Let’s face it: The annual cookie exchange can feel a bit...stale. Year after year, Sally in human resources brings the same peanut butter cookies, and your neighbor always drops off gingerbread stars. Not anymore. We’re throwing in Lucky Charms, Nutella and even miso to mix it up (well, not all in one cookie, but you get the point). To provide you with some creative inspiration for this year’s cookie exchange, here are 17 cookie recipes you haven’t seen a billion times.
17 Cookie Exchange Recipes You Haven’t Seen a Billion Times
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Published Dec 2, 2019
1. Milk Bar’s Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
Put a new spin on an old classic by adding big chunks of sea salt to your chocolate chip cookies. Heidi Larsen shared Milk Bar’s recipe for the famed treats with us.
2. Minneapolis Blackout Cookies
Jesse Reilly puts her own spin on blackout cookies with a recipe that includes bittersweet chocolate chunks, cocoa powder and caramelized white chocolate.
3. Snickerdoodle Lucky Charms Cookies
Why did we never think to add our favorite sugary cereal to cookies? These are definitely what’s in those pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.
4. Oreo White Chocolate Pudding Peppermint Cookies
Chunks of Oreo and peppermint candy adorn these pudding-based cookies from Maria Lichty.
5. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip
Not technically a cookie, per se, but who can say no to cookie dough...as a dip?
6. Rocky Road Cookies
Ice cream lovers, rejoice: You can make these chocolate cookies in just 30 minutes (and top them with rocky road ice cream, of course).
7. Copycat Pirouette Cookies
There’s no need to buy a premade gift basket just for the can of Pirouettes. Stefani Pollack gives us the perfect at-home recipe for the cylindrical cookies, including a tasty Nutella filling.
8. Glazed Doughnut Cookies
What’s better than a doughnut and a cookie? A doughnut cookie. It’s got all the cinnamon-sugar flavors and sprinkle-topped icing without that whole fried-in-a-vat-of-oil thing.
9. Chai Tea Wedding Cookies
We love whipping up a quick batch of wedding cookies—the powdered sugar is everything. If that’s your jam too, try Jane Ko’s chai tea version.
10. Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies
Don’t judge a cookie by its “cover.” These may look like ordinary pumpkin cookies, but the creamy cheesecake filling is anything but.
11. Miso Sesame Shortbread Cookies
Why do these sesame shortbread cookies taste so amazing? Jodi Moreno will tell you it’s because she added umami with two tablespoons of sweet white miso.
12. Anise Saffron Whole Wheat S’more Cookies
Saffron adds color and pizzazz to Carlene Thomas’s s’mores-inspired cookies made from whole-wheat flour and anise extract.
13. Matcha Cranberry Linzer Cookies
Green is the color of the season. Use matcha to add a festive hue to classic cranberry linzer cookies.
14. Samoas Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
Not all cookies are best served warm. Case in point: These Girl Scout-inspired Samoa cookie sandwiches filled with vanilla ice cream.
15. Boozy Chocolate Chip Cookies
As long as kids aren’t involved, pass around Gaby Dalkin’s Kahlúa-infused chocolate-chip cookies.
16. Cheesecake Thumbprint Cookies
Classic thumbprints made with jam are nothing new, but using cheesecake as a filling? That’ll surprise the cookie exchangers.
17. Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cookies
If a pumpkin-flavored cinnamon roll married a cookie, that would mean we could eat it for breakfast, right?