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These slice and bake icebox cookies couldn’t be easier to make. The cookie dough base is similar to shortbread—sweet, buttery and tender. But toss in a few flavorful mix-ins and you create a totally different cookie. One base, infinite flavor combinations! I have four unique flavor combinations, but try a few then make your own custom cookie.
Icebox cookies get their name from the dough being stored in the “icebox,” then sliced and baked whenever needed. This chilling step—which is so often an annoying step in cookie baking—is what makes these cookies so convenient for the holidays.
What You Need
The base of the cookie is simple—butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, salt and flour. Baked as-is, without any mix-ins, the cookies will be similar to a shortbread. For fun flavors and pops of colors, I’m sharing 4 specific flavor combinations.
Mix-Ins
Here’s a rundown of the flavor combinations I’ve developed.
- Mint chip: creme de menthe liqueur, mint extract and dark chocolate.
- Raspberry: freeze dried raspberries, white chocolate and pistachios.
- Dark chocolate orange: dark chocolate, sliced candied oranges.
- Key lime pie: graham crackers, lime zest and white chocolate.
Other Mix-In Ideas:
- Sprinkles
- Toffee bits and espresso powder
- Lemon zest
- Hazelnuts and cocoa powder
- Nuts
The rule of thumb for these icebox cookies: if making your own custom cookie, add 5–6 ounces of mix-ins for a full batch of dough.
Tips From Recipe Testing
The dough logs need to chill for a few hours, but when placed on the shelf in the fridge, it forms a flat side. To mitigate this, I’ve found placing the logs on a rice-filled baking sheet keeps the logs perfectly round. You can also try to do this with some kitchen towels loosely gathered on the baking sheet. Once firm, pour the rice back into its container and store the dough logs in a zipper-lock bag in the fridge or freezer.
Make sure you chop the mix-ins pretty fine. The bigger the chunks the more likely your dough will crack when slicing.
If you don’t want to use creme de menthe for the mint chip cookies, you can skip it and increase the mint extract to ½ teaspoon. Skip the added flour and add a few drops of green food coloring if you still want them to be green.
Slicing the Dough
With the mix-ins, the dough can be pretty chunky. For the best results when slicing, use a sharp chefs knife and cut down quickly. The quicker you slice, the less the dough will tear and change in shape. Avoid sawing back and forth.
Freezing the Dough
Freeze as logs: once the dough has chilled in the fridge, transfer them to a zipper-lock bag and store in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Freeze as slices: once the dough has chilled in the fridge, slice, then layer between pieces of parchment in a zipper-lock bag or airtight container. Frozen as slices, they will last up to a month.
Icebox Cookies Recipe
Description
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Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) room temperature unsalted butter
- ½ cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon (5g) kosher salt
- 2¼ cups (282g) all-purpose flour
- 5–6 ounces mix-ins of choosing* see notes
Instructions
- In bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth, 30 seconds. Scrape down sides, add sugars and beat on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add egg, vanilla and salt; beat to combine.
- Scrape down sides of bowl, then add flour and mix on low until no pockets of dry flour remain.
- Add desired mix-ins (*see notes) and mix just to combine.
- Divide dough into two even halves, roll each into a 12-inch log on large pieces of plastic wrap. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until firm, 2–4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF (176ºC) with rack set in middle position.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Slice dough logs into ½-inch thick slices; arrange 12 slices on prepared baking sheets, about 1½ inches apart.
- Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, until cookies just start to turn golden around the edges, 12-15 minutes. (Refrigerate the second baking sheet with cookie dough while the first is baking.)
- Let cookies cool on sheet 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 1 week or store in the freezer for up to 1 month. Note: if you're making different flavors, store them separately from each other. If stored together, they will absorb flavors from one another.)
Notes
Below are the four flavor variations with amounts for full batches. White Chocolate Raspberry & Pistachio – total 176 grams for full batch
- 1 cup freeze dried raspberries, blended in a mini food processor into a powder, then sifted through a fine mesh sieve to get 2 rounded tablespoons (16g) of powder.
- ¾ cup (120g) white chocolate bar, cut into small chunks
- ½ cup (40g) chopped unsalted and toasted shelled pistachios
- ⅔ cup (80g) sliced candied oranges, finely chopped
- ⅔ cup (80g) 70% dark chocolate bar, finely chopped
- 4 teaspoons (20g) grated fresh orange zest
- 1 cup (140g) 70% dark chocolate bar, finely chopped
- ¼ cup creme de menthe
- ¼ cup (36g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon spearmint mint extract
- 1 cup (60g) chopped graham crackers
- 2 tablespoons (12g) grated fresh lime zest (zest of 4 limes)
- ½ cup (80g) white chocolate bar, cut into small chunks
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
I can’t wait to try this recipe. I haven’t yet, so I won’t leave it a review. If I wanted to make all four cookie types, I’m wondering if I could squeeze it into one batch of cookies, or maybe 1.5x the recipe. I don’t want to end up with a lot of cookies, and I’m not great with keeping dough in my freezer.
Yes, absolutely! I have tons of testing notes for making all four flavors in one batch. Hopefully you have a food scale—this will make it much easier to divide the dough equally into quarters. Here are the amounts of mix-ins for making all four flavors in one batch:
White Chocolate, Rasp & Pistachio:
1/4 cup freeze dried raspberries, blended and sifted to get 1 rounded tablespoon (4g)
3 tablespoons (30g) chopped white chocolate
1 tablespoon (10g) chopped toasted pistachios
Dark Chocolate Orange:
1 teaspoon (5g) grated fresh orange zest
2 1/2 tablespoons (20g) finely diced candied orange
2 1/2 tablespoons (20g) chopped dark chocolate
Mint Chip:
1 tablespoon creme de menthe
1/4 cup (35g) chopped dark chocolate
1 tablespoon (9g) flour
1/8 tsp spearmint extract
Key Lime Pie:
1 1/2 teaspoons (3g) grated fresh lime zest (zest of 1 lime)
scant 1/4 cup (15g) finely chopped graham cracker
2 tablespoons (20g) chopped white chocolate
pinch salt
I hope you enjoy these!
how to make these cookies eggless?
Hi Upasana, great question. I have not tested this recipe without egg but will add it to my testing schedule. My initial thought is to use a flax egg or egg replacer such as Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Egg Replacer. I’ll come back and leave another comment once I have tested this cookie recipe without eggs.
hi!
so in your video on IG you added two eggs, but the posted recipe here says one egg.
Was the recipe in the video double the one posted here?
I cannot wait to try it! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Dina
Hi Dina! Great question! Yes, in the video I made a double batch so I could easily make all four flavors. This dough doubles so well! Let me know if you have any other questions, I can’t wait to hear what you think of them!