15 Easter Cookie Recipes That Celebrate the Arrival of Spring

As fun to make as they are delicious, rabbit and carrot-shaped sugar cookies are frosted with royal icing and painted with a bright mixture of luster dust and water.  Make it a family activity—like dying Easter eggs—by letting your kids help decorate. 

Lemon shortbread cookies become adorable chicks and eggs with the help of sanding sugar, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, and candy.

Take classic sugar cookies to special-occasion status with a simple glaze and stunning combination of candied flowers, crystallized ginger, and chopped pistachios. 

Use pink food coloring and kitchen shears to give sugar cookies blush-hued "petals" and finish with round candies for the centers.

Impress guests of all ages with these bite-size rabbit-shaped cookies. No special tools needed—just kitchen shears and a toothpick for a quick snip and poke.

These gorgeously-hued treats are almond shortbread cookies finished with tinted powdered sugar. It's made by blending equal parts fruit with confectioners sugar in a food processor. 

The flavors of classic carrot cake are combined into a convenient handheld package. Use cream cheese or go with goat cheese for a touch of sophistication in the thumbprint center.

These tangy delights have a citrus aroma that will pleasantly fill your kitchen. Serve them as a light dessert with fresh fruit or on their own at teatime. 

Egg-shaped sugar cookies get a vibrant coat of color when they're brushed with a highly pigmented yolk wash.

Mary had a little lamb whose icing was as white as snow (or pink, if you prefer) and glittery, too, thanks to a sprinkling of sanding sugar.

Bring the Easter Bunny to the table with these rabbit-shaped sweets. Everyone will love the classic cookie, and you'll love the simple recipe.

Crystallized ginger gives a sweet heat to these lemon sugar cookies while fresh mint imparts a cool zing.

Spring plants don't grow any sweeter than these flower-and-mushroom-shaped sugar cookies that are baked atop wooden skewers. Plant them in an Easter basket or in a tabletop bed of wheatgrass. 

Tart lemon cookies make an easy and satisfying treat, and they're easy to fit into your Easter preparations. You can make the dough and store it in the freezer up to a month ahead of time.

Rich ganache is piped over thin chocolate cookies and sprinkled with coconut to mimic the appearance of bird's nests. Top with two or three miniature chocolate eggs to complete the illusion.