More than 1,300 readers cast over 2,700 votes in this year’s Holiday Cookie Contest. After weeks of battling it out at the polls, here are the 12 recipes that received the most votes and are moving on to the final delicious round.
- Lizka’s Butter Braids by Annette Kukoy of Schererville, Indiana
- Wintertime Eikoocs by Megan Pietz of Chicago
- Cookies by Justyna Jarmula of Chicago
- Cranberry Carolyns: Spiced Oatmeal Cookies by Ana Fernatt of Chicago
- Salted Caramel Apple Pretzel Sugar Cookies by Caroline Roth of Chicago
- Oh Gee! Cookies by Jeanne White of Tinley Park
- Banana Split Fluffies by Amy Trager of Chicago
- Bear Claw Snickerdoodle by Jesse Kimball of Chicago
- Holiday Pumpkin Bites by Ellen Brady of Chicago
- Pistachio and Cranberry Linzer Wreaths by Andrew Yohanan of Chicago
- Brown Butter Cherry Chip by Miriam Rodriguez of Chicago
- Erin’s Thumbprints by Erin Claussen of Chicago
For this year’s “Joe Gray Save,” named after a former dining editor, the food team decided to save the Coffee Delight Cookies by Myron Boyajian of Homewood. Many of us were introduced to the concept of Rhode Island coffee milk earlier this year when Dunkin’ introduced its Dunkalatte, and we’re curious to see how those flavors will do in cookie form.
Tribune staffers will get busy baking these recipes this week, and our guest judges — Quinton McNair of StruggleBeardBakery, Dina Cimarusti of Sugar Moon and Emily Nejad of Bon Vivant — will sample them all on Wednesday.
We’ll reveal the winners in print, online and in person at the Christkindlmarket’s Daley Plaza location on Dec. 4.
But in the meantime, preheat your oven and try out some of this year’s recipes yourself! Or grab a copy of our cookbook, “Holiday Cookies, 2nd Edition,” to check out nearly four decades of winning reader submissions. Get it at chicagotribune.com/holidaycookies.
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