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What makes Christmas icebox cookies especially charming is their versatility. The dough can be flavored with vanilla, almond, or citrus zest, and rolled in colorful sprinkles, crushed peppermint, or coarse sugar for a festive edge. When sliced, each cookie has a clean, beautiful shape, making them perfect for cookie tins, dessert platters, or gifting to friends, family, and neighbors.
Christmas icebox cookies are the kind of holiday treat that feels like a warm hug from the past. I have been making this recipe for a few years now and I am glad to finally be sharing it. These cookies are simple, nearly fool-proof, and wonderfully festive. During a season filled with busy schedules and endless to-do lists, these slice-and-bake cookies offer a moment of calm—and a plate full of buttery goodness.
Table of Contents
If you’re looking for a stress-free Christmas cookie that delivers both flavor and charm, icebox cookies deserve a spot in your holiday baking lineup. These super customizable cookies are loved by my family and I hope your family will love them also.
Why You Will Love Christmas Icebox Cookies
These cookies bring a sense of traditional holiday baking. Because the dough can be made days in advance, they allow slower, more relaxed intentional moments in the kitchen and with your family. One day you mix and shape the dough, another day you can slice and bake the cookies. For me, this stretches the joy of baking across the season rather than rushing it all at once. With family coming over and with so many tasks to complete, being able to check one thing off the list is always welcomed.
These cookies are essential a type of sugar cookie which means it uses very basic of ingredients. Regular sugar cookies like my Jumbo Super Soft Sugar Cookies tend to use granulated sugar as their base while this icebox cookie uses powdered sugar. Powdered sugar makes the texture even more delicate and crumbly.
Of course I have seen many Christmas Cookies made in the way of the traditional sugar cookie or even a spiced cookie, but they usually lack the delicate texture of my icebox cookies.
Ingredients and Tips
Flour– I recommend cake flour for this recipe as it has less gluten and yields a much more tender crumb. You can also use All-purpose flour with a few adjustments to the recipe. See recipe card notes below for substitutions.
Powdered Sugar– Powdered sugar was a no-brainer for this recipe as it blends in very well with the butter. It helps maintain a light delicate crumb in the Christmas cookies.
Butter– A quality butter is important as these cookies are essentially butter sugar cookies. I am not above a good store brand but when it is the holidays or you are gifting these cookies, it is important to use only the best ingredients. Kerrygold is my favorite butter to use in these types of cookies.
Cocoa Powder– In my opinion, Dutch processed cocoa is best for these cookies as it is a bit more subtle than natural cocoa in terms of bitterness.
Egg White– Eggs white are not super important to this recipe. However, they are an excellent glue to bind layers of cookie dough together.
Cookie Shapes
Swirl Design
1. Roll out the main color of dough to about 1/4 of an inch thick and return rolled dough to refrigerator to keep it cold.
2. Roll second color of dough to 1/4 of an inch thick also and return dough to fridge. If using a 3rd color, roll it out as well, and then back to the fridge.
3. Place down the cold main color dough on some cling wrap or parchment paper.
4. Place the second dough on top of the first color of dough. Then the 3rd, if using.
5. Using a knife, cut the edges roughly even.
6. Using a rolling pin, roll the layers to make them stick to one another.
7. Using the cling wrap or parchment to help you, begin rolling the dough tightly. (If dough is cracking, allow dough to warm up a bit then continue.)
8. Roll the dough the rest of the way making sure to keep the roll tight.
9. If you have some of the 2nd and 3rd colors sticking out from the main color, just cut those off and press the main color closed.
10. Cut the sides even to reveal the swirl.
Checker Board Design
1. Shape two opposing colored doughs into square blocks about 6 inches or so long. Refrigerate until firm.
2. Cut each of the blocks into four equal pieces. You should have 8 sticks of dough in all.
3. Grab some extra dough of whichever color is going to be around the outer boarder. Since I chose red, I got an extra piece of red and squared the dough creating a 9th stick of red dough.
4. Pick a stick of whatever color. Using your finger, rub a bit of egg white on a side of the dough.
5. Grab a stick of the opposite color and place the two sticks of dough together. The egg white will glue the pieces. Repeat this for rest of the sticks of dough aside from the lone 9th stick. You should now have four dual colored sticks of dough and one single colored stick of dough.
6. Take one of the dual colored sticks of dough and rub the top of it with eggs whites. Grab another dual colored stick and place it on the egg whites side of the first dual colored stick, making sure opposite colors align.
7. Repeat opposite color over the other opposite color pattern until you use all the dual color pieces and there is an empty space.
8. Place the single 9th stick of dough in the spot. Wrap the entire block of dough in cling wrap. Use your hands to smooth the edges and lengthen the block slightly.
Stripe Design
1. Take two colors of dough. Roll them out about 1/4 of an inch thick and return rolled dough to refrigerator to keep them cold.
