Fun and Festive Easter Cookies

Every good Easter spread needs to end on a sweet note, and these healthy cookies will do just the trick. From decadent lemon bars to cream cheese meltaways, there's a guaranteed treat for everyone.

These festive cookies are loosely based on the Greek Easter specialty koulourakia. Use egg-shaped cookie cutters to create these Easter "eggs," then enlist the kids to help with decorating.

Based on the classic whoopie pie, these soft sandwich cookies provide all the pleasures of traditional carrot cake in a fun-to-eat package, including the thick, tangy cream cheese frosting—especially the cream cheese frosting.

These lemon bars are straight-up puckery perfection. We mix the filling together just before the crust comes out of the oven and then pour it onto the hot crust so that it sets quickly.

Drizzled chocolate adds a sweet layer to these rich confections. To ensure that egg white peaks form, use a clean, dry bowl and beaters.

Add some color to your dessert tray with these jam-filled thumbprints. We recommend filling with homemade Raspberry Refrigerator Jam, but in a pinch your favorite store-bought variety will work just fine.

With their combo of shortbread-like crust, creamy cheesecake, and fresh cherry goodness, these bars will make you the hit of the Easter picnic.

Unsweetened chocolate and instant espresso powder give depth of flavor to these sophisticated cookies. A dredge in powdered sugar before baking ensures sweetness, and also gives them a unique cracked surface and snow-covered look.

Ground ginger and grated lemon zest lend a subtle spice to a humble base of cornmeal and all-purpose flour. These light and unpretentious cookies make a guilt-free indulgence, with just 55 calories apiece.

Rolling the cookies in powdered sugar while they're still warm results in a deliciously sweet coating.

Lemon squares are a tried and true dessert classic, but you know we've got to mix it up. Try these decidedly different sweet treats and you won't look back.

By using vanilla bean and extract, you’ll get double the vanilla flavor in these meringue cookies.

These cute little cookies will be a hit at your Easter celebration. Wrap them up in a sweet little box as a gift or arrange them on a platter for a light dessert treat.

These elegant cookies―as delicious as they are stunning―are perfect for gifts, cookie swaps, and holiday spreads. Sure, they’re not nutritional knockouts (straining the jam removes all the seeds, which are a source of fiber), but they’re not serious offenders either. Smooth raspberry jam adds delicious flavor, with fewer calories than the buttery icing or chocolate glaze you might find on other cookies. Each windowpane contains about 80 calories.

Simple homemade dough provides the ideal base for a cookie made with naturally sweet ingredients. 

These delicately spiced shape-and-bake cookies are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. Store extra cookies in an airtight container.

If you're not a fan of raspberry jam, try substituting your favorite preserves.

We love these thick, satisfying cookies—complete with the criss-cross markings of a fork before going into the oven. Dried cranberries provide a slightly tart counterpoint to the macadamia nuts' richness. Swap in dried cherries, strawberries, or blueberries for the cranberries to suit your taste.

These bar cookies strike a nice flavor balance: not too sweet and not too tart. Be sure to zest the orange before you squeeze the juice.

Blondies are simply brownies without the chocolate. A light-colored metal pan is your best bet for even baking and cakey, moist blondies.

Add sweetness and flavor to these chocolate chip cookies with mashed ripe bananas.

This dough will work for slice-and-bake cookies or as a rolled dough for your favorite cookie cutters. 

Butter moves from nutty and brown to bitter and burned quickly, so be sure to take the pan off the heat once it turns amber-brown. To keep cookies from spreading, make sure the cookie sheet is completely cool before starting the next batch.

Guests will swoon when you send them home with these pretty treats. The strawberry version is sweet and rosy pink; the raspberry version, deeper mauve and tart.

These low-fat oatmeal cookies will make you feel as if you're on a Caribbean beach. The combination of coconut, rum, and banana give this cookie a flavor that seems too good to be true. (It's not.)

Almond Lace pairs deliciously with an afternoon cup of tea. These crisp, crunchy cookies will leave you pining for more.

A mere one-quarter cup of butter yields crispy, light cookies and keeps calories in check. Dried strawberries lend fiber, color, and subtle sweetness. You can find them in larger supermarkets, or substitute raisins or dried cranberries. Because the dough is heavy, we used a sturdy stand mixer. You can use a hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar, then stir in the remaining ingredients by hand.

Think of these as a variation of thumbprint cookies. Vanilla butter cookies are filled with fruit preserves and drizzled with a powdered sugar glaze.

Channel warmer weather with these cheesecake bars that feature fresh, in-season pineapple. This recipe uses a small amount of coconut flour, which is slightly sweet, high in fiber (3 grams per tablespoon), and gluten-free. 

When shaping these buttery cookies, do not try to form perfectly smooth balls. If the dough is handled too much, the cookies will become heavy and dense.

Easier than cheesecake (and lighter, too), these bar cookies make a 111-calorie treat that's easy and fun to make. Baking with kids? Let older ones swirl the batter, raspberries, and cream cheese with a chopstick (instead of a knife, as the recipe suggests).