Home-baked gifts beat anything store-bought, internet-shopped, or from a catalog, because home baking is a way to show the lucky recipients how much they mean to you. Your cookies will be remembered long after the last bite has been savored and the holiday decorations packed away for another year.
Snappy Ginger Cookies, Almond Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies are three classics that family and friends on your holiday gift list will love. One or all three of these recipes are great gifts.
But why not take it all the way to festive by packing cookies in hand-decorated boxes? Or stack freshly baked treats in crinkly cellophane bags, ribbon-tied and presented with your own customized gift tag.
Holiday gift baking involves good planning. The steps are not hard, but having a successful baking day means following one rule that professionals follow. Be organized. And always start and finish with a clean kitchen!
Read the recipes over a few times to familiarize yourself with what’s required and make sure you’ve answered any questions you have before you start. By the way, each recipe can be doubled. Organize shopping lists. When putting together your list of ingredients, add up the total amount of flour, butter, eggs, sugars, chocolate chips, gingers, baking soda, baking powder, and other ingredients that you’ll need. Add a little extra in case you need bake-overs. Shop as early in the season as you can because at that time of year you won’t be the only baker buying cookie ingredients.
Most importantly, make sure you plan enough time to complete your baking. There is nothing worse than running out of time before you’ve finished.
Consider gathering teams of friends or family to help you bake, decorate, and fill the gift boxes or bags. Then at the end of the day divide the finished holiday cookies with your team members. Baking together is a great way to get everyone in the holiday spirit.
One of the things I always loved as a kid was that first sign of the holidays when my mother would begin baking with her sisters. Holiday baking took a firm hold of my mother around this time of year. I wanted to be right in the middle of it! Instead I’d be sitting in school. I counted the minutes until the bell would buzz me out. I would race home and open the kitchen door.
What I’d been waiting for all day then surrounded me — the delicate aroma of fresh-baked cookies.
I still remember my mother in the middle of it all. Flour-flecked, apron-wrapped, and dashing back and forth from station to station making sure it was all working smoothly. Every available inch of space in our kitchen was taken over by cookies in one stage or another. It was an assembly line. Cookies being rolled out, cookies being filled and shaped, cookies baking, cookies cooling, and finished cookies waiting to be packed. Cookies everywhere!
My mother kept her cookies in a variety of large and cookie tins, assorted boxes, and even an empty potato chip can! She had to hide her cookies each year. There were five of us kids, and we’d go hunting high and low to find each year’s secret place. We were foolish enough to think we’d sneak some cookies out ahead of the official release date. My mother always outsmarted us.
At my house, baking was serious work. I knew to be extremely careful and not to get in the way. I hoped to be rewarded with just one cookie. A crumb might have done, but my mother would hand me a still-warm cookie.
“How is the flavor this year, son?” my mother would ask. With a mouth full of cookie, all I could do was nod vigorously, grin, and just keep chewing.
I knew I was the luckiest kid in all Detroit. Today was baking day!
Editorial note
There are many great sources online for boxes and gift wraps for baked goods. Here are just a few to get you started:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- •591 ml (2½ cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
- •5 ml (1 teaspon) baking soda
- •5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt
- •115 grams (½ cup/1 stick) unsalted butter
- •59 ml (¼ cup) chunky peanut butter
- •355 ml (1½ cups) turbinado sugar
- •2 large eggs, slightly beaten
- •5 ml (1 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
- •340 graqms (12 ounces/2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
Preparation
On your mark…
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F) with a rack in the middle slot.
- Lightly butter two 46 x 13 cm (18 by 13-inch) non-stick baking sheets or line them with parchment
paper.
Get set…
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, whisk to mix, and set aside.
Cook!
- Melt the butter and peanut butter in a medium-size pan over low heat. Add the raw sugar
and stir until the ingredients are melted and combined. Remove the butter-and- sugar
mixture from the heat and let it cool for 3 minutes. - Combine eggs and the vanilla in a medium bowl. Add them, along with the butter
mixture, to the flour mixture. Using an electric hand-mixer, beat on low speed until
smooth. - Add the chocolate chips and continue to beat on low speed until chunky dough is formed.
- Refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes or up to 1 hour.
- Scoop up about 20 ml (a heaping tablespoon) of the dough and roll it into a ball the size of a golf ball. Place the ball on the cookie sheet and slightly flatten the dough into a 5 cm (2-inch) round. Repeat with the dough until you have 12 cookies on the tray, spacing the cookies about 5 cm (2 inches) apart.
- Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until lightly brown, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Prepare the second sheet of cookies while the first one bakes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the sheets for 5 minutes before using a spatula to remove then to a rack to finish cooling.
