Polish Christmas Cookie Recipes - Ciasteczka na Swieta

This recipe for Polish cinnamon cookies or ciasteczka cynamonowe requires the dough to mature or ripen for 12 hours in the fridge before rolling and cutting into desired shapes. They are egg-washed before baking to produce a glaze. If desired, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar or colored sugars.

These crispy and light wafle cookies are made on a special iron, like a Norwegian goro iron. They can be eaten as is or taste even better sandwiched with honey or a thin layer of jam and dusted with confectioners' sugar if desired. Sublime! Definitely worth the effort.

This recipe for Polish butter cookies with jam or ciasteczka maślane z dżemem is a simple cookie with jam in the middle. It's popular year-round, but especially for Christmas. The preferred filling is strawberry jam, but anything goes.

This recipe for Butter Crunch Cookies is actually my way of getting around the high price of pecans in making Polish Christmas Crescents, described in 1., above. Instead of costly nuts, I use crushed generic-brand corn flakes. An added plus is that this is a scoopable dough that yields 5 dozen cookies.

These star-shaped rolled sugar cookies are an important part of Polish Christmas celebrations, where the Star of Bethlehem figures prominently in many aspects of the tradition. These are great plain or dipped in chocolate. Check out Polish Christmas Dessert Recipes here.

The literal translation of this cookie from Polish is Ammonia Cookies and refers to the baker's ammonia or ammonium carbonate used in the dough, a leavener that predates baking powder and baking soda, common in many Old World recipes. But no worries. Baking powder or soda can be substituted. Read more about baker's ammonia