Holiday sweets and treats

Check out these 10 easy to make and ready to give recipes for all kinds of holiday sweets and treats: cookies, candy, nuts, snacks and more!

Happy holidays, friends!

Since I can pretty much guarantee that the teachers, hairstylists, mail carriers and everyone else on your list already has all the crap from the mall that s/he could possibly ever need or want, how about making some little thoughtful gifts this year instead?

If you're not up to even the easiest DIY project, The Ninj still has you covered with ten super-easy recipes for holiday sweets and treats that everyone will love: crunchy cookies, easy candy, my famous snack crack and even some no-bake treats.

Candied ginger cookies {copycat Tate's Ginger Zingers}

Thin and buttery cookies, with crispy edges, chewy centers and a zing of crystallized ginger: a copycat recipe for Tate's Ginger Zingers. 

Oh, hi. Sorry it's been awhile. Life has been taking precedence over blogging for a wee bit -- hope you understand. But I couldn't let the holiday season slip past without sharing my latest favorite cookie recipe with you.

On First Eating Tate's Ginger Zinger Cookies

Last summer, I spent some time at the beach in North Carolina with my oldest friend and some of her other friends (as it goes, now we're ALL friends -- yay us!).  We all shared meal preparation and each brought some of our favorite goodies from home to share with the group. My friend mentioned that she'd brought these amazeballs ginger cookies that I needed try.

ZOMG, peeps, she was not kidding.

They were Tate's Bake Shop's Gluten Free Ginger Zinger Cookies. None of us there who were scarfing them down eats gluten-free, but it totally doesn't matter. If you are even the teeniest bit a fan of crystallized ginger, you will go cray cray for these cookies -- thin and buttery, with crispy edges, slightly chewy centers and a zesty zing of crystallized ginger in almost every bite.

I knew immediately that I had to figure out how to make them myself -- you know, like a good ninja does.

Skinny cranberry chocolate oatmeal cookies

Skinny cranberry chocolate oatmeal cookies are the perfect snack: chewy, crispy and chocolatey but also loaded with guilt-free ingredients.

I read somewhere once, a long time ago, that having a little something sweet after a meal is a good thing because it sends a signal to your body that it's time to stop eating, the meal is over.

Doesn't that sound credible?

Honestly, I don't know if it's true, but it works for me.  Because I generally do find that just a taste of a little something sweet makes a meal complete.

Now, I'm not advocating that you eat an entire cheesecake just to send your brain a message. Note that I said a little something sweet.

Like a cookie.

Even better: A skinny cranberry chocolate oatmeal cookie that's chewy but crispy and loaded with good-for-you ingredients.

Salted oatmeal cookies: a recipe

Salted oatmeal cookies, the perfect blend of sweet and savory -- there's a reason they've been dubbed 'crack cookies'.

Note: Recipe and photos updated May 2016.

Salted cookies sound like an oxymoron, right?

Wrong. So wrong. So very, very wrong.

These cookies were first described to me as "cookie crack" and I can now bear witness that that is a perfect characterization.

Even though I have a bunch of healthier cookie recipes, I'm not even going to pretend that this is one of those. Yes, there are oats in it but there is also a crapload of butter and sugar which cancel out the oaty benefits.

But you will not care.

The balance of savory/sweet is absolutely perfect. You cannot eat just one. Hellz, you can't eat just six!

So please do not waste these on children. Repeat: PLEASE DO NOT WASTE THESE ON CHILDREN!

These are grown-up cookies.

Chef Jeff chocolate chip cookies

Chef Jeff chocolate chip cookies are a favorite of Mount Holyoke College students and alumnae -- and perhaps the best chocolate chip cookie EVER. 

Heads up, peeps: This is not really one of my usual healthy recipes. But, as a firm believer in moderation rather than denial, I'm sharing it anyway.

Because cookies.

Wicked. Awesome. Cookies. With a story.

Some of you may know that I am an alumna of Mount Holyoke College in Western Massachusetts. As a nearly 200-year-old college for women, my alma mater has quite a few traditions that we alumnae hold dear.

Apparently the Chef Jeff cookie is one of them.

