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  5. 20 Classic Cookie Recipes Just Like Your Grandmother Used to Bake

20 Classic Cookie Recipes Just Like Your Grandmother Used to Bake

Kaitlyn Yarborough, Assistant Editor and Writer for Southern Living
By Kaitlyn Yarborough Updated June 06, 2022
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Credit: Jennifer Causey

When it comes to baking, a Southern grandmother is the queen in a cloud of flour. Many of us can recall a childhood speckled with grandma's cookies of all kinds, from classic chocolate chip to royally iced sugar (and every recipe in between). We'll be darned if we ever tasted a cookie as good as one of hers, and we'd never admit it if we did. Because, no matter how masterful, they can never truly measure up to her magic. Southerners are a loyal bunch, and we'll be true on this until the end: "Ain't no cookie like my grandmother's cookie."

We've rounded up a collection of 20 classic Memaw-approved cookie recipes that'll give you a taste of nostalgia—and a hankering for a warm cookie. These are Grandma's specialty, after all, and they're worth keeping around for decades to come.

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Kitchen Sink Cookies

Kitchen Sink Cookies
Credit: Jennifer Causey

Recipe: Kitchen Sink Cookies

This recipe is a more exciting version of basic chocolate chip cookies. As the name suggests, you can just throw in everything but the kitchen sink. (May we suggest: oats, crushed corn chips, chocolate chunks, and almonds.)

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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Credit: Jennifer Causey

Recipe: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

As if warm chocolate chip cookies couldn't get any better, this recipe swoops in with a next-level ingredient: browned butter. It'll stand out in a bake sale full of chocolate chip-studded cookies. 

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Easy Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies
Credit: Carlina Teteris/Getty Images

Recipe: Easy Sugar Cookies

Because grandma knows how to create a little magic in the kitchen, and—for a kid—colorful cookies that you can frost yourself are just that. Make this recipe as your base, then decorate away for any occasion. 

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Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
Credit: Caitlin Bensel

Recipe: Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

We always had the honor of pressing the chocolate kisses into these bite-sized beauties while cooking at grandma's. 

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Cheesecake Cookies

Cheesecake Cookies
Credit: Caitlin Bensel

Recipe: Cheesecake Cookies

These maraschino cherry-topped cookies should look mighty familiar. This recipe is a longtime holiday crowd-pleaser. 

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Easiest Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
Credit: Southern Living

Recipe: Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies

Memaw's peanut butter cookies are legendary. Little did we know, you only need four ingredients to make a huge batch of perfection.

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Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies

Red-Velvet Cake Mix Cookies
Credit: Micah A. Leal

Recipe: Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies

This is grandma's version of making lemonade out of lemons—but the lemon is boxed cake mix, which isn't too bad to start. She knows just how to create chewy cookies from her emergency red velvet mix. 

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Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies

Her famous recipe won over the readers of Family Circle magazine back in 2000, and is still talked about—and baked—today.

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Pinwheel Cookies

Cherry Chocolates Recipe
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn

Recipe: Pinwheel Cookies 

This vintage recipe gives basic butter cookies a fun chocolatey twist. It makes a classic cookie festive for the holidays. 

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Barbara Bush's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Barbara Bush Chocolate Chip Cookies
Credit: Micah A. Leal

Recipe: Barbara Bush's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

What's special about these "famous" chocolate chip cookies? The secret lies in the recipe. A Texan at heart, Barbara knows to go big or go home. Any Southern grandma appreciates that cookie mentality. 

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Fudgy Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

Fudgy Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cookies Recipe
Credit: Victor Protasio; Prop Styling: Mary Clayton Carl; Food Styling: Emily Nabors Hall

Recipe: Fudgy Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

Because leaving out the flour only makes room for more chocolate. We can get on board. 

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Cream Cheese Christmas Cookie

Cream Cheese Christmas Cookie
Credit: Southern Living

Recipe: Cream Cheese Christmas Cookie

This recipe is an all-time Southern classic. Make them year-round by switching up the sprinkle colors.

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Seven-Layer Cookies

Seven-Layer Cookies
Credit: Southern Living

Recipe: Seven-Layer Cookies

This is the first-ever bar cookie recipe ever featured in Southern Living. A favorite of Southern cooks, it's easy to make and easy to take. 

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Toasted Oatmeal Cookies

Toasted Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
Credit: Hector Manuel Sanchez

Recipe: Toasted Oatmeal Cookies

Here's one of Grandma's ultimate cookie tricks: Toasting the oatmeal. It instantly makes classic oatmeal cookies so much better. 

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Old Fashioned Tea Cake

Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes
Credit: Micah Leal

Recipe: Old Fashioned Tea Cake

This recipe is one your grandmother may have pulled from her own childhood memories. A teacake—basically a crossover between a cookie and a biscuit—is a simple and inexpensive treat made of flour, sugar, butter, and the main ingredient: buttermilk. Flavor yours with lemon, cinnamon, or vanilla. 

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Grandma's Chocolate Drop Cookies

Grandma's Chocolate Drop Cookies
Credit: Katie Strasberg Rousso

Recipe: Grandma's Chocolate Drop Cookies

Chocolate lover's, this one is for you. No matter your skills in the kitchen, we feel confident that you can whip up this classic chocolate cookie straight from your grandma's recipe box. Feel free to put your own twist on the chocolate base by adding nuts or mint chips—you never know, you may perfect your own recipe to pass down to future generations. 

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Cherry Winks

Cherry Winks
Credit: Joy Howard

Recipe: Cherry Winks

This recipe became a nationwide sensation in the 1950s, and what better time to time to bring it back?! It's made with a deliciously crispy exterior of cornflakes and a perfectly sweet interior thank to maraschino cherries—a forever childhood favorite. 

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Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

brown butter snickerdoodles
Credit: Photographer: Isaac Nunn, Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless, Food Stylist: Ruth Blackburn

Recipe: Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

Sugar cookies, step aside. These cinnamon sugar treats with a secret ingredient (spoiler: brown-butter!) hit the spot every time. 

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Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

Lemon Thumbprint Cookies
Credit: Southern Living

Recipe: Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

A favorite at Christmas time, thumbprint cookies bring on all the nostalgia of baking parties and holiday cookie swaps. Even today, this is not surprising because what's not to love about a bite-size dollop that's buttery and sweet?! 

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Salted Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Salted Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Credit: Antonis Achilleos; Prop Styling: Kay E. Clarke; Food Styling: Emily Nabors Hall

Recipe: Salted Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread cookies were a staple at Grandma's house, and for good reason. As a Southerner, it's our duty to pass this nostalgic treat of butter, salt, and pecans, onto the next generation. 

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    1 of 20 Kitchen Sink Cookies
    2 of 20 Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
    3 of 20 Easy Sugar Cookies
    4 of 20 Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
    5 of 20 Cheesecake Cookies
    6 of 20 Easiest Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
    7 of 20 Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies
    8 of 20 Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies
    9 of 20 Pinwheel Cookies
    10 of 20 Barbara Bush's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies
    11 of 20 Fudgy Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cookies
    12 of 20 Cream Cheese Christmas Cookie
    13 of 20 Seven-Layer Cookies
    14 of 20 Toasted Oatmeal Cookies
    15 of 20 Old Fashioned Tea Cake
    16 of 20 Grandma's Chocolate Drop Cookies
    17 of 20 Cherry Winks
    18 of 20 Brown Butter Snickerdoodles
    19 of 20 Lemon Thumbprint Cookies
    20 of 20 Salted Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

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