Holiday Cookie Box - 5 homemade cookies to gift this year
Growing up, my family and I always bought Royal Dansk Butter Cookie tins for the holidays. After we finished the cookies, we would keep the blue tins around to store various items. There would always be a wave of disappointment whenever I found one of these blue boxes, thinking that there’d be cookies inside, but then realizing that my parents had used them to store coins instead.
These cookie boxes have always been a tradition for me and family, so I was half expecting us to get more store-bought cookie boxes by the end of November. However, this year I broke the tradition after coming across a video by NYT Cooking showing me the most gorgeous box of homemade cookies by food stylist and cookbook author Susan Spungen. After watching the video, I was instantly ready to ditch the box of store-bought cookies (which look pretty boring, to be honest) in favor of throwing on my apron and making a box of cookies myself.
I ended up gifting these to my parents and my teammates at work, who were both very happy to receive them. My team devoured them pretty quickly, while my parents are still working their way through, making sure to not ruin their waistlines too much before the holidays ended.
To get more inspiration for my cookie box, I started following the hashtag #cookiebox on Instagram and did multiple searches on Pinterest for “cookie box.” After seeing photos of these creations on social media, I realized that this was a pretty popular trend, and that people didn’t take these cookies lightly. These boxes were aesthetic af, and some of them even contained some pretty difficult items like meticulously decorated sugar cookies or macarons (which I honestly have no more patience for these days).
I didn’t end up making all of the cookies from the NYT Cooking video, but instead improvised and found myself a diverse set of cookie recipes that satisfied everyone and wouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish in the kitchen. The one that I couldn’t resist from the video, however, was the marbled tahini (black/white sesame) cookies.
From left to right, top to bottom: frosted gingerbread cookies, cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies, butter swirl shortbread cookies, strawberry jam Linzer cookies, marbled black/white tahini (sesame) shortbread cookies
You might think that I’m crazy for making 5 distinct cookies that look and taste very different. However, I took a shortcut by making a large portion of a “master dough” which I could add to and modify for each of the different cookies. After looking through all the recipes for these cookies, I realized that they all had the following ingredients in common: butter, sugar, flour. Here’s a recipe for making a shortbread “master dough” that you can customize quickly later on:
Basic Shortbread Cookie Dough
The shortcut for shortbread cookies ;)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
For this very basic dough, just cream the sugar together with the butter and vanilla (optional) with a hand mixer. Then, blend in your dry ingredients—the flour and salt—and you have yourself a simple dough that acts as a blank canvas for a variety of different cookies. You can separate the dough and mix in other ingredients like almond extract (which I did for the Linzer cookies) or ground pistachios. Because I needed to pipe out my butter swirl cookies, I just added extra milk to the dough to make a thinner mixture that I could squeeze out of a piping bag.
Gather the dough into a disk or log and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Store it in the refrigerator to be used in the next few days. If you expect to keep the dough for longer, you can freeze the dough for up to 2-3 months.
Then, based on the specific cookie, these usually take from 15-20 minutes in the oven, varying from 325°-350°F.
Cookie 1: Almond Linzer Cookies
For the biggest cookie in the box, I chose a recipe which I knew would be simple. My parents also love eating cookies with jam in them, so I knew that Linzer cookies was a must in this box.
Cookie 2: Marbled black/white tahini (sesame) cookies
These are the most sophisticated out of the entire bunch. They practically look like they belong in an art museum. Unfortunately, my marbling technique needed sharpening, and the cookies didn’t come out quite like the ones that Susan Spungen made. They were still one of the most delicious and unique cookies in the box though.
Cookie 3: Butter Swirl Shortbread Cookies
I also wanted a super classic shortbread cookie for my box. If the marbled sesame cookies were the sophisticated one out of the bunch, then we need a more basic character to balance it out. Because I needed to pipe these cookies out of a pastry bag, I made sure to add more milk to the dough in order to thin it out into a ribbony paste.
Cookie 4: Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
This cookie was the most rustic cookie out of the bunch, and one of the simplest to assemble. Cranberries are a holiday staple, and pistachios are one of my favorite ingredients to add to sweet and savory dishes. These ended up being one of my favorite cookies in the box.
Cranberry Pistachio Cookies
Makes 16 cookies
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup of peeled pistachios
- 1/2 cup of whole cranberries
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Prep time: 15 minutes | Chill time: 30 minutes | Bake time: 15 minutes
Makes 16 cookies
Instructions
- Pulse the pistachios in a food processor until they're a rough powdery texture, or chop them up into small pieces with a knife. Mix them into the flour and salt.
- Cream the butter together with the sugar and vanilla (optional) with a hand mixer. After they're blended, mix in the dry ingredients until it comes together into a dough-like texture.
- Knead the cranberries carefully into the dough with your hands, trying not to break them.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (or 175°C) while you take the dough out of the fridge and bring it back to room temperature. Break apart small pieces to knead into a spheres, then flatten them out into inch-wide disks. Lay them on a sheet of parchment paper on top of a sheet pan, with a half inch space between each cookie. Bake for approximately 15 to 17 minutes. Allow the cookies to rest on the pan for several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Bake for approximately 15 to 17 minutes at 350°F (or 175°C). Allow the cookies to rest on the pan for several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- You can store these cookies for a couple weeks in an airtight container to enjoy later.
Cookie 5: Gingerbread cookies with icing
Because I had quite a lot on my hands for the last 4 cookies, I decided to be lazy and bought a cookie mix for the 5th and final cookie. Since I knew I wanted to spend some time getting creative by decorating these cookies, I went with the Sur La Table Gingerbread cookie mix, which also came with a cookie cutter and an icing mix. I got a few extra festive cookie cutters from the store, and cranked out the final cookie relatively quickly.
Luckily, the entire cookie box turned out to be a success. The unique and diverse set of cookies left my coworkers indecisive, and the entire box was finished by the end of the day. They were a hit with my parents as well, who found the marbled sesame cookies to be their favorite.
Let’s not forget about one of the most important elements of this cookie box: the box itself. I found mine from Daiso for only $1.50 each. During the holidays, Daiso usually has a lot of festive decorations and stationary that’s perfect for someone on a budget. Even better though, if you have a tin left over from a gift or from a previous box of cookies (one that’s not holding coins, presumably), then feel free to recycle that and use it for your new box of cookies.
I also created a cookie “cheat sheet” that explained the details of each cookie (excuse the bad drawing).
I hope this post inspired you to give out a heart-felt gift that you can create in the comfort of your own kitchen. Cookies are generally one of the easier dessert items to make, and can be easily transported and kept for long periods of time. Take the holiday season to get creative and give back to those you love most.
Just realized that this is probably my last post of the decade 🙀
Happy holidays everyone, and cheers to 2020! 🥂
♥ Cindy