Okay, we just love cookies at Christmastime and by “we” I mean the collective populace of homemakers. Christmas is so much hustle and bustle which is PART OF WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT and I want to make a lot of cookies, more than someone could in just one day. Yet, I love the concept of the “Cookie Day” and when it all converges at one time in a day of grandeur. But, if you want to make huge quantities of six or seven types of cookies (and treats), that kind of makes it too much of a grind if you’re solo, or solo and involving children.
The other thing in addition to solving cookie day scheduling is I like making cookies here and there throughout the month of December too. This post is about my solution and methods – which I really like how it works out for several reasons. It still accomplishes what I like about each scenario.
And, the list of my cookie boxes bake list for this year.
First, the 2022 bake list:
- salted chocolate chunk shortbread by alison roman: “the cookie,” just performing a browser search you have to get behind the new york times paywall to see the recipe, but for some reason, at least at the time of writing, when you search it on pinterest you can see the recipe in full for freesies
- gingerbread men: I like my cookies sweet and very soft and that is rare in gingerbread so I wrote my own
- coconut chocolate truffles by sally mckenney
- matzo caramel bark by zoë francois
- rum butter glaze by helen goh over snickerdoodles with holly berry sprinkles
- peanut butter pecan cookie sandwiches
So, freezing doughs. I make a dough on different days in december in advance of cookie day. I do a single type of dough in about a quadruple batch. It is a fun night, it could be the thing in the advent calendar for the day. The night we make that certain cookie, we pull out a small amount to make a single sheet pan of usually nine to twelve cookies that are for us to have right then. Which is lovely to still have the satisfaction of eating cookies and not just mere prep. Then, I freeze the rest of the dough and bring it out on COOKIE DAY.
The other great thing is if you’re trying a new recipe, or, I feel like every time with baking, especially cookies, you’re feeling out how they’re turning out with that batch. It’s also like a test batch so when you do the big batch for other people it helps them go well with things like deciding how thick you want to roll out the dough and how they’re baking up.
FREEZING METHODS
I do this for three or four cookies whose methods or doughs are most conducive to freezing well. I think the best method for freezing quality is wrapping your big ball of dough (not rolling individuals) in plastic wrap. Then wrap the plastic wrap in parchment paper. Then put that inside a gallon freezer bag.
You bring your doughs out the night before cookie day and they will be thaw by morning. It’s really nice to on cookie day straight away have some that can go in the oven to keep the oven workflow active and moving while you’re preparing others. And so, I love it! You have some cookies through the whole month and your cookie day runs well and is fun. It is also conducive to the COOKIE BOXES you give to loved ones having the greatest mix of items and not just one or two you made shortly before the box. And they are fresh.
In summary, this could be your plan for this slate of cookies.
throughout december: make and freeze shortbread dough, gingerbread dough, snickerdoodle dough, and oatmeal cookie dough.
night before: make peanut butter sandwich filling and coconut chocolate truffles. remove frozen doughs from freezer to thaw.
cookie day: bake shortbread, gingerbread, and oatmeal cookies. make rum butter glaze and matzo caramel bark. assemble peanut butter pecan cookie sandwiches. decorate snickerdoodles and gingerbread.
FOOD STYLING
That’s the nuts and bolts of the method, now some styling and presentation ideas. Regarding composition, I think a cookie box looks best with these components – a couple classic round cookies, a cookie sandwich, an irregular element, a ball element, a bark element, and a candy element.
For the cookie boxes that I want to be a really large gift, I do a shallow wooden rectangle box (in picture) that’s available at typical craft stores on those like, raw wood aisles with a bunch of raw wood objects. I think those are perfect. Here are wood trays on amazon too, actually at a better price. You can get ones with dividers, sometimes those are harder to find and it does just fine without dividers, though they are cute. (Sometimes product packaging weirdly comes in a nice wood box, think like, the target dollar spot. You could save those throughout the year for a cookie box.)
Also on amazon are some affordable brown craft paper-y smaller trays with lids which are also good for cookie boxes you need to be a little more durable in transport.
For stylization I do some unwrapped mini candy canes, a little bit of rosemary (my favorite herb to garnish with, second place is sage), and some cute ribbons or strings to wrap up some of the cookie stacks or make accentuations. Certainly candied or dried oranges are appropriate. If you’re delivering one really fresh, you could do a little sift of powder sugar on the treats it would look good on.
I have this little canister for sifting powder sugar. It’s just a can that’s lid is a sifter. I love the look of sifted powedered sugar for food presentation, but you have to get a whole sifter dirty. This is so great; you can do some on top really fast without dirtying any dishes.
I think that’s it for my methods and the 2022 cookie box. Merry Christmas, my people. Those on whom His favor rests goodwill shall never cease. ♥️