I say "apparently" because these cookies didn't exist during my tenure at Mount Holyoke. When I was an undergrad, we were fortunate enough to not have to endure typical university-style centralized dining. No, my friends, we took each of our meals in the common dining room of our residence halls, eating and socializing like a family. Dining regularly with those with whom you lived built an indescribable sense of community, the reaches of which I still feel on a daily basis, no matter how far away from the campus I move.

Alas, due to some questionable decisions on the part of administrators and trustees over the years since I graduated, that community dining experience has become a thing of the past. While it breaks my heart to see current students waiting in line in the campus center for burgers and pizza instead of sitting in a communal dining room, sharing dorm-home-cooked meals family style, I have found small consolation in the one bright spot born of this campus center dining experience:

Chef Jeff chocolate chip cookies.

Chocolate peanut butter blondies (gluten-free)

Lightened, easy-to-make chocolate peanut butter blondies are also gluten-free, thanks to protein-rich quinoa flour.

I told you last week, in the context of my spicy Korean beef bowl, how I've become a big fan of quinoa over the past few years. One of the things I love about it is that, like many other grains, it's quite versatile; you can use it equally successfully in sweet baked goods as you can in savory suppers.

In fact, quinoa flour (basically just pulverized uncooked quinoa grains) is the key to making these chocolate peanut butter blondies gluten-free. Even if you don't need to eat gluten-free, these blondies are still your friend: all of our daily diets could use the extra protein and fiber that quinoa offers.

And how freakin' awesome is it that you can get it in a chocolate peanut butter blondie?

(Yeah, you're welcome.)

No bake trail mix snack bars

While I have been compensated for this trail mix snack bar recipe by #CollectiveBias and its advertisers, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that support The Ninj! #CrispyComeback 

No-bake, low-guilt trail mix snack bars are an easy treat that can satisfy all your cravings at once: crunchy, chewy, salty and sweet.

Yes, I'm a health-conscious food blogger, but I get cravings just like everyone else.

That's why I'm so excited about these no-bake trail mix snack bars: They can pretty much satisfy whatever craving you have, be it salty, sweet, crunchy or chewy.

Oh, and did I mention that they're super easy to make, with no baking required? And since they're packed with oats, nuts, peanut butter, honey and other goodies, they rate low on the treat guilt-o-meter.

Gluten-free chocolate peanut butter chip cookies

Quick-and-easy double chocolate peanut butter chip cookies: gluten-free, dairy-free and added refined sugar-free -- with a little salty crunch.

Sometimes you just need a cookie. Am I right? Can I get an amen?

But -- SIGH -- it is still Detox January, so I'm resisting the urge to go mental and make Moonpie cookies or something. I'm trying to keep my healthy-ish hat on.

Behold: double chocolate peanut butter chip cookies -- which just so happen to be gluten-free, dairy-free and added-refined-sugar-free.

Booyah!

I don't need to eat gluten-free, thank goodness, but I've been finding that I enjoy many of the substitutes that make recipes gluten-free. For instance, this recipe uses almond meal (read: pulverized almonds) instead of traditional flour. I love me some nuttiness and I certainly don't care about the flour, as long as the cookie tastes great.

Which is does. Dark cocoa powder gets a double chocolately boost from bittersweet chocolate chips, both of which are made more completely awesome by the peanut butter chips. And the whole thing is goes to 11 with the addition of crunchy salt: given that the cookies don't really spread and change their consistency as flour-and-butter-based cookies do, the salt stays crystallized. Which means you can really taste it -- and it crunches! (You know how The Ninj feels about salted cookies, right? ERMERGAHD. Tip: If you, too, are a salted cookie junkie, use Maldon sea salt flakes in place of the kosher salt for even more crunch.)

Moonpie cookies

Moonpie cookies: A homemade cookie version of the classic Moonpie, with crunchy graham flavor, sweet marshmallow frosting and a drizzle of chocolate.

Moonpies. Oh boy oh boy, peeps: Moonpies, together with Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies (like a second cousin once removed), are one of the things I really, really miss about having given up highly processed snacks.

I know, some of you might think the fake-ish waxy chocolate coating is nasty, but I looooooved those little snack cakes. They're like little packaged s'mores you can eat whenever you want.

They're on my list, along with Cool Ranch Doritos, of Processed Foods I Will Eat with Abandon If I'm Told the World Is Ending in 24 Hours.

