This week Bon Appétit hosted its annual cookie swap in the Test Kitchen—the event of the season, if we do say so ourselves. Staffers baked up a storm at home and proudly toted their treats to work. There were tea-speckled shortbread, no-mixer-required peppermint bark cookies, and date balls with chickpeas! Wow. Also a 12-foot-long sub and coquito in a slushy machine. Read on for our favorite recipes from the swap.
Chewy molasses cookies
For me, a holiday cookie will always be a molasses cookie. The warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, and clove take me right back to childhood, gobbling as many treats as I could before I’d get caught. Sadly, this year the rest of the Upper West Side seemed to have the same craving, as my neighborhood grocery store was fresh out of the crystalized ginger I needed to make my family recipe. So I pivoted to Alison Roman’s Chewy Molasses Cookies. While I will always favor the sharp surprise you get when you hit a chunk of candied ginger, these generously spiced rounds stand well on their own. —Carly Westerfield, associate manager, audience strategy
Date balls with crispy chickpeas
I turned to an old family favorite for Bon Appétit’s cookie swap this year, but I was faced with a conundrum. See, my go-to holiday cookie, a date ball recipe I published a few years ago on Saveur, gets much of its flavor and crunch from pecans. But like many swaps, ours was nut-free. If you’re in a similar scenario, I have a solution: crispy chickpeas. I used the same volume, ½ cup of whole chickpea snacks, then crushed them lightly and didn’t add any other salt to the recipe. I’m happy to say it was a success: The beans retained more of their crunch than nuts tend to do. Plus, it renders these a nut-free and gluten-free holiday cookie option. —Joe Sevier, senior editor, SEO and cooking
Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas – High Fiber Vegan Protein Snacks for Adults and Kids – Individual Pack – Sea Salt
No-mixer needed peppermint cookies
Deciding on a recipe for our staff cookie swap (admittedly a daunting task!), I sought out one crucial criterion: no mixer. Luckily, I had five great options in our 2024 cookies from senior Test Kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk, all of which fell under that umbrella. I found myself most drawn to his Peppermint Bark Cookies, a fudgy, almost brownie-like treat that features a shard of white chocolate in the middle and a shower of crushed candy canes. The recipe was so easy, requiring little handiwork other than a bit of whisking and molding the balls by hand. They looked supremely festive lined up in neat rows on the cookie swap table. —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor
Beginner-friendly chocolate chippers
I’m a neophyte when it comes to baking.