanely-delicious eggnog cashew and coconut butter and the milk for creamy eggnog. I also added a teaspoon of nutmeg to the batter. The end result is a holiday-ey and decadently eggnog-ey cookie for the ages!

Chocolate chunk cookies

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with the addition of walnuts. These are my go-to weekend treat (I usually use chocolate chips or seasonal m&ms) and I always have everything on hand for a batch. Always a crowd pleaser, easy to make and simply delicious, I highly-recommend these for everyone from the experienced baker to the first timer baker.

Biscotti

Garrett loves biscotti and I wanted to make sure there were some in this year’s box. The classic, easy to make, and rustic biscotti adds a nice touch to the cookie box. I dipped some in semi-sweet chocolate and topped with chopped almonds for a little festive touch.

Chocolate caramel cookies

This was my first time making these chocolate caramel cookies and they shot to the top of my favorites. They are rich and decadent, filled with chocolate and instant coffee, and feel like such a treat. The caramel isn’t necessarily needed, but adds a nice surprise when biting into them. Highly recommend this recipe!

Rice crispy treats with pretzels and chocolate chunks

I’m not usually tempted by rice crispy treats, but these were something else…or shall I say, something more. They have all the sticky sweetness of the classic treat but up the ante with salted pretzels and semi-sweet chocolate chunks. They feel like a foodie and refined take on a classic, yet they’re still super easy and bonus, you probably have everything for them already in your pantry.

Frosted sugar cookies

My kids have been begging to decorate sugar cookies for weeks, so this was a must for our cookie box. We used a basic sugar cookie recipe and tried buttercream (without the freeze-dried fruit) and also used a tube of Betty Crocker instant frosting to make the super white cookies. We made green trees and white trees and snowflakes with candy cane sprinkles and stars with sprinkles. And then we filled our bellies with all the cookies that didn’t turn out cute ;) BTW these naturally-colored sprinkles are perfect for decorating!

Those were our favorites from this year’s cookie box. I’m going to keep my eye out for a new gingerbread cookie recipe (this one wasn’t a keeper) and I want to try thumbprints with our homemade jams with fruit from the Farmhouse because I love a treat with a sense of place. But those will probably wait until next year - I think I’m cookie-ed out for 2022 ;)

For the big wood cookie box, we decided to make it ourselves when I couldn’t find something that I liked. It’s simple construction of wood lath from Home Depot assembled with a brad nailer and attached with decorative hinges. The rest of the cookies were plated on holiday paper plates and gifted for neighbors, family and friends to enjoy.