25 of Our Test Kitchen’s Best Cookie Recipes of All Time (2024)

Peanut Butter Cookies

Soft and chewy, this kid-favorite cookie recipe is a classic you can’t beat. Even though it’s hard to be patient when it comes to your favorite cookies, allow the dough to chill out in the fridge before you roll and bake it. This way, the peanut butter cookies are easier to handle and they won’t spread too much.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This couldn’t be a list of the best cookie recipes of all time if it didn’t include chocolate chip cookies. Whether you prefer them thin and crispy or slightly underdone with the perfect amount of chewiness, there are endless variations of these favorite cookies. However, this specific cookie recipe is so good, we’ve kept it in our BH&G cookbook for decades. So you know it’s delicious.

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies

Combining butter and sugar doesn’t get much better than this. These popular homemade cookies are perfectly soft and chewy in every bite. To change up the flavor a bit, try using brown sugar or maple sugar. We’ve perfected our recipe for cut-out sugar cookies as well if you want to break out the festive shapes.

Test Kitchen Tip: Look and listen to determine when your favorite cookies are done. These cookies should darken slightly and crackle audibly when nearing the finish.

Classic Snickerdoodles

Why mess with perfection? These classic snickerdoodle cookies are the warm, cinnamon-sugar treats you know and love. Keep watch as the end of the baking time nears to achieve deliciously golden cookies. Try making gluten-free snickerdoodles for your friends and family with allergy restrictions.

No-Bake Browned Butter Cookie Dough Bars

These no-bake cookie bars are safe to eat thanks to pasteurized flour (you can do this by baking flour at 350ºF for 5 minutes) or oat flour. If you’re not feeling the classic version, our Test Kitchen has tasty variations for cake batter, cookies and cream, peanut butter, and monster no-bake bars.

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Chewy, fruity, and full of oatmeal goodness, this family-favorite cookie recipe always disappears quickly off the dessert spread. To amp up its homey aroma, we laced these oatmeal cookies with cinnamon and brown sugar. You can also try our peanut butter variation that follows the recipe and opt for different mix-ins.

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Got a can of pumpkin you need to finish? This pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe is here to help! The cookies are moist and oh-so-soft. It’s going to be the perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee on a cool fall day.

Shortbread

A top favorite cookie enjoyed during the holiday season, our classic shortbread cookie recipe only requires three ingredients: flour, sugar, and butter. The result is a crisp, buttery treat that will have everyone reaching for seconds.

Storage Tip: Keep your cookies fresh by layering between waxed paper in an airtight container. Store cookies at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Giant Ginger Cookies

Giant cookies? Yes, please! These popular homemade cookies feature molasses, which gives them that deep golden color and flavor. The warm ginger, cinnamon, and cloves provide the perfect amount of spice in each delicious bite. If you prefer bite-size cookies, this top cookie recipe can make up to 120! Just make them into small, one-inch balls instead of the larger size.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

On almost everyone’s list of all-time favorite cookies, these peanut butter cookies are easy to dress up. Press a chocolate star into each cookie’s center as soon as they come out of the oven. The result: part sweet, part salty, and completely irresistible.

Triple-Chocolate Cookies

Warning: Chocolate coma may occur from consuming these triple-chocolate cookies. Not only do we bake them with rich dark chocolate but we also dress them up with warm chocolate. And there’s no need for fancy cookie decorating skills. Swirl a spoon of melted chocolate over the cookies to achieve the pretty drizzled look.

Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Macadamia nuts and white chocolate pieces are meant to be friends. The salty-sweet pair stars in this timeless cookie recipe featuring simple sugar cookie dough and buttery bites of soft vanilla flavor. Prefer regular chocolate? Trade semisweet for the white baking pieces.

Double-Almond Macarons

These delicate French cookies make the top favorite cookie list for people across the globe. Traditionally made with almond flour, you’ll definitely get your almond fix with the addition of almond extract and buttery almond-flavor filling. You’ll love every light, chewy, and slightly crunchy bite. For a little more zip in your favorite cookies, pair with zesty lemon curd or fresh raspberry jam in our French-filled macarons.

Chocolate Crinkles

Another one that goes hand-in-hand with the Christmas cookie list is none other than classic chocolate crinkles. Make sure to move these from the baking sheets to a cooling rack after just a few minutes out of the oven. Leaving them on the hot pan might cause the powdered sugar to dissolve.

Cookies and Cream Cookies

If those cream-filled sandwich cookies from the grocery store are one of your favorite cookies, just wait until you turn them into these delightful icebox cookies. Slice-and-bake treats like these are meant for make-ahead baking plans. All you have to do is roll up your dough and keep it in the freezer until you’re ready to thaw, slice, and bake!

Bourbon Cranberry Cookies

Basic thumbprints are great, but this booze-infused version makes an unforgettable cookie recipe. Cranberries, cherries, or any dried berry would work beautifully in this favorite cookie recipe. To take these adults-only treats to the next level, top with a bourbon-spiked ganache (and stir a quarter cup of bourbon into the dough for good measure).

Copycat Chocolate-Mint Thin Cookies

When your favorite cookie season comes and goes, you can rely on this cookie recipe to keep you satisfied until you can purchase more next year. It only takes 30 minutes to get the cocoa dough together. The hard part is waiting for them to chill before you can bake, drizzle, and eat.

Pecan Tassies

Both pie lovers and cookie lovers will enjoy this popular homemade cookie. The butter- and cream-cheese cookie base serves as the “crust” for these adorable mini pecan pies. For a fruity take on tassies, you could make key lime or cherry variations.

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Cookies

You might reserve baking with pumpkin for fall, but one of our all-time favorite cookie recipes will have you reconsidering how often use break out a can of the orange squash. With 700+ reviews, these pumpkin delights have enough butter to really drive home the melt-in-your-mouth cookie experience.

Oatmeal Cookies

Customize these popular homemade cookies with raisins, snipped dried cherries, chopped nuts, or chocolate chips give variety to this chewy classic. It’s a kid-approved cookie recipe that everyone in the family will love. You can also double the recipe and create oatmeal cookie sandwiches with your favorite fillings such as marshmallow creme, dulce de leche, peanut butter, or frosting.

Classic Christmas Sandies

Just because it has Christmas in the name doesn’t mean you have to wait until the tree is up to make this favorite cookie recipe. The dough for these cookies is dense. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with your hand mixer before stirring in the rest along with the toasted pecans.

Classic Whoopie Pies

Made famous in the 1920s, this time-honored treat is one popular cookie recipe that’s here to stay. This classic dessert features a sweet, fluffy filling (that tastes like marshmallows!) that’s stuffed between two fluffy, chocolaty cookies. For a seasonal touch, try our pumpkin-spice whoopie pies in the fall and red velvet-peppermint for Christmas.

Gingersnaps

Yes, you can make your favorite cookie without buying a bag from the store. The combination of molasses and warm fall spices makes this delicious cookie recipe a fragrant addition to your cookie jar. Roll the dough in coarse or turbinado sugar before baking for an extra touch of sweetness and texture.

Classic No-Bake Cookies

One of the best cookie recipes of all time also happens to be a no-bake cookie. These chocolate-peanut butter gems come together on the stovetop. The resulting cookie is soft, sweet, and will be virtually impossible to stop after eating just one. Line your baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper before scooping out the cookies for easy removal and less cleanup.

Jumbo Apple-Oatmeal Cookies

Both applesauce and apples infuse this delicious oatmeal cookie recipe. You can use either quick-cooking or rolled oats to give the cookies their signature chewy texture. A drizzle of simple powdered sugar icing provides the perfect sweet bite.