Cookie box recipe roundup
Christmas cookies for you and yours (and me)
Yesterday was cookie box day! I didn't plan on doing one this year after last year’s eight different types of cookie taking me almost two days to bake and put together, plus prepping weeks in advance so I didn't have to do all of that washing up in one go. It was fun and satisfying to get to the end but I wanted something simpler this year. A friend sent me Justine Dorion’s video of her making her boxes in one day and it inspired me to go ahead and still make some this year. I’m so glad I did!
These are the recipes I used. For a lot of these, I took the base and created my own flavours as I went, which unfortunately I didn’t measure. My baking style is somewhat chaotic to those who follow a recipe perfectly, but it (mostly) works for me. I’ll add in where I’ve altered the recipes and suggestions for quantities where I added something new.
My favourites are the sourdough chocolate thumbprints with a chocolate and peppermint ganache - they turned out so much better than I expected, followed by the cardamom orange shortbreads. I also love the linzer cookies, which I made last year as well. Something about the tiny stars and the jam peeking through feels magical to me.
Cardamom and orange shortbread
This is the basic recipe I followed, minus the cranberry and pistachios. I added the zest and juice of one orange.
Linzer cookies
I followed this recipe, although I halved it which still made so many cookies with some dough I ended up freezing for another time.
Sourdough chocolate thumbprints with peppermint chocolate ganache
This beautiful recipe is from Mary and I have used to so many times. I did use less sugar and they still worked out perfectly. I halved the recipe and ended up using 65g of sugar total. I added 1.5 tbs (ish) of cacao to the dough to make them chocolate. For the ganache I just melted about half a big bar of dark chocolate and then slowly added some heavy (double) cream until it thickened. Then just two tiny drops of peppermint extract, and voila.
Raspberry and white chocolate chip cookies
This one is from Broma Bakery, which by the way, her brownie recipe is also amazing and I always use it!! I hadn't tried these before so they were an experiment, and to be honest, they aren’t my favourite cookie. I used freeze dried raspberries which was a mistake as they did burn in the oven. She suggests using frozen but all I had was freeze dried and I was not about to go back out to the store!
Chocolate orange and chai shortbread
The same recipe as the shortbread above. I made the dough until it was crumbly then split it into two bowls. To one I added a few tablespoons of cacao and the zest of an orange. To the other I added some chai mix, maybe half a tablespoon. I chilled them separately then marbled them before rolling. I definitely overworked the dough for these so they didn’t turn out as that lovely crumbly shortbread texture. I’m not sure this is the right dough for a marbled cookie but next time, I might try it again and see if I can get them to be that perfect texture.
Here’s a fun little video of making them! I ended the day feeling so satisfied and inspired. I hope you have fun if you decide to make some Christmas cookies this week!
Love, Em xx
Ahh thank you SO much for this. My mother in law are going to spend the holiday trying out these recipes together, I’m so excited. such a lovely and cozy experience xx 💕