Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies are such a fun cookie for the holidays! They’re thick and chewy with slightly crispy edges, basically the perfect chocolate chip cookie that’s dressed up with white chocolate chips, M&Ms, and festive sprinkles for Christmas.
They’re ho-ho-holy-moly-delicious! (Sorry. I had to.)
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
How to Make Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Can I Freeze Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Jump to the Full, Printable Recipe
The Story Behind the Recipe
We all know Christmas is cookie season, but why do the best cookies of all, chocolate chip cookies, always get passed over at Christmas time?! It’s not right.
So I thought I’d take a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe and dress it up for the holidays. These Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies are super colorful and look extra festive on any cookie plate. They’re also just a darn delicious chocolate chip cookie! (Pssst: Santa will LOVE these Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies. Guaranteed.)
I started with a chocolate chip cookie recipe from the grand kahuna of chocolate chip cookie bakers, Sarah Kieffer of The Vanilla Bean Blog (if you’ve heard of the pan-banging chocolate chip cookie, she’s the one who started it!) She’s tested and perfected chocolate chip cookies – add a little more butter here, add one less egg white there – until she created an amazing chewy chocolate chip cookie. I used that as the base recipe and basically trashed it up with Christmas goodness from there.
Why You’ll Love Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies are arguably the best cookie of all – why shouldn’t they have a place on the Christmas cookie platter?! When you dress up chocolate chip cookies with M&Ms and white chocolate chips, you get the goodness of chocolate chip cookies, but Christmassified.
Ingredients
You’ll find a pretty traditional list of ingredients for these Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies, except a few holiday-ish ingredients to take them over the top!
All-purpose flour – The plain fluffy white flour we know and love.
Baking powder & baking soda – Puffs them up a little and helps with the structure of the cookie.
Butter – I like to use unsalted butter to better control the salt content in my recipes (salted butter often varies with the amount of salt in it). Make sure it’s room temp so it’s soft and blendable!
Sugar – Straight-up white granulated sugar.
Brown sugar – Use light or dark, whichever you prefer.
Salt – I like to use a fine-grain sea salt in the batter itself, and then for a bit of extra salt, I’ll often sprinkle some over the top with coarse sea salt flakes like Maldon.
Egg – You’ll want one whole egg and one yolk.
Vanilla – Pure vanilla extract. A must in chocolate chip cookies!
M&Ms – Festive red and green M&Ms. Perfect for Christmas!
White chocolate chips – Use your favorite brand of white chocolate chips.
Sprinkles – I like to use the “jimmies” style of sprinkles, shaped in rods, in red, green, and white. You can mix some into the batter, or sprinkle some on the tops before baking, or both.
Adaptations/Variations
Swap the chocolate chips – Feel free to use standard chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips. I’ve made this recipe both ways and they’re delicious either way.
Add a drizzle of white chocolate – To make them even fancier, melt some white chocolate and drizzle it over the tops of the cooled cookies. Pretty and delicious!
Candy cane chocolate chip Christmas cookies – To make a minty version of these Christmas M&M chocolate chip cookies, crush up four or five candy canes and mix it in to the batter with the chocolate chips. Sprinkle a few more on top before baking for good measure.
How to Make Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
First you’ll mix together the dry ingredients for the dough. To do this, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and set it aside.
Next, it’s time to mix up the wet ingredients. Fit a stand mixer with the S-blade, then beat the butter until creamy and lightened. Add the sugars and salt and beat it until combined. Add the full egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and combine.
Now, add the flour mixture to the butter and egg mix and beat JUST until it’s combined. Add the M&Ms and chocolate chips plus the sprinkles if you’re using them. Blend a bit with the mixer, then use a spatula to incorporate the mix-ins the rest of the way. The batter will be thick and stiff.
Next, form the dough into balls about 2 tablespoons each. I highly recommend a cookie scoop for easy, uniform scooping (here’s the cookie scoop I use; this is an affiliate link!)
Space the balls about 3 inches apart and sprinkle a little flaky sea salt on top, if you like. I also like to press a couple of extra M&Ms and/or chocolate chips on the cookie balls because it looks extra pretty.
Bake at 375°F (190°C), rotating the baking sheet once halfway through, until the cookies are golden brown and beginning to crinkle on the top.
Pull them from the oven and press gently with a spatula on the cookie tops to help the cookies crackle and flatten.
Let them rest for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to the wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
(For the full, printable recipe, continue scrolling down.)
Tips for Success
Don’t over-mix the cookie batter! Stir the dry ingredients into the wet and work in the chocolate chips & M&Ms JUST until combined and not any more. Otherwise, you risk the glutens in the flour developing which can make cookies tough.
Bake JUST until golden and beginning to crinkle. Err on the side of cooking less vs. more. This will yield that soft and chewy interior that is the hallmark of a fabulous chocolate chip cookie!
I hope these fun Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies are a popular addition to your Christmas cookie repertoire! My family definitely enjoyed all of my testing iterations and they’re looking forward to them at Christmastime too.
Can I Freeze Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Yes! You can freeze the baked cookies in an airtight container or freezer bag, then just pull them out and keep them on the counter at room temp for about 30 minutes and they’ll be good to go.
Another option is to line up balls of cookie dough on a baking sheet and freeze them. Then, just plop the frozen solid rounds of cookie dough into a freezer bag or airtight container. When you’re ready to bake a few or all of them, just space them on the baking sheet and cook as directed!
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Dolly Parton’s Famous Sugar Cookies
Sparkly Chocolate Snickerdoodles
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Nutrition
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