With the holiday season in full swing, I decided to figure out the best classic holiday cookie to bake. I would like to mention though, that I am no baking connoisseur. While I can certainly appreciate a tasty baked good and can bake without burning down my house, I am far from an expert. It is because of this that I wanted to find easy-to-bake recipes that still tasted good. With that in mind, I set on a mission to bake four types of cookies and rank them based on my experience baking them and their overall taste.

 After doing some research, I chose some of the easiest recipes with classic holiday ingredients. What I came up with were gingerbread cookies, oatmeal cinnamon cookies, peanut butter cookies, and pecan cookies. I made the cookies with the same ingredients to make sure it was the cookie that stood out and not the ingredients themselves. Here are my findings.

Peanut Butter Cookie

I chose the peanut butter cookie because it only included three ingredients, eggs, sugar, and peanut butter, and was able to be made in an air fryer. I figured these were common enough ingredients and that the recipe couldn’t be too complicated. The cookies were incredibly quick to prepare and make, and came out looking delicious. I was excited to try them, but I took one bite and was immediately flooded with the incredibly strong taste of straight-up peanut butter. I am not the biggest fan of peanut butter, but I felt like I was biting straight into a solid piece of it. The cookie was also crunchy and very crumbly, so for anyone who prefers soft and gooey cookies, this recipe is not for you. I would recommend this recipe for people who enjoy a thinner, crispier cookie and for those people who enjoy the taste of peanut butter, because the cookie tastes just like peanut butter in cookie form.

Overall Rating: 6/10

Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie

Oatmeal raisin cookies are a staple in the baking world and, in the holiday season, cinnamon is a necessity. The baking process was more complicated than with the peanut butter cookies since they had more ingredients and couldn’t just be popped into an air fryer. At the same time, the recipe was easy to follow. All I had to do was mix up the ingredients, roll the dough into balls, place them on a baking tray, and put them in the oven. When I took them out of the oven, I was met with a delicious smell and six large, round cookies. The flavor was very oaty with minimal cinnamon, so I think the cookie could be better by adding more cinnamon.

Overall Rating: 8/10

Gingerbread Cookie

Baking the gingerbread cookies was not difficult at all, except for the molasses. Molasses is a big part of making delicious gingerbread cookies, but it is very strong, so exact measurements are needed. Once the measurements were taken care of, the rest was smooth sailing. When the cookies came out of the oven, they were very soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. The taste was good too, as the ginger was not overpowering and the flavors balanced out to create a mouthwatering cookie. I recommend this cookie to anyone, but definitely to people who enjoy the nostalgia and flavor of good gingerbread.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Pecan Cookie

I had seen a video of a woman baking pecan pie cookies and they looked mouth-watering, so I was intent on making them. This recipe though was the most complex out of the four cookies to make, with two parts, which took twice the amount of time to make compared to the other three cookies.  First, I made the sugar cookie base and then mixed up a pecan filling in a saucepan. When I took a bite out of the cookie, I was met with the taste of baking powder. I took another bite, hoping I was just unlucky the first time, but no, the baking powder flavor was still overwhelming. Disappointed, I took a bite of the filling, hoping it would taste better. It was so good that I decided to give the cookie another chance. I scraped together all my leftover ingredients and began the process again, except this time with much less baking powder. When I tasted them again I was assured that my hard work had paid off, and the cookie tasted delicious. The cookie was soft and sweet, this time without the baking powder taste, and the filling had a gooey texture with a strong pecan flavor. I recommend this to anyone because while the recipe was slightly more difficult, the cookie was suitable for all different types of people.

Overall Rating: 10/10

The pecan cookie was my favorite, but the other cookies were good and had their unique characteristics that made them stand out. The holiday season is a time for spending time with family and friends, and baking these cookies is a perfect way to do that.