- Melt the butter and peanut butter in a medium-size pan over low heat. Add the raw sugar
Almond Cookies
Ingredients
- •473 ml (2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus for kneading
- •2.5 ml (½ teaspoon) baking powder
- •1.3 ml (¼ teaspoon) baking soda
- •177 ml (¾ cup) sugar
- •1 egg
- •30 ml (2 tablespoons) milk
- •10 ml (2 teaspoons) pure almond extract
- •118 ml (½ cup) melted butter (1 stick)
- •12 whole shelled almonds
Preparation
On your mark…
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl. Add the sugar
and mix. - In a small bowl, combine the egg, milk, and almond extract.
- Pour the melted butter into the flour mixture, and then add the milk mixture. Use a fork
to combine all the ingredients and form them into a soft dough. - Sprinkle some flour on a very clean countertop or cutting board and on your hands. Turn
the dough out onto the countertop. - Gather the dough together into a ball and gently knead for a few seconds. Shape the
dough into a log about 30 cm (12 inches) long. Wrap the cookie dough log in plastic wrap or wax
paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl. Add the sugar
Get set…
- Preheat the oven to 204°C (400°F). Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven
- After the dough has chilled, unwrap it and place it on a lightly floured surface. Cut into
12 sections. Roll each section into a ball. - Now carefully place 1 ball on a lightly greased baking sheet. Using your thumb, gently
make a dent in the center of the ball, flattening it just a little. Place 1 almond in the dent. - Repeat until all the cookies are formed. Keep them evenly spaced on the baking sheet so
they will have room to spread out as they bake.
Cook!
- Bake the cookies for 17 to 20 minutes, or until they are just lightly browned.
- Using a spatula, lift them gently onto a rack and cool completely.
Snappy Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- •240 grams (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling the dough
- •7.5 ml (1½ teaspoons) baking soda
- •5 ml (1 teaspoon) ground ginger
- •2.5 ml (½ teaspoon) ground cardamom
- •2.5 ml (½ teaspoonj) ground cloves
- •2.5 ml (½ teaspoon) salt
- •7.6 cm (3-inch) piece fresh ginger
- •79 ml (⅓ cup) candied (crystallized) ginger
- •113 grams (½ cup/1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- •198 grams (237 ml/1 cup) granulated sugar
- •59 ml (¼ cup) molasses
- •59 ml (¼ cup) Ginger Syrup (recipe follows)
- •1 large egg
Ginger Syrup
- •5-7.6 cm (2 to 3-inch) piece fresh ginger
- •473 ml (2 cups) water
- •118 ml (½ cup) firmly packed raw (turbinado) or light brown sugar
- •7.5 ml (1½ teaspoons) dark molasses
- •7.5 ml (1½ teaspoons) pure vanilla extract
Preparation
Cookies
On your mark…
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cardamom, cloves, and salt in a
medium mixing bowl. - Peel and finely chop the fresh ginger and set aside.
- Finely chop the crystallized ginger and set aside.
Get set…
- Combine the butter and 118 ml (½ cup) of the sugar in a medium bowl. With an electric-hand
mixer, beat for 2 minutes on medium speed until smooth. - Add the molasses, ginger syrup, egg, and fresh ginger. Beat for 1 minute. Using a rubber
spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat for 1 minute. - Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Beat on medium-speed until smooth and
all the flour has been absorbed. - Fold in the crystallized ginger.
- Add another 59 ml (¼ cup) of the sugar and beat on medium-speed for 30 seconds or until the
mixture is smooth. - Cover the bowl with wax paper, or plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least 1 hour or
overnight. - Line two 25 cm by 38 cm (10 ½ by 15 ½ inch) baking sheet with parchment paper. You will bake the
cookies in batches. - Place the remaining 59 ml (¼ cup) of sugar in a small bowl.
Cook!
- Preheat the oven to 190˚C (375˚F) with a rack in the middle of the oven.
- Remove one half of the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Keep the other half of the
dough chilling until you’re ready to use it. - Scoop up about 5 ml (1 teaspoon) of the cookie dough with your lightly floured hands and roll it
into a ball. - Drop the ball into the bowl of granulated sugar and shake to coat it.
- Place on the cookie sheet.
- Repeat this step, spacing the cookies about 5 cm (2-inches) apart. Once the cookie sheet is full,
lightly flatten each ball with the bottom of a small glass. If the dough sticks to it, dip the
bottom of the glass in the bowl of sugar before pressing down on the cookies. - Bake the cookies on the middle rack until the cookies are lightly
browned, 15 to 18 minutes. - Cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare the second tray of cookies following the steps above for baking
and cooling. - With a spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely.
- The cookies will keep for up to 10 days in an airtight container. They will keep for 2
weeks refrigerated, or up to 6 months frozen.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cardamom, cloves, and salt in a
Syrup
On your mark, get set…
- Wash the ginger but don’t peel it. Cut into ¼-slices and coarsely chop.
Cook!
- Combine the chopped ginger, water, sugar, and molasses in a medium saucepan and set
over high heat. - Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered, for 20 minutes.
- Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a heat-proof bowl. Let stand for 10
minutes. - Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
- Pour the syrup into a clean glass jar and cover with a lid
- Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.