In case you have lived under a rock (or at least never in the Southeast) for your entire life and don't know what a Moonpie is (so sad!), I'll give you a little background. Moonpies are graham cookies with a marshmallow Fluff filling, dipped entirely in chocolate. According to the company web site, they were created in 1917 when a Kentucky coal miner asked the Chattanooga-based bakery's traveling snack salesman for a "snack as big as the moon" that was also portable (for the lunch pail) and filling. Hence, the Moonpie. 

Lately I've been seeing all sorts of copycat Oatmeal Creme Pie recipes around Pinterest, so I decided it was time to give the Moonpie its similar due. But rather than make decadent sandwich snacks dipped in chocolate, I deconstructed them into cookies.

Ginger-molasses spice cookies (copycat Ivins' Spice Wafers)

Super crunchy ginger and molasses spice cookies are the yummier cousin of a gingersnap -- and a copycat recipe of Philadelphia's Ivins' Famous Spiced Wafers.

So you probably know by now that Mr. Ninj and I recently moved from Vermont to Kentucky (yes, it was a big move). What you might not know is that we originally thought we were moving to Pennsylvania (don't ask, long story) -- specifically, the western suburbs of Philadelphia. Yeah, not exactly Kentucky.

To that end, we started to spend a bit of time in the Philadelphia area, looking for potential places to live. During one visit, I went into a local grocery store chain and was confronted by a wall -- literally a WALL -- of orange and black boxes of cookies.

What the ... ?

Upon closer examination, they were all boxes of Ivins' Famous Spiced Wafers. Famous? Really? Famous where? Certainly not anywhere I had ever lived before (which is TEN different states, but who's counting?). Yet I was intrigued and, since they were cookies and cookies without high fructose corn syrup in the ingredient list, I bought a box.

Photo courtesy of beachpackagingdesign.com

OK, OK, I bought three boxes.

Salted cardamom oatmeal cookies

Salted cardamom oatmeal cookies: the taste is sweet, savory and salty while the texture is crispy-crunchy on the edges and soft in the middle.

So, I promise that we're going to talk about salted cardamom oatmeal cookies in this post and there will be a recipe, but I wanted to give you a little moving update first. 

Things are finally settling down a bit in our new home here in Kentucky. I have gotten a new driver's license (this is my ninth license and ninth good DMV photo!), paid multiple visits to a twice-a-week farmer's market in my 'hood and located a nearby organic market that sells sustainably produced meat, honey and dairy products directly from local farmers.

Booyah. I'm all set. Thank goodness it appears that the Louisville area is embracing the local food movement.

I sometimes forget that it has only been two and a half weeks since we moved. But I'm pretty Type A, in case you haven't noticed (insert sarcasm flag here). I cannot stand not having my house all set up exactly the way I want it. And it makes me positively cray cray to hunt through boxes for my belongings. When I move, I just want to get on with the moving on, full steam ahead.

One thing about moving is that it is very, very hard work. Undoubtedly, it's hard work for the movers but, once the burly movers are gone, someone has to unpack each and every one of those boxes that they hauled into the house.

Who wants to take a wild-ass guess as to who the someone is who does all the unpacking?

Anyone? Bueller?

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (gluten-free)

It's easy to whip up a batch of these gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, even if you only have 20 minutes!

I think these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are my new go-to cookie recipe. Mr. Ninj says they taste like a smooshed, baked peanut butter cup.

Awwwwwwwww yeah.

I firmly believe that everyone needs a quick and easy, go-to cookie recipe, whether for whipping up a late-day treat for yourself or baking some last-minute goodies for the school party your kid forgot to mention until the night before -- and every other situation in between.

The key is that the cookies have to be wicked good but also wicked easy. These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are both (I mean, come on: "smooshed, baked peanut butter cup" -- you know it's gonna be good).

I can't tell you how many times I have already made this recipe over the past few months. It's a cray cray number and yet we're still not sick of them. Now that's a good cookie!

Oh yeah, and did I mention they're gluten-free? And not in a substitute-gluten-free-flour-for-regular-flour way -- they are truly grain-free, so you don't even have to worry about the recipient's gluten sensitivity if you gift them to someone.

