Do you have your holiday baking plan all planned out?
If you’re a fan of holiday baking, we’ve got plenty of Disney recipes you can comb through to create the perfect Disney holiday meal. If you’ve seen all the booths and menus for the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays and have been influenced by some of the cookies especially, we used some of them to make this the only cookie post you need this season — we present to you the easiest Disney cookies to make at home!
These 6 cookies will provide a variety of different flavors that can be perfect for your holiday get-together!
Alfajores
Alfajores are a popular vanilla shortbread cookie with dulce de leche. The recipe makes 6-8 cookies!
Ingredients
COOKIES
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
ALFAJORES
- 1 (14 ounce) can Dulce de Leche
- 12-16 cookies
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
FOR COOKIES:
- Preheat oven to 325ºF. Line baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- Combine all-purpose flour and cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside.
- Cream butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla and mix on medium speed, scraping sides occasionally, until fully incorporated.
- Add reserved flour mixture and beat on low speed until dry dough starts to come together. Remove from bowl and knead of floured surface until dough is soft.
- Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into 2 1/2-inch circles. Place on prepared baking pan, leaving 2-inches between each cookie.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.
FOR ALFAJORES:
- Pour dulce de leche into a piping bag.
- Place half of the cookies, bottom side up, on a flat surface. Pipe dulce de leche onto each cookie. Top with remaining cookies.
- Coat sides of cookies with shredded coconut and dust tops with powdered sugar.
Cook’s Note: To enhance the flavor of the coconut, toast it in the oven. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 300ºF, stirring every 3 minutes, until golden brown.
Read our full review of this cookie at the EPCOT Festival of the Holidays!Â
Gingerbread Salted Caramel Buttercream Cookie Sandwich
One of our absolute favorites from Karamell-Küche in EPCOT’s Germany pavilion, the Gingerbread Salted Caramel Buttercream Cookie Sandwich is a gingerbread and caramel lovers dream!
Ingredients
- Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cake & Cookie MixÂ
- Betty Crocker Whipped Butter Cream Frosting
- Werther’s Original Soft CaramelsÂ
- 3 tbsp of butter
- 1 & 1/2 tsp milk
- 1/4 cup water
Directions
- On the back of the Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cake & Cookie Mix, you’ll find instructions for making gingerbread cookies.
- Dump the cake mix into a mixing bowl and add your water and butter. The box calls for the butter to be melted, but for a denser dough texture, just use softened butter.
- Use a mixer to blend the dough together until smooth.Â
- Place plastic wrap over the top of the bowl and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 375°.
- Scoop out a tablespoon of dough and roll it between the palms of your hands to create a small ball.
- Place your dough balls on a cookie sheet with a decent amount of distance between them so they can spread while they bake
- Bake for 8-10 minutes (but this can vary depending on your oven)
- Remove the cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling rack.
- After 20 minutes or when cookies are cool to the touch, you can start frosting your cookies with your store-bought buttercream OR with homemade buttercream.
- If you want to make homemade buttercream, combine 4 sticks of unsalted butter and around 8 cups of powdered sugar until a frosting is formed.
- Match up your cookies in pairs so they are similar in size.
- Frost the bottom, flat side of one of the cookies with as much frosting as you like (but keep in mind that the more you put, the messier your sandwich will be!).
- Unwrap about 15 caramels and place them in a microwavable bowl. Add your milk and microwave for 30 seconds. Mix the caramel and milk together until smooth.
- Use a spoon to drizzle over the frosted half of your cookie sandwiches. Use as much caramel as you desire.
- Apply the cookie tops and let the sandwiches rest on the cooling rack for 5-10 minutes. Then, dig in!
Read our full review of this cookie in EPCOT here!Â
Gingersnap Cookies
Who doesn’t love classic gingersnaps? This recipe is one of the most simple on our list.
Ingredients
- 9 oz butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 & 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp powdered ginger
- 2 & 1/4 cups flour
- Demerara sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 & 1/2 tsp ground clove
Directions
- Cream together butter, brown sugar, salt, and spices.
- Mix in the molasses, then mix in the eggs.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together baking soda and flour, then add to the dough and mix.
- Scoop the mixture with a 1 oz ice cream scoop, roll it in demerara sugar, and flatten it slightly.
- Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes until golden and slightly cracked.
Original Carrot Cake Cookies
We can’t forget our beloved Carrot Cake Cookie, but the ORIGINAL version from Writer’s Stop (now BaseLine Tap House). This recipe isn’t like the cookie sandwich you’ll find in Hollywood Studios now, but some may agree that this original recipe is better than the current one!
Ingredients
- 1 box Carrot Cake mix
- 3/4 cup of water (per box instructions)
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil (per box instructions)
- 3 large eggs (per box instructions)
- 8 oz of cream cheese
- 8 tablespoons of butter
- 1 cup of confectioners (powdered) sugar
- 1/2 cup of crushed and drained pineapple
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350° F and grease a cookie sheet.