2. On some cling wrap, place one sheet of dough on top of the other.
3. Use your knife to square up the edges of the dough.
4. Using a ruler or measuring tape, measure out 1 inch strips of dough.
5. Cut the strips and begin stacking them on top of each other.
6. Cut off any uneven sides. Wrap in cling wrap and use hands to square up sides.
7. Use rolling pin to help square side and make sure layers adhere to one another.
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Amazingly Buttery Christmas IceBox Cookies
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Equipment
- Hand Mixer or Stand Mixer
- ruler or tape measure
Ingredients
- 2 cups butter, softened 4 sticks
- 3½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- 5 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 6 cup cake flour See Note 1 for all-purpose flour substitution
- ⅛ cup Dutch processed cocoa powder, optional
- Drops water, only if using cocoa powder, optional
- red and green gel for coloring, optional use colors of your choice
- Sparkling Sugar, for garnish optional
- 1 egg white
Instructions
- To a large bowl, add the butter. Beat on medium high until butter is light and fluffy and paler in appearance.2 cups butter, softened
- Sift in the powdered sugar. Slowly beat until combined.3½ cups powdered sugar
- Add in the vanilla and almond extract. Beat until just combined. Then beat in the egg yolks one at a time.1½ tsp vanilla extract, ¼ tsp almond extract, 5 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- Sift in the cake flour and salt. Turn off mixer. Using a wooden spoon continue to mix by hand. Dough will be very dry and crumbly. Then pour dough out on to clean work surface. Begin lightly pressing dough in onto itself until it is no longer crumbly. Then form dough into a square.1 tsp salt, 6 cup cake flour
- Using a bench scraper or knife, cut dough into four roughly equal pieces. Take 1 piece of the dough and wrap in cling wrap and put it into the refrigerator.
Coloring Dough
- For the 2nd piece of dough, take the cocoa powder and add a few drops of water and mix to form a medium thick paste. Add the cocoa paste onto piece of dough. Fold cocoa paste into dough until it is a uniform color brown. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate at least an hour.
- For the 3rd piece of dough, add a few drops of red food coloring, Mix dough until color is uniform. Add more food coloring to achieve desired shade of red or as needed. Refrigerate for an hour.
- For 4th piece of dough, add a few drops of green food coloring, Mix dough until color is uniform. Add more food coloring to achieve desired shade of green or as needed. Refrigerate for an hour.
Swirl Cookies (Spiral Pattern)
- Cut the red, green, and brown dough in half. Return the other halves to the refrigerator. Take each of the doughs you are working with and roll them to about ¼ of an inch thick using a rolling pin. (If dough gets too warm and breaks, return it back to the refrigerator.)
- Onto a sheet of cling wrap lay the rolled out green dough. Lay the red dough, on top of the green dough. Finally, lay the brown dough on top of the red and green dough. Using a knife, cut the edges of the doughs until they are uniform with each other.
- Using the cling wrap to help, begin rolling the dough up until it forms a cylinder. Pinch the seam of the dough closed. (If you have other color peeking under the seam of the green dough, cut it off, then pinch the green dough seam closed.) Refrigerate for another hour.
Christmas Present Cookies (Checker board Pattern)
- Take the remaining red and green dough from the refrigerator. Form each of them into rectangular cylinders close to the same size. Cut each other the cylinder into 9 equal sized pieces length-wise. They should look like long fries. (Note: the 9th piece must come from either the red or green dough, depending on what color makes up the outer squares.) Feel free to also take some extra dough from the plain dough to form the 9th piece and just color match the piece.
- Take 1 piece of the red dough and rub a side of the dough with egg white. Take a piece of the green and press it firmly for the red piece of dough. Repeat with each remaining piece of dough. You should have 4 dual colored pieces of dough and 1 lone red or green piece remaining.
- Using some more egg white as glue, begin laying the dual color piece of dough in which opposite colors overlap. This means a red should be paired with a green. Once all the other pieces are together, add the final piece. Wrap dough in cling wrap. Use your hands to form it into a perfect square. Return dough to refrigerator.
Stripe Cookies (Strip Pattern)
- Roll the remaining brown dough out until it is ¼ inch thick. Cut the plain dough in half. Form one half of the dough into a 1 inch wide circular cylinder, and put it back in the fridge.
- For the other half, roll it out to ¼ inch thick sheet.
- Onto some cling wrap, place the rolled out brown dough. On top of the brown dough add the plain dough. Clean up the side using knife by cutting dough sides evenly. Using your ruler or tape measure, mark the dough into 1 inch strips.
- Cut the stripes. Then place each dough layered slice on top of the other. Wrap in cling wrap. Press top of cookies a bit to make sure layers stick together. Return the dough to fridge.
Baking
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Slice cookies about ½ inch thick. If desired, Sprinkling some cookies with sparkling sugar.
- Bake on 350℉ for 15 minutes. Bottoms of cookies will be golden brown.
- Transfer to cooling rack.
- Enjoy!!
Notes
Nutrition
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