No-bake healthy oat bars

No-bake oat bars made with just six ingredients and sweetened only with dates and honey: a super-easy recipe for a delicious, healthy snack both kids and adults (and dogs!) will love.

We all crave sweets sometimes. I admit it. As much as I try to eat healthy, sometimes I just want to cram a handful of cookies in my face.

I can think of no one, not even the healthiest eater I know, who has ever told me that, when she has a craving, she crams a handful of asparagus into her face.

So I try to keep a bevy of healthy snacks in my arsenal. Not eating crap involves learning how to satisfy your cravings and desires in more healthful ways. I don't believe in complete denial -- I think that just encourages binge eating.

Therefore, when I have a craving for a sweet snack, I indulge it -- with healthier snacks and in moderation. Always in moderation.

These no-bake oat bars are the perfect solution for those cravings. A little sweet, a little salty, packed with protein and fiber, totally satisfying and made with real ingredients and no refined sugar. Plus, no baking!

ERMERGAHD: possibly the world's most perfect snack!

Taralli -- buttery Italian Easter cookies

Taralli are simple, buttery, traditional Italian cookies, often made for Easter, reminiscent of scones and, when unglazed, perfect for a not-too-sweet breakfast or cocktail cookie.

In my family, these cookies have always simply been called "Mom's Italian cookies" and they were always made for Easter (and sometimes Christmas). It was years before I realized that a) they were a traditional Italian cookie that other Italian families besides ours knew about and b) they had a name: taralli (although there are umpteen variations on how to spell it).

They are very buttery, cakey cookies, simple to make and amazingly delicious in their simplicity. This is a recipe that lets the good, natural taste of butter really shine through (I have since seen other recipes for taralli that call for almond or lemon extract, but I prefer this simple buttery taste).

They don't have much sugar in them, so they are not very sweet. In fact, I prefer to eat them for breakfast, as they are almost more like a scone than a cookie. Similarly, they make a great cocktail cookie or afternoon tea cookie.

However, if you have a sweeter sweet tooth than I, you can certainly ice them. Growing up, we always iced them, with a simple glaze made from confectioners sugar, moistened with a little lemon juice and milk -- just enough to make a thick liquid to spoon over the cooled cookies. And, as they were Easter cookies, we added a drop or two food coloring to some of the glaze to make them pastel shades of pink, green and yellow, as well as white.

Chocolate snap cookies

Lately, I've been getting a hankering for cookies in the late afternoon. I know, this is the time of day when a better snack choice would be a piece of fruit or some cheese, but sometimes you need to acknowledge your cravings.

Being The Ninj, I don't keep cookies around the house unless I have made them myself. So nine time out of ten, I'll have to bake a batch of cookies if I have a cookie craving at four in the afternoon and want to satisfy it.

Now, the great thing about being a food blogger is that, when I get said craving for cookies and must bake a batch, it's still considered working, not screwing around in the kitchen to satisfy a craving. And when it's work, it gets shared with you.

Really, we all win when I have a cookie craving.

Another part of being The Ninj, as you know, is keeping my recipes on the healthier side -- even the indulgent, four-o'clock-craving-satisfying kind.

(Yeah, you're welcome.)

I'm not going to tell you that these are healthy chocolate cookies. But I have made the effort to make them a bit lighter and they are awfully rich and chocolatey, so you're not likely to scarf down all of them in one sitting, which helps. Although, if you are a crisp cookie fan, they are pretty darned addictive.

Anytime wholesome spice cookies

Enjoy this easy recipe for wholesome spice cookies (no butter, no sugar) anytime you want, guilt-free.

So there's a funny story behind these spice cookies. Well, maybe more of an exasperating story but a story nonetheless.

Late one afternoon a few weeks ago, I had a craving for some soft cookies. Now, being able to whip up a batch of cookies whenever you feel like it is one of the great perks of working from home. Well, that and being able to wear yoga pants to "work," but I digress.

As regular readers know, I generally like my sweets a little less on the sweet side, so I decided to make a batch of molasses cookies. I pulled out an old recipe for a healthier, vegan molasses cookie, given that it was still Detox January.

Now, you know how in fifth grade your teachers tried to drill into your tiny head that it was always important to read all the directions first and assemble all the necessary supplies before you begin any task? Yeah, that. I'm here to tell you that it is still very, very important.

