Every December our kitchen turns into a cookie factory. Flour on the floor, jam on the table, three trays cooling at once and someone always eating the broken ones — which, in our house, is the whole point.
The best-known Polish cookies are kolaczki (cream cheese cookies folded around jam), pierniczki (spiced honey gingerbread), faworki or chruściki (crisp fried angel wings), kokosanki (coconut macaroons), and bezy (meringues). Polish cookies are noticeably less sweet than American ones — they lean on butter, jam, poppy seeds, honey and spice rather than sugar and frosting.
These sixteen are the ones we actually bake, and I’ve noted the small details that matter — which doughs need resting, which cookies soften as they sit, and which ones you can make weeks ahead. Most of them keep beautifully in a tin.
Building a Christmas tray? Bake kolaczki and pierniczki staropolskie first — the gingerbread needs weeks to soften, and the kolaczki will disappear the day you make them.
The Christmas Cookie Tray
These six appear on our tray every single year, without exception. If you want the full holiday spread, see our Polish Christmas desserts too.
1. Kolaczki (Cream Cheese Cookies)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 7 reviews
Rich cream cheese dough folded around fruit jam and dusted with powdered sugar. They always disappear first from our tray, every year, without fail.
2. Pierniczki Staropolskie (Old-Style Gingerbread)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Toruń-style gingerbread made from aged dough. We bake them weeks before Christmas so they soften up properly, and decorating them is honestly half the fun.
3. Soft Pierniczki (Gingerbread Cookies)
The quicker gingerbread — soft the day you bake them, no month-long dough rest required. This is the version we make with the children.
4. Rogaliki (Jam Crescent Cookies)
Flaky little crescents wrapped around jam, rugelach’s Polish cousins. I dust them with powdered sugar while they’re still slightly warm.
5. Ciasteczka z Marmoladą (Thumbprint Cookies)
Buttery rounds with a jam-filled dimple, the first cookie most Polish children ever help make. Use a thick jam or it runs in the oven.
6. Polish Marzipan Cookies
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Almond-rich and chewy, a little fancier than the rest of the tray. They look like something from a Kraków bakery window and take twenty minutes.
Everyday Butter Cookies
The cookies that live in the tin year-round, made from whatever’s in the pantry. Simple, buttery, and gone within days.
7. Ciasteczka Maślane (Butter Cookies with Jam)
Melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies with sweet jam centres, from four pantry ingredients. They vanish from our tray before anything else does.
8. Maszynkowe (Polish Spritz Cookies)
Pressed through an old-fashioned cookie press into ridged shapes — my grandmother’s press is still the one we use. Buttery, crisp and endlessly nostalgic.
9. Baletki (Poppy Seed Cookies with Jam)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Delicate poppy seed cookies sandwiched with jam. Crunchy, airy and old-fashioned — they remind me of Babcia’s tin on the top shelf.
10. Amoniaczki (Ammonia Cookies)
Old-school cookies made light and shatteringly crisp with baker’s ammonia. Don’t worry about the smell — it bakes off entirely, and that crunch is like nothing else.
Light, Crisp & Fried
Poland’s airiest sweets: fried, whipped or barely held together. All three are naturally light and none of them are overly sweet.
11. Faworki (Angel Wings)
Delicate fried ribbons that shatter with every bite. My babcia made a huge batch before Lent each year and they were gone within hours.
12. Bezy (Polish Meringues)
Light-as-air meringues that melt on the tongue. I make them with leftover egg whites after a batch of pierogi dough, and they never survive the afternoon.
13. Kokosanki (Coconut Cookies)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Chewy coconut clouds from just egg whites, sugar and coconut. Three ingredients, and everyone still assumes you fussed over them.
No-Bake Polish Treats
Not strictly cookies, but they sit on the same tray in every Polish home — and they need no oven at all.
14. Szyszki (Caramel Puff Rice Pinecones)
Sticky caramel puff rice shaped into little pinecones. The treat every Polish child makes at least once, and it’s still oddly satisfying to shape them.
15. Andruty (Wafer Bars)
Layered wafer sheets with a sweet creamy filling, sliced into bars. Crunchy, light and pure childhood — they keep for days in theory only.
16. Homemade Marzipan
Real almond marzipan, worlds away from the shop-bought block. We make it for Christmas baking and end up eating half of it straight.
More Polish Baking to Try
If your tin is full and you’re still baking, these are the next ones:
- Szarlotka (Polish Apple Pie)
- Sernik (Polish Cheesecake)
- Makowiec (Poppy Seed Roll)
- Piernik (Honey Gingerbread Cake)
- Mazurek (Easter Caramel Cake)
- Keks (Christmas Fruit Cake)
- Krówki (Cream Fudge)
- Blok Czekoladowy (Chocolate Block)
Polish Cookies FAQ
What are traditional Polish cookies called?
The best-known are kolaczki (cream cheese jam cookies), pierniczki (spiced gingerbread), faworki or chruściki (fried angel wings), kokosanki (coconut macaroons), bezy (meringues) and rogaliki (jam crescents). The general Polish word for cookies is ciastka or ciasteczka.
What cookies do Poles bake at Christmas?
Pierniczki gingerbread and kolaczki are the two essentials on almost every Polish Christmas tray, joined by rogaliki, thumbprint cookies, marzipan cookies and often a batch of faworki. Gingerbread is baked weeks ahead so the dough can mellow and the cookies soften.
What is the difference between kolaczki and kiffles?
They’re close cousins. Both use a cream cheese or sour cream pastry folded around fruit filling. Kolaczki is the Polish name and the cookies are usually squares folded into a bow shape or rounds with a jam well; kiffles is the Hungarian-American term and they’re normally rolled into crescents.
Are Polish cookies very sweet?
No — that’s what most people notice first. Polish baking relies on butter, jam, poppy seeds, honey and spice rather than heavy sugar or frosting, so the cookies taste rich but not cloying. Powdered sugar dusted on top is usually the only sweet finish.
How long do Polish cookies keep?
Butter cookies, spritz, baletki and amoniaczki keep two to three weeks in an airtight tin. Pierniczki actually improve for a month or more as they soften. Faworki and bezy are best within two or three days, and kolaczki are at their peak the day they’re baked.
Which one is going on your tray first? Tell me in the comments — and if you want the full sweet picture, our 40 best Polish desserts has every cake and pastry, and traditional Polish food covers everything savoury. Smacznego!
