2024 Christmas Cookie Box
I’ve been seeing some of my favourite recipe developers make cookie boxes (i think its especially an American tradition, one I think we should all adopt!) This year especially, I got super jealous and decided to spend a weekend making one (I say weekend but it took me a couple hours saturday night to assemble and a couple hours sunday baking them).
It’s a mix of incredible simple recipes, that pack a lot of flavour. Most of these take at most 15-20 minutes to make the dough, then you just need to chill and bake later on - the perfect make-ahead situation.
Most of the cookies have been adapted from recipes that already exist, ones that I’ve been loving for a while, ones from developers I love, and new ones, all with a slight twist.
Starting with the underdog of the 2024 cookie box:
Macadamia, Almond, Pistachio & Sour Cherry Florentine Bites
If I had paid proper attention to the type of baking paper I used, these would’ve been the most gorgeous florentine cookies. Chewy with a crisp, bursting with different textures of nuts and some tangy sour cherries to cut through the dark chocolate and caramel. I even tempered my chocolate for them, and last minute gave up, but if you follow Nicola’s recipe method properly, and make sure the baking paper you use is non-stick, yours will be absolutely gorgeous- If you mess it up, fear not, chuck it in a loaf tin, press it together into a mound and cover with chocolate, like I did.
Here are the ingredients and quantities I used, but follow Nicola’s Crunchy Florentine recipe for guidance:
Notes: This would also taste terrific with sesame seeds, chopped dates or even dried cranberries.
Prep/Cooking Time: 20 minutes + Cooling time (~45 minutes)
Ingredients
50g light brown sugar
50g Golden Syrup (instead of honey)
50g Double Cream
Flakey Salt (to sprinkle over the top as garnish)
45g Flaked almonds
60g Pistachios, shelled and roughly chopped
40g Macadamia, roughly chopped
25g Sour Cherries, roughly chopped
300g Dark Chocolate (half it, if not making bites)
Ginger Palmiers
I love palmiers so much. Buttery puff pastry with loads of sugar, caramelised, flakey, chewy and crunchy. Its possibly one of the quickest and easiest cookies/biscuits to make, with endless possibilities of flavour. Ever since Justine Doiron posted about her blueberry muffins with ginger sugar, the ginger sugar stuck in my head and made it’s way into these Palmiers - slightest hint of spice, with lots of fragrance… perfection.
Notes: You can play around by adding some dried spices in there, e.g. ~1/2 tsp ground ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves…
Makes: 20-30 biscuits
Prep/Cook time: 25 minutes + cooling time (~30 minutes)
Ingredients
1 (~320g) All-butter Puff Pastry Sheet
125g Demerara Sugar
70g Light Brown Sugar
2 Tsp Finely Grated Fresh Ginger
Zest of 1/2 a Lemon
1/2 tsp Sea salt
Method:
Remove the puff pastry from the fridge and leave it on the counter for 5-10 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the remaining ingredients into a bowl and massage together until the texture of the sugar changes into a wet sand consistency.
Scatter half the sugar into a rectangular shape, a little bigger than the sheet of puff pastry. Then, roll the pastry out and place on top of the sugar. Scatter the remaining sugar on top of the puff. Using a rolling pin, roll the pastry out pressing down on it so the sugar adheres into the dough, until the dough is around 2-3mm thin.
Starting with the longest edge closest to you, roll the dough (like you would a cinnamon bun) until you reach the middle. Then do the same process with the other edge, joining the two in the middle of the dough - each roll should be around the same size. If the dough is too long, cut in half, then transfer to a tray, cover and place in the fridge to chill and firm up for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to fan 220°C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Once chilled, remove from the fridge. Trim the ends off the dough and slice into 1cm pieces.
Place the palmiers flat onto the baking tray, making sure to space them out around 4cm each. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown (if you take them out too early, they wont be crispy, just chewy). Let fully cool on the tray before serving - they’ll get crispier as they cool.
Maple Pecan Pretzel Pucks
A puck is esentially a big phat cookie, baked in a mould so that it retains a hockey-puck like shape. This makes the texture super chewy and dense - really, really nice. I had my first puck from Toad Bakery in London, and it remains one of the most memorable cookies I’ve ever had, so, this had to happen.
I used the Maple brown sugar cookies from Sally’s baking addiction as the base recipe for these. She’s the ultimate OG baking blog, I’ve been making her recipes for absolutely ages.
Notes: I baked the cookies in a 9cm ring moulds, but these would work freeform. Just ball them up and bake until set on the edges and still gooey in the middle (the shape and density may change). Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Makes: 6 big cookies
Prep/Cook Time: 20-25 minutes + cooling time (~2 hrs)
Ingredients
145g Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
55g Unsalted Butter
90g Dark Brown Sugar
1 Egg yolk
50ml Dark Pure Maple Syrup
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
40g Pecans, chopped
30g Salted Pretzels, broken into bite sized pieces
30g White Chocolate, cut into chunks
Flakey Sea Salt, for garnish
Method:
Into a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.
Add the butter and brown sugar into a larger bowl or a bowl of a stand mixer. Beat together until smooth, then add the egg yolk, maple syrup and vanilla, beat until incorporated.
