This Is How Your Favorite Food Network Stars Bake Christmas Cookies

Christmas cookies are no easy feat — that's why you'll want to start with a trustworthy recipe. These are some of the top rated, most popular recipes from your favorite Food Network stars. Most of these are classic Christmas cookies, so you can guarantee they'll be crowd-pleasers.

According to Alton Brown, his sugar cookie recipe is the most versatile recipe on the planet. You can drop and bake them, roll them in a log and slice into icebox cookies, or roll into a thin sheet for festive cookie cutters. This is definitely my favorite recipe — I always use it as the base for my ugly Christmas sweater cookies.

Pumpkin pie spice and crushed candy canes are the two secret ingredients to transform any chocolate chip cookie recipe into a Christmassy cookie.

Your holiday cup of coffee deserves a little slice of holiday biscotti. Giada's is full of lemon zest, pistachios, and dried cranberries. She gives it a Christmas flair by dipping it in white chocolate and sprinkling the top with red and green sugar crystals.

What gives gingerbread its iconic flavor is fresh spices, brown sugar, and molasses. You'll want to top those cookies with a royal icing. Though the icing contains egg whites and fresh lemon juice, once the icing firms up atop the cookies, it's safe to store on the countertop in an airtight container.

Ina's thumbprint cookies have one little trick: roll the dough in coconut flakes to offer a contrasting crunch and beautiful toasted presentation.

Brandy, vanilla, and whole cloves make these buttery kourambiedes (aka Greek Christmas cookies) even more agonizingly tasty.

One way to forgo buying tons of spices is to simply buy one spice mix: garam masala. It's the key ingredient in Aarti's chocolatey gingerbread.