For as long as I can remember, the holidays meant cookies - lots and lots of cookies. When I was younger, my mother and I baked for what seemed like weeks. We gave away our creations to family and friends or traded them at cookie swaps.

Every year, we would make seven or eight kinds of cookies, taking great care to achieve a variety of flavors and shapes. We rarely repeated ourselves from year to year, with the possible exception of a version of these mint chocolate brownies and gingerbread cut-outs. 

I’m happy to say that my children and I have carried on the tradition of baking – and eating- holiday cookies together. There’s no shortage of ideas about which cookies to bake in my household. No matter what we make, we always keep some for ourselves to pair with a glass of Hood Milk.

Here’s one of my new favorites for the holidays. This is a no-bake recipe that I created, and you could say it’s on the healthier side!  Date Nut Bites are easy to make and even the younger kids in the family can help shape the dough into cookies.  Enjoy!  

Date Nut Bites

Makes 26

2 cups dry roasted peanuts or roasted almonds

24 whole, pitted dates, roughly chopped

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place peanuts in food processor. Process until crumbly. Remove peanuts from food processor and place in a small bowl. Add dates to food processor and process until they become sticky.  Add back the peanuts and add cocoa powder, peanut butter and vanilla to food processor.  Pulse until all the ingredients are mixed together, scraping down bowl to combine well.  The dough should be sticky enough to form into balls. Form into 26 equal-size balls. Store in an air-tight container.  Refrigerate or freeze.  

Here’s are cookies we can’t resist making this year:

Linzer Cookies

Coconut Macaroons

Swedish Christmas Cookies