How To Make A Cookie Box
We are in the final full week before Christmas and I, for one, am confused about how quickly we got here. Andrew and I have had remarkably few events to attend, have been able to enjoy the holiday season at a sustainable pace, and have been home for our Advent practice nearly every evening, which I think is some kind of new record. I’ve enjoyed this, but also find it a little bewildering, because my body feels out of alignment with the usual Christmas season: aren’t we supposed to bustle? In short, I’m surprised Christmas is in a paltry nine days, and yet am already looking forward to one baking day I have planned with a couple of my sisters, watching The Holiday which I’ve been saving all season, and then baking again with Andrew’s mom and sister. And of course in advance of all this baking…I’m baking!
Well, you know how it goes. I want to have something to hand around when people drop by, or to give as gifts, or to bring into our respective offices. And I never quite feel like we’ve had Christmas until there are several different kinds of cookies locked away in tins, or lounging just there on a plate, so close to the French press they become part of breakfast. You can’t just make one type of cookie at Christmas - maybe, if you’re someone who is unaccustomed to celebrating this holiday, you wouldn’t know. But it’s true. Christmas is a time for maximalism in the category of cookies (or “biscuits” as the British have it).
Some people have their never-been-altered list of holiday recipes that must be baked annually. I respect it. I love a good tradition as much as the next girl. But actually, I’m a little less prescriptive, because the world of cookies is so vast that I’m chronically interested in Trying Something New. Each year I make two rolled cookies, and two only: classic holiday sugar cookies (not too soft, not too thin, soft icing - not royal), and spicy gingerbread cut-outs (not too crispy, minimal decoration with piped royal icing, sometimes a cinnamon red-hot as buttons). As to the rest of it, I pick and choose what I like from any of four categories:
Very Dunkable
Slice & Bake
Sandwich Cookies or Bars
Other
At Christmas I lean heavily on the Very Dunkable and the Slice & Bake categories which are both filled with things like biscotti, speculaas wafers, and many renditions of shortbread which are all exactly what I cast about for when I want a cup of tea. Not only this, but they keep well for quite a while, solving the problem of how to bake early, but not be serving stale cookies. Two that I love (and are definite repeat bakes) are Alison Roman’s salty chocolate chunk shortbread, and Yottam Ottolenghi’s almond, pistachio, and sour cherry wafers. I’ve got a roll of the shortbread dough in my fridge currently.
Sandwich Cookies is probably my scantest category, as I sort of hate that you go through all the trouble of punching out so many cookies and then end up with half as many as you thought because they’re stacked double. I am, however, feral for a Linzer cookie, so I do usually make one attempt. Bars is where I really lean an elbow, because ever since making stollen bars from Molly Yeh I’ve felt them a necessary bake. I haven’t made any this year, and am not sure I’ve got the correct dried fruit, but I do have marzipan, so I might end up shrugging it off and making her sprinkle-bedazzled marzipan mandel bread instead (another chronic favorite). Plus, who doesn’t love a classic brownie (punch them into festive shapes), or a glitzy millionaire bar?
And then, of course, we get into the miscellaneous Other category which holds a multitude more cookies. In my house the classics (oatmeal raisin, brown butter chocolate chunk) stand aside in favor of chewy, molasses cookies studded with crystallized ginger (linked to a similar recipe), moreish rugelach with its tangy dough, no-bake cookies, and a host of non-cookie items like fudge, peppermint bark, or amaretto chocolate truffles.
As you can see, there will never be time enough to bake everything every year. It’s nice to have lots of options, though, and doesn’t prevent me from finding even more options as time goes by.
A couple of tips: if you’re giving cookie boxes as presents, I find having a selection from each category tends to make a well-balanced mix. Avoid doubling up flavors if you can (ex. a chocolate chip shortbread and a chocolate chip cookie), and also give some thought to sweetness levels of each cookie. I like to pair a couple more restrained options with something like a millionaire bar, or an elaborately frosted sugar cookie, for example. If you need pretty tins for your cookies, swing by a thrift shop before heading to the Dollar Store - I have found a great many vintage Christmas cookie tins for .99 at these shops, and they’re much prettier than anything you can find for a similar price at the store, new. And lastly, if you’re planning to bake more than a couple types of cookies to include in a cookie box, I prefer making all the types of dough one day, and baking/decorating the next day, or across the next few days. Doing it piecemeal like this will help keep you from feeling as overwhelmed!
I’ve linked to quite a few recipes in the post above, so if you are looking for any new recipes, these options could perhaps help you start. And as ever, if you’re not a baker of any sort - not even the Once On A Holiday type - I hope you’re given a really nice box of cookies as a gift this Christmas. You deserve some of the Christmas cookie joy too.
Love,
Rachel