Too bad I didn't remember that when I started making my cookies.

You see, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that a molasses cookie will more than likely CALL FOR MOLASSES. When I got to the "add molasses" step, I realized my jar of molasses was nearly empty.

Ah, for the love of pete...

Given that I was slumming in my yoga pants working, I didn't feel like schlepping to the store simply to buy molasses. So I improvised.

Eggnog cookies

Enjoy this easy recipe for soft eggnog cookies, made with homemade eggnog.

Earlier this week, I showed you how to make your own homemade eggnog. Now, I'm going to show you how to make some awesome eggnog treats with it!

Like these eggnog cookies.

Now, I certainly hope you're not sick of cookies yet. Although I wouldn't blame you if you were: I can't look at Pinterest or my Facebook feed without being overwhelmed with cookie recipes.

But DAYYYUMM -- they all look so good!

Although not all of them look as easy as these eggnog cookies (who the hell wants to work hard to make a cookie??). And easy is something I appreciate, as we get into the home stretch of holiday preparations and, for some us, epic traveling.

Speaking of traveling, these eggnog cookies are not only easy to make, they travel well. Packaged in a tight container, they're perfect for shipping (not too soft to fall apart, yet not too crisp to get broken) -- or, frankly, for snacking on while doing some of that epic traveling.

White chocolate pretzel chip cookies

White chocolate pretzel chip cookies -- the perfect sweet yet salty cookie.

So remember when I told you last week that Mr. Ninj pronounced my Snack Crack to be his favorite food of all time?

He just changed his mind: now these white chocolate pretzel chip cookies have taken over the number one position.

(Yeah, he's fickle that way when it comes to treats.)

Not that I'm arguing with him, mind you.

We recently got a big container of white chocolate-covered pretzels. I mean a really big container. (Damn you, cute Cub Scout neighbor boy with your sad little fundraising sales pitch.) Now, for some people this might be no big deal. But neither Mr. Ninj nor I has very effective willpower around treats. Scratch that: we have no willpower around treats. Zero. As in, "Well, if one is good, then 25 will be awesome!"

Therefore, I took decisive action. I needed to turn those pretzels into something -- and then proceed to give them away.

As it is the holiday time of the year, the time of cookie swaps and food gifts, I went with cookies.

Port and cherry brownies

Rich and decadent round brownies made with ruby port and tart dried cherries.

I got a recipe for boozy cherry brownies delivered straight to my inbox. Booyah. If that's not fate, I don't know what is.

As a food blogger, I get slammed on a daily basis with press releases and other marketing emails, wanting me to promote/review/check out whatever food-related item or information is being hawked.

Most of it is crap, but every once in a while, there's a diamond in the crap pile. Recently, the diamond was this brownie recipe.

Since the recipe comes directly from Dorie Greenspan, I knew it would be foolproof. And since it's made with port wine, bittersweet chocolate and tangy dried cherries, I knew it would be completely awesome.

And it is.

I love that they are made in muffin tins which makes them not only round (Dorie calls them "broundies") but also cutely personal-sized without the jaggedy cut edges of pan brownies.

Herb-infused sugar cookies

Make plain sugar cookies special with a simple-to-make DIY herb-infused sugar.

Happy Halloween!

Or, as I prefer to say, Happy Day After The Ninj's Birthday!

I don't do a whole lot for Halloween. Heck, since we moved to the farmette, we don't even get a single trick-or-treater. I guess making the half-mile walk down our driveway in the pitch dark just for  a Reese's peanut butter cup is a little too spooky.

But since I own the cute black cat treat bags that you see in the photos (they have sparkly green eyes, too!!) and I was making these herb-infused sugar cookies anyway, I decided to tip my hat to The Day After The Ninj's Birthday.

These herbed sugar cookies are really a joint effort, though, because they center on herb-infused sugar (in this case, lavender, vanilla and lime zest) made by my new blogger friend Jess of Gather Round Kitchen. We met at a local food swap, where she was swapping this simple infused sugar. Easy yet fancy: totally brilliant!

I used it to make sugar cookies but you could also use it in your tea or some simple breakfast muffins. Another swapper used it to make a lovely sugar scrub as well.