Pour the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and fold until combined. Then, tip the pecans, pretzels and white chocolate in and mix until evenly dispersed. Cover and chill the dough for a minimum of 2 hours (if chilling for longer, bring the cookie dough out of the fridge and leave to sit at room temp for at least 30 minutes before using).
Preheat the oven to fan 180°C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper, grease the 6 9cm ring moulds with butter or oil. Place onto the baking trays.
Roll 80g of cookie dough into balls and place each ball into a mould. Press them down, so that its roughly level and sprinkle over some flaky sea salt.
Transfer to the oven and bake for 7-10 minutes, until lightly browned but still a little soft. Remove from the oven and tap the tray on the counter a couple of times. Cool the cookies on the trays in their moulds for 15-20 minutes, then remove from the moulds and transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Brown Butter Hojicha Sablés
If you like a crumbly buttery cookie, a sablé is the perfect version of one. Many people know shortbread, but I find the french version to be that much more delicious (probably because it tastes like pure sweet crumbly butter). The recipe is an adaptation of Brown Butter Sage Sablés from Dessert People by Claire Saffitz’s. It’s an incredibly tender, nutty, smoky and buttery biscuit, that basically melts in your mouth. Perfect with a cup of coffee, tea or hot choc.
Notes: I used loose leaf hojicha, but powdered hojicha will also work in this recipe - just skip blitzing it. Also, try to use the best kind of salted butter you can get your hands on (not the crunchy salt kind though) since it’s the primary flavour.
Makes: 10-12
Prep/Cooking Time: 1hr + cooling time (~2 hours)
Ingredients
1 1/2 Tbsp Hojicha
115g Salted Butter
115g Plain Flour
15g Cornflour
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
75g Granulated Sugar
1 Large Egg Yolk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
80g Demerara Sugar
Method:
If using loose leaf hojicha - add it into a blender and blitz until a powder forms (it can still have bits in it).
Into a small saucepan, add the butter and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the butter foams and turns brown, 5-8 minutes - It should smell nutty. Transfer into a bowl and stir through the hojicha. Place the butter into the fridge and let it cool down until opaque, but not solidified, 20-30 minutes - make sure to stir it every 5-10 minutes.
Meanwhile, into a medium bowl, mix the flour, corn flour and salt together.
Once the brown butter has cooled down, either add it into the bowl of a stand mixer or into a large bowl. Add the granulated sugar and beat or whisk together until the mixture is pale and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until well incorporated.
Manually fold the flour mixture into the butter until a smooth dough forms, and no floury bits remain.
Transfer the dough into a log shape onto baking paper, and wrap tightly. Transfer to the fridge until firm, around 2-4 hours, up to overnight.
Once chilled, preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare 2 baking trays and line them with baking paper. Sprinkle the demerara sugar onto a plate. Remove the log of dough from the fridge and roll it into the sugar, making sure to press down so the sugar adheres to the dough. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 1.5-2cm rounds.
Place each cookie flat, onto the prepared trays, making sure to space each of them out about 4cm. Transfer the trays into the oven and bake until they go golden around the edges, 13-18 minutes - rotate the tray half way through for even baking. Once ready, let the cookies fully cool on the trays.
Masala Chai Snickerdoodles
I truly wish I took a photo of a more gorgeous snickerdoodle, but I was over-excited, in a daze. These are pillowy, slightly chewy, fluffy snickerdoodles. I’m not one to like a ‘cakey’ cookie, but something about snickerdoodles has me in a chokehold. I’ve been making Sally’s baking addiction snickerdoodles since I was in high school, they’re perfect in every way, and I decided to give them a little flavour make-over. This recipe is adapted from the one and only Sally.
Notes: You can make the dough ahead (up to 3 days) if you want, just cover and chill until needed. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 6 days.
Makes: 16-18
Prep/Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes
Ingredients:
For the topping:
50g Granulated Sugar
3/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground ginger
1/4 tsp Sea salt
For the cookies:
185g Plain Flour
3/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Sea salt
1 1/2 tbsp Masala Chai Mix
115g Softened Unsalted Butter
100g Granulated Sugar
1 Tbsp Treacle
5g Fresh Ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 Egg, room temperature
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Method:
Preheat the oven to fan 190C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper, set aside.
Toss together all the ingredients for the topping and set aside.
Into a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. If your masala chai mix has big leaf pieces, place into a blender and quickly blend until broken down into a fine texture. Add into the flour and stir through.
Into a larger bowl, add the softened butter, sugar, treacle and grated ginger. Whisk or beat together until smooth, light and creamy. Then, add the egg and vanilla, beat together until pale and fluffy. Fold the dry ingredients in until a dough forms.
Roll around 30g of cookie dough into balls and coat in the spiced sugar. Place onto the prepared cookie trays, making sure to leave about 4cm between each cookie.
Transfer the trays into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, until puffy and soft. Remove from the oven and lightly press down on each cookie to slightly flatten them out (they should still be quite thick). Let the cookies cool on the tray for 10 minutes, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.