Dozens of recipes from the 35-year history of our holiday cookie contest

The Dayton Daily News Holiday Cookie Contest has been a tradition for many years.

It began in 1990, which means it has been running (on and off) for about 35 years as of 2025.

We thought it would be fun to share some details about that first contest in 1990 and a whole bunch of the winning recipes we have enjoyed over recent years.

Our first contest

Ann Heller, a former Dayton Daily News food editor and restaurant reviewer, started the Holiday Cookie Contest in 1990.

That year there were nearly 400 entries!

Of all those entries, one stood out. Anne Kapelovic, a 75-year-old Centerville grandmother, was the winner of our first cookie contest.

Heller wrote that picking a winner was a sweet job for the staff, but the favorite was clear. It was the Ischel cookie recipe sent in by Kapelovic, who says she got the recipe from an old Hungarian cookbook.

The winning cookie was a sandwich cookie, filled with raspberry jam, coated in sweet chocolate and topped with an almond.

She had been making that cookie since she was a young mother trying to raise her two girls.

“Every Christmas I would bake these cookies and sell them, so I’d have a nice tree and presents for the kids. I worked weddings, anything to make extra money,” Kapelovic said.

As the grand prize winner, she received “a basket of premium baking ingredients,” which included whole almonds, walnut and pecan halves from Dayton Nut Specialties, a giant bar of Lindt dark Swiss chocolate, white chocolate bars, a pretty, reusable tin filled with Droste’s Dutch cocoa, two supersized bags of imported Guittard chocolate chips, whole sticks of cinnamon and premium Cook’s Cookie Vanilla.

Kapelovic had never shared her recipes before, but said at the time, “now that I’m 75 I want others to enjoy them.”

Here’s the recipe for her Ischel cookies and five others that were runners-up in that first contest.

More winning contest recipes from the last decade

2025 - More recipes from the 2025 Dayton Daily News Holiday Cookie Contest, including those voted as best

Credit: Bryant Billing

2024 - Meet our Holiday Cookie Contest winners: Local bakers submitted nearly 30 recipes

Credit: Natalie Jones

2023 - Top 10 recipes from the Holiday Cookie Contest

2020-2022 - Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the newspaper did not hold a holiday cookie contest in 2020. And, for a couple of years after, the format was adjusted to have staff bake the submitted recipes for safety.

2019- Chewy, fruity, nutty cookie takes first in Holiday Cookie Contest