It’s time to put on your apron and preheat your oven; the 39th edition of the Tribune’s annual Holiday Cookie Contest is here.
From simple but beautifully iced sugar cookies to kitchen sink creations with all your favorite goodies, we can’t wait to see what creative treats you come up with. Besides bragging rights, a sweet cash prize awaits our three winning recipes.
Three guest judges will help select this year’s winning bakers. Justin Lerias of Del Sur, Reema Patel of Sarima Cafe and Asa Balanoff Naiditch of Blame Butter will decide our winning cookies based on flavor, texture, appearance and originality.
“I would love to see heirloom recipes, ones that are personally meaningful,” Lerias said. “When I eat a cookie, I’m always looking for contrast, both in texture and flavor. A cookie should have a balance of crunch and chew, and the flavors should be layered and dynamic.”
His big tip for bakers? Don’t skimp on salt.
“It enhances the sweetness and brings out the deeper flavors in the cookie,” he said.
For Patel, who started off as an amateur baker, cookies are a quintessential comfort dessert. She said “there’s no one right way to do them” and encouraged bakers to play with flavor combinations.
“Try something new, make a fun base, throw in unique mix-ins and draw inspiration from other dishes you enjoy,” she said. “There’s something special about eating a cookie that tastes like something new and yet feels familiar because it’s in cookie form.”
Balanoff Naiditch also hopes this year’s recipes hold a deeper meaning for their bakers.
“The best cookies carry memory in their crumb,” she said. “Nostalgia laced with surprise, texture that cracks at the edges and yields at the center, and above all, a point of view that makes it unforgettable.”
Last year, 35 bakers submitted recipes for everything from kolaches to macarons to biscotti, and readers cast over 2,700 votes to determine our finalists. Our 2024 judges — Quinton McNair of StruggleBeardBakery, Dina Cimarusti of Sugar Moon and Emily Nejad of Bon Vivant — crowned Jeanne White’s Oh Gee! Cookies as the ultimate sweet treat. Erin Claussen won second place with Erin’s Thumbprints, while Jesse Kimball came in third place with a Bear Claw Snickerdoodles recipe.
How to enter
To enter this year’s cookie contest, submit your recipe — including a 200-word description of why it’s special — and a photo of the cookies below. If the submission box does not load, go to chicagotribune.secondstreetapp.com/Holiday-Cookie-Contest-2025.
Make sure to carefully describe how to make your cookies in a clear and detailed manner. Recipes must be your own — entries that are copies of another person’s published work will be disqualified.
Deadline
Recipe submissions close Oct. 14 at 11:59 p.m. Voting begins Oct. 15, and readers can vote daily for the recipes they want to advance to the taste-testing round. After voting ends on Oct. 24 at 11:59 p.m., the 12 recipes with the most votes will be baked by Tribune staffers and judged. The food team has the option to turn it into a baker’s dozen of finalists if we find that one recipe should be included as our “Joe Gray Save,” named after a former dining editor.
Prizes
First place wins $250 cash; second place, $150; third place, $50. We’ll announce the winners online and in print Dec. 3.
Get the cookbook
If you’re interested in winning recipes from previous years, “Holiday Cookies, Second Edition” includes dessert recipes from reader submissions to the Tribune’s cookie contest over the years, including 28 recipes from 2014 through 2022. Get it at chicagotribune.com/holidaycookies.
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