I’m sitting at our dining table, listening to Jingle Bells, wrapping Christmas presents, and waiting for the snow to fall. It’s the last weekend before Christmas, the last chance to fill the kitchen with the tempting smell of cinnamon, cloves, and citrus fruits, cardamom, chocolate, and candied nuts, so what am I going to bake? I picked 23 recipes from the last four years of cozy Christmas feasting on Eat In My Kitchen and I love each one of them. Just a look at the pictures and my taste buds get excited. I can remember the woody notes of my Rosemary and Lemon Heidesand Cookies, the citrusy-buttery sweetness of my Mediterranean family’s Maltese Lemon Christmas Cookies, the elegance of my mother’s classic, her Linzer Cookies, and of course, my annual highlight, the best Vanilla Kipferl in the world. You can find a variation of this famous German cookie in my Eat In My Kitchen book, wonderfully fragrant Cardamom Kipferl. So, happy baking, treat yourself to a cozy weekend with the ones you love and indulge in the pleasures of Christmas baking!

Click on the titles for the recipes:

Chocolate, Orange and Cardamom Stollen

Rosemary and Lemon Heidesand Cookies

Ginger Chili Double Chocolate Cookies

Christmas Chocolate Panettone

Espresso Meringue Cookies with Spiced Chocolate Ganache

Maltese Lemon Christmas Cookies

German Elisenlebkuchen

Ginger Spice Cookies with Cinnamon Oat Crunch

Persimmon Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

Bittersweet Chocolate Spice Cookies

Claire Ptak’s Pecan Caramel Sandwich Cookies

Mulled Wine Pretzel Cookies

Linzer Cookies

German Chocolate Baumkuchen

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Gianduja Chocolate Cookies

Maltese Essijiet Vermouth Cookies

Strawberry Pistachio Cookies with Oats and White Chocolate

Espresso Chocolate Biscotti

Dark Chocolate and Apricot Sandwich Cookies

Vanilla Kipferl

Red Currant and Oat Cookies

Buttery Blue Cheese Crackers