With only 12 days to Christmas, my beautiful studio kitchen is all decked up and smelling of desserts and happy cheer! This is my most favorite time of the year as we celebrate together, me when I get to bring some wonderful recipes to you and you guys when you recreate them in your kitchens and share them with me! That’s the spirit of Christmas for me and it makes the occasion even more joyous!
That being said, my second recipe for Christmas this year is a wonderful Christmas cookie box which has four different types of cookies made using just one dough. No points for guessing, it’s a buttery shortbread dough and take my word, it’s to die for! We make thumbprint cookies, chocolate cookies, sandwich cookies and spiced cookies and stack ’em up in one beautiful box! So let’s get into the recipe.
Ingredients used in making Christmas cookie box
My most favorite thing about this Christmas cookie box is that the base dough is made with four very simple, pantry ingredients – butter, sugar, flour and vanilla and takes literally 10 minutes to bring together! After that, it’s all up to your creativity as to what you wanna do with this buttery dough. Let’s talk about the ingredients used in all the four variations of cookies –
- Thumbprint cookies – The only thing you need for these thumbprint cookies is strawberry jam or in fact any jam of your choice. I had some strawberry jam since strawberries are in season so I used that! But blueberry jam or even orange marmalade would be delicious on these cookies!
- Chocolate cookies – Using good quality cocoa powder is what would make these chocolate cookies shine and be everybody’s favorite cookie on the table! Can I tell you a secret? Well, it’s no secret that I absolutely love chocolate and this is my most favorite cookie. I garnish the cookies with melted white chocolate and crushed meringue but you can use anything you like to decorate the cookies!
- Christmas cookie sandwiches – If you are a fan of anything red velvet, then this will be your go-to cookie. Two beautiful, buttery and bright red cookies sandwiched between a cream cheese frosting and rolled in some desiccated coconut! Christmas cookies don’t get any better than this.
- Spiced cookies – What is Christmas without making and frosting gingerbread men with your friends and family? This Christmas cookie box is the perfect family project as these gingerbread cookies will make sure everybody has a gala time shaping and decorating the cookies! Spiced with a good dose of winter spices, I take these spiced cookies up a notch by frosting them with royal icing. If you don’t eat eggs, you can also use melted chocolate to decorate these cookies.
Tips for making the cookies for Christmas cookie box
SOFTENED BUTTER IS THE KEY
The first and foremost step in baking perfect cookies is starting with room temperature butter. The ideal softness level is when you’re able to press your finger into the butter without any resistance. Softened butter allows small pockets of air to get trapped when you cream it with sugar. This in turn leavens the cookies and makes them fluffy- but if you use butter that’s too soft, it can do the opposite and actually prevent air from getting trapped.
ACCURATELY MEASURED INGREDIENTS
One of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your baking FOREVER is to learn how to measure your flour correctly. Since flour compacts easily, you can wind up accidentally adding 20% more flour to your dough if you don’t measure it the correct way. The best and simplest way to measure your ingredients for baking perfect cookies is using a digital kitchen scale but if you don’t have it, another great way is to use the spoon-and-level method.
CREAMING THE CORRECT WAY
If you are hoping to get thicker cookies, do not over-beat your butter and sugar. This can incorporate too much air into the dough which it won’t be able to hold and in turn making the cookies collapse as they bake or cool. Over-beating can also warm up the butter which increases spread. But if thinner and crispier cookies is what you are looking for, go ahead and cream your butter with sugar until it dissolves.
CORRECT EQUIPMENT
Baking cookies directly on your tray is a big no! Either, invest in non-stick baking mats so you don’t go through endless roles of parchment paper. Or you can use parchment paper if that’s more convenient and works better for you. Also, for baking perfect cookies make sure to never grease any of them.
How else can I use this base dough
If these four cookies aren’t enough, there are a hundred different kinds of cookies you can make using this base dough. You can shape them with any Christmas cookie cutter you like, decorate with any design and even use these for gifting favors! If you want it to be a fun project for kids, you can create a DIY cookie station with sprinkles and toppings of different kinds and make a fun day out of it! It’s the best way to celebrate Christmas and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The sky is the limit when it comes to making cookies from this base dough!
Other Christmas recipes on the blog
- 2 cups (452g) butter
- 1 cup (117g) castor sugar
- 2 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
- 4 cups (480g) all purpose flour
- ¼ cup (80g) strawberry jam
- 3 tbsp (27ml) warm milk
- 3 tbsp (21g) cocoa powder
- melted white chocolate to dip
- topped with crushed meringue
- A few drops of red colour
- ½ cup (91g) cream cheese frosting
- Desiccated coconut
- 1 tsp (2g) cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp (2g) ginger powder
- ½ tsp (1g) clove powder
- ¼ tsp (1g) nutmeg powder
- Orange zest
- Royal icing
- To make the base dough, in a large bowl, beat the butter, caster sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy.
- Add the maida and mix it in till it forms a homogenous dough. Your base dough is ready. Divide the dough into four batches of 250 grams each.
- To make thumbprint cookies, preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Measure out the cookie dough and roll into balls of 30 g each. Place the balls on the prepared baking tray.
- Use your thumb to make an indentation into each ball of cookie dough. Spoon ½ teaspoon of strawberry jam into the indentation in each one.
- Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 12-15 minutes. Cool the cookies completely before serving.
- To make chocolate cookies, make a slurry by adding warm milk to cocoa powder and mixing it till there are no lumps.
- Add this chocolate slurry to your cookie dough and using a spatula, mix it in till it's well incorporated.
- Roll the chocolate cookie dough into a thin layer of ¼ inch between two sheets of parchment paper.
- Freeze this for 30 minutes and then using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into long rectangular pieces of 3 inch each.
- Place the shaped cookies on a baking tray lined with silicon mat and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 12-15 minutes.
- Once baked and cooled completely, dip the chocolate cookies in melted white chocolate and garnish with crushed meringue.
- To make Christmas cookie sandwiches, add 1-2 drops of red food color to the cookie dough and using a spatula, mix till it's well incorporated.
- Roll the cookie dough into a thin layer of ¼ inch between two sheets of parchment paper.
- Freeze this for 30 minutes and then using a circular cookie cutter, cut the cookies into circles.
- Place the shaped cookies on a baking tray lined with silicon mat and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 12-15 minutes.
- Once baked and cooled completely, sandwich the cookies with cream cheese frosting and cover the sides of the cookies with desiccated coconut.
- To make spiced cookies, add in orange zest, cinnamon powder, ginger powder, clove powder and nutmeg powder to the fourth batch of cookie dough. Mix it in until it's well incorporated.
- Roll the cookie dough into a thin layer of ¼ inch between two sheets of parchment paper.
- Freeze this for 30 minutes and then using a gingerbread man cookie cutter, shape your cookies.
- Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 12-15 minutes.
- Once baked and cooled, frost the spiced cookies with some royal icing.
- Arrange all the cookies in a Christmas box and your Christmas cookie box is ready!
If you liked the recipe and this Christmas cookie box makes it to your Christmas spread this year, then do share pictures with me by tagging me on Instagram using #bakewithshivesh. Happy Baking!
The Chocolate cookies u made can we used that recipe for royal icing sugar cookies ???