- Place your eggs, vegetable oil, measured water, and Carrot Cake mix into a large bowl (or follow the instructions on your box if they are different).
- Blend your cake mix, water, oil, and eggs at a low speed until moistened (about 30 seconds). Then, beat the mixture at medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- After this, drop off rounded spoonfuls onto your cookie sheets, then place them into the oven for about 10 minutes.
- Take them out of the oven once they’ve been baked and set them aside to cool.
- In another large bowl, sift your powdered sugar.
- Then, place your butter and cream cheese inside the bowl.
- Drain your crushed pineapple in a sifter in the sink before adding it and the vanilla extract to the rest of the ingredients in the bowl.
- Blend the ingredients together until the frosting is creamy.
- Place a tablespoon (or more!) of icing on each cookie and sandwich them together. Enjoy!
Read our review of the current Carrot Cake Cookie here!Â
Jack-Jack Num Num Cookie
Usually, you can only find the Jack-Jack Num Num Cookie in Disney California Adventure and sometimes in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but you can make your own at home!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
- 1 & 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 & 1/4 cups flour
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Directions
- Brown your butter and let it cool until it begins to solidify.
- Cream butter, sugars, and salt in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
- Mix in whole egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.
- Combine your dry ingredients and mix them with the batter.
- Add the chocolate chips.
- Scoop your batter into balls and chill thoroughly, for at least an hour (preferably overnight).
- Bake at 350° F for 7-10 minutes or until your cookies are a nice golden brown on the edges but still soft in the center.
Read our Jack -Jack Num Num Cookie review here!Â
Mickey-Shaped Linzer Cookie
Lastly, we’ve got the Mickey-Shaped Linzer Cookie! We created a copycat recipe of this for you all, so you can enjoy it for the holidays!
Ingredients
- 14 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp butter extract
- 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 & 1/2 cups raspberry jam
- Non-melting powdered sugar (also known as donut sugar) for topping
- 2 cookie cutters (one of which is a smaller shape to cut out those windows in select cookies). Note you can search online for Linzer cookie cutters — like these — and find lots of fun options or use a small bottle cap to cut the centers. If you have a 3D printer and want the same ones we used, the file can be found here.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Adjust rack to middle of oven.
- Cream butter and sugars with paddle attachment in a mixer, or use handheld mixer. Mix until pale and fluffy looking — about 4 minutes.
- Scrape down the bowl and add egg and both extracts. Mix on high until incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, add dry ingredients — all-purpose flour, almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Mix with a whisk by hand until well blended.
- Pour dry ingredients into the mixer and mix on low/medium until dry ingredients are just incorporated.
- Form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 60 mins.
- Pour 1 & 1/2 cups of jam into a heatproof container and microwave for 1-1.5 minutes until the jam is bubbly and hot.
- Pour jam through a strainer using a spatula into another bowl.
- When ready to cut cookies, liberally flour your surface and place dough on top. Roll dough out until 1/8 inch thick.
- Cut your dough with any cutter and carefully use a spatula to transfer to a parchment paper or silicone mat-lined cookie sheet. For ONLY half of the cookies, use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out a window in the center of the cookie.
- Chill cut cookies for 30 minutes before baking.
- Bake cookies in preheated oven until just slightly golden.
- When ready to assemble, either use a knife to smear jam on the bottom cookies or fill a piping bag or ziplock bag with the jam.
- Pour a bit of the non-melting powdered sugar into a small mesh strainer. Hold it over the top cookies and gently tap the side of the strainer with your hand.
- Assemble cookies and serve!
There you have it — 6 cookies that you can easily make for the holidays! If you’re visiting the parks for the holidays, be sure to grab our Guide to the Walt Disney World Holidays 2022 and prepare for those crowds! As always, stay tuned to DFB for all the latest holiday news!
See where you can get a Christmas Day meal in Disney World!
DON'T MISS A MOMENT
OF HOLIDAY MAGIC
Holidays at Disney World: DFB's Merriest Guide is a one-of-a-kind resource that will help you get the most out of your holiday vacation at Walt Disney World.
It includes all the must-have information for navigating the holiday season at Disney World, including:
- The COMPLETE schedule of events for the Holiday Season
- How to avoid the crowds on Disney World's busiest days (and when Disney World closes their parks due to capacity!)
- ALL of the events, activities, and holiday additions in Walt Disney World. ALL. OF. THEM.
- And, of course, we'll tell you where to eat!
Save 20% on the Holidays at Disney World: DFB's Merriest Guide with code PEPPERMINT.
MORE Disney World Holiday INFO!
Learn About Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Get the Latest Information About the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays
We’ll Take This Little Golden Disney Book in Our Stocking, Santa!
Everything You Need to Know About Disney World Holiday Dining and Events
What We Wish We’d Known Before Going to Disney World During the Holidays
Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the latest holiday news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe!
Which of these cookies will you be making? Tell us in the comments!
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