Slice & Bake Swedish Christmas Cookies
Swedish Christmas Cookies are a festive treat full of winter flavors! Ginger, orange zest, and cinnamon make this a cookie you’ll crave all season long!
I love baking holiday cookies this time of year. Love with a capital L. Every year I make cookie plates for friends and family, and today I’m hooking you up with my mom’s favorite Christmas cookie!
I started making these Swedish Christmas Cookies for her years ago. I’ve been playing with the original recipe and tweaking it little each year until I got these cookies just right.
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The original, traditional Swedish Christmas cookies recipe uses cardamom and lemon. I’ve changed things up to include ginger, cinnamon, and orange. Your house is going to smell all kinds of amazing while these cookies bake!!
You can absolutely use cardamom and lemon is you prefer. Swap out equal parts lemon zest for the orange zest and use 2 teaspoons cardamom in place of the cinnamon and nutmeg.
Slice & Bake Swedish Cookie Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Ground ginger
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Confectioners sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Orange zest
- Colored sanding sugar, Nonpareil sprinkles, or finely chopped toasted nuts
How to Make Swedish Christmas Cookies
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In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Set the flour mixture aside.
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In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale, about 1 minute. Add in the egg, vanilla, and orange zest and mix into the butter until combined.
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Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two additions. Mix until the dry ingredients are just combined after each addition. Your dough should not be too sticky. If it is, add 1/4 cup extra flour and mix until the dough comes together.
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Divide the dough in half. Form one half of the dough into a log shape (about 1 1/2-inches in diameter) and place it on a piece of plastic wrap.
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Roll the dough up in the plastic wrap and seal the ends by twisting them. (Think of the wrapper on hard candies.) Repeat with the other half of the dough.
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Refrigerate the dough logs for 30 minutes.
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Remove the dough from your fridge and unwrap it. Save the plastic wrap you’re going to chill the dough again.
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Cover a baking sheet or long plate with the cookie coating you chose. (You can even do a different coating for each dough log if you like.)
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Roll the dough log in the coating so that all the sides are well covered. You don’t want any dough showing on the long side of the log. Re-roll the dough in the plastic wrap you saved and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to overnight.
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Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
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Remove cookie dough from the fridge and unwrap. Use a sharp knife to cut off the ends of the dough logs. Cut the dough into 1/4-inch slices. You should get about 18 pieces per log.
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Place the dough slices on your prepared baking sheet about 1-inch apart. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the bottom edges of the cookies just begin to turn golden.
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Carefully remove cookies from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
How do you shape cookie dough into a log?
The easiest ways are to use plastic wrap or waxed paper. Place the dough onto a good-sized piece of plastic wrap and roll it over the dough. You will be able to gently mold the dough into a log shape. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap so they seal off the dough log on either end.
Use this same method with waxed paper. Think about the wrappers on hard candies with the twisted sides. It’s the same thing here.
Today is also the reveal for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. This is my 3rd year participating in the swap, and the first year on Bread Booze Bacon. There’s seriously nothing better this time of year than baking a bunch of cookies for other people and then getting 3 dozen surprise cookies.
There’s also nothing more depressing than your dog knocking the cookie jar off the counter, shattering said jar, and eating all the cookies inside. Yeah. That happened.
- Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Vanilla Chai Shortbread Cookies (I have the biggest food crush on Rebecca!)
- Brown Butter Toffee & Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
You can roll these cookies in a few different “toppings.” While the recipe below lists them all, I recommend the sanding sugar. I think it sticks to the cookie dough the best and you’ll get full coverage on the outside of the cookies. The red and green colors also make these the best Swedish Christmas cookies for your cookie plates or cookie exchange!
Can you freeze slice and bake cookie dough?
Yes! You can freeze either the slices of cookies dough to bake later, or freeze the baked cookies.
Just be sure to freeze them on a baking sheet before transferring them to a Ziploc bag or airtight container for long term storage.
More Christmas Cookies to Tempt You
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cornflake Cookies
- Loaded Cookie Butter Snickerdoodles
- Hazelnut Nutella Linzer Cookies
- Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
- Nutmeg Coins with Eggnog Glaze
- More Christmas recipes…
Slice & Bake Swedish Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom (or ground ginger)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange zest finely grated
Cookie Coating Ideas
- Colored sanding sugar
- Nonpareil sprinkles
- Toasted pecans finely chopped
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and orange zest, and mix to combine.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in two additions, mixing until just combined after each addition.
- Divide the dough in half. Form one half of the dough into a log shape (about 1 1/2-inches in diameter) and place on a piece of plastic wrap. Roll dough up in the plastic wrap and seal the ends. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
- Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
- Remove dough from the fridge and unwrap it. Save the plastic wrap.
- Cover a baking sheet or long plate with the cookie coating you chose. (You can even do a different coating for each dough log if you like.)
- Roll the dough log in the coatings so that all the sides are well covered. Re-roll the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to overnight.
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Remove cookie dough from the fridge and unwrap. Use a sharp knife to cut off the ends of the dough log. Cut dough into 1/4-inch slices, you should get about 18 pieces per log.
- Place the dough slices on your prepared baking sheet about 1-inch apart. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the bottom edge of the cookies just begins to turn golden.
- Remove cookies from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
Get more Christmas cookie inspiration for your cookie plates! Just click the recipe name below to get a full, printable version.
Oh noooo…I’d be so upset if my dog did that! I hope he didn’t get sick from his cookie binge. These Swedish Christmas cookies are so pretty, and I bet the ginger and orange make the house smell AMAZING while these are baking. Yum!
Luckily the little booger didn’t get sick. He did however hurt his paw. We don’t know if it was related or not, but he was limping for a few days. He’s all better now, but maybe the cookie jar falling on his paw was a lesson learned. (We’re thinking that maybe what happened.)
Do you have the recipe with cardamom and lemon? I’l like to try both.
Hi Todd! To make lemon cardamom cookies: Take out the ginger and cinnamon and add 2 teaspoon cardamom. Then instead of orange zest, use 1 teaspoon lemon zest.
Followed recipe to the letter. Do not look nice. Taste great.