Every year, I hand out an assortment of Christmas Cookies to my friends and family. I make about 10 different types of cookies with something new each year.
The baking starts right after Thanksgiving, usually making a double batch of each cookie, and the baking is spread out over the weekends leading up to Christmas.
What you’ll need: Ziploc Gallon Bags, 4″ x 6″ plastic bags with ties, decorative boxes for gift giving.
Once a batch of cookies is baked and cooled to room temperature, I place three cookies into a 4 x 6 inch plastic bag and use a silver twist tie to seal. The plastic bags are purchased at Michaels and include the silver ties. For a pack of 100, the cost is about $5.00.
Once the cookies are bagged up, I place the individual bags into a Ziplock gallon freezer bag, label the bag, and place it in the freezer.
When it comes time to fill a gift box (or whatever you are using), I gather an assortment of the individual bags from the freezer and fill the container.
A few tips to keep in mind:
1) Keep a notepad of all the types of cookies you’ve made. If I don’t do this, I might forget one buried in the back of the freezer!
2) When making the cookies and using the same pan covered in parchment, it’s important to cool down the pan before adding the next batch of dough. I take off the parchment after the baked cookies are removed from the pan and run the pan under cold water on each side. Thoroughly dry and place the used parchment back on the pan before adding the next batch of dough.
There you have it! The cookies I made for Christmas 2018 are:
Chocolate Chunk, Shortbread with Chocolate striping, Heath Bar cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Triple Chocolate Espresso, Raspberry Thumbprints, Oatmeal Raisin, Pecan Shortbread Squares, Rugelach, and High Tea Lemon.
Happy Baking and Merry Christmas!
