christmas cookie box 2023
five new festive cookies for gifting or eating!
for my twelfth day of christmas i give you: my christmas cookie box!
the inaugural penny’s kitchen cookie box has five festive cookies (plus some fun kitkat flavours i brought back from japan!)
i’ve been dying to make a cookie box and was so excited to make these for my family for christmas this year!
the goal was a cookie box that was
balanced between classic christmas flavours (speculaas spice, oranges) and fun new additions (matcha, buckwheat)
not too sweet
sturdy enough to be flown interstate
the five cookies below are new ones for the substack (with recipes to come shortly) because i am incapable of making anything twice!
flavours
candied orange & dark chocolate cookies - based on my classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, these use the candied orange peel strained out of my seville orange marmalade in the dough along with bittersweet dark chocolate
matcha butter wreaths & trees - a classic butter cookie dough fancied up with matcha and piped into christmas tree and wreaths
orange poppyseed thumbprints - the same base dough as the matcha wreaths, pumped full of poppyseeds and filled with the strained marmalade (no waste!)
buckwheat speculaas - my perfect speculaas biscuits made ‘healthier’ with buckwheat flour for a warm wholewheat flavour
speculaas sandwich with spiced filling - buckwheat speculaas sandwiched together with spiced (not-too-sweet!) filling between. the afternoon tea version of the plain speculaas!
kitkats from japan - a classic! brought back white peach and matcha flavoured mini kitkats for my family to try
timeline
a week before - make and freeze the candied orange & dark chocolate cookie dough
three days before - make the speculaas dough and refrigerate
two days before - make the matcha wreaths and orange poppyseed thumbprints, and bake off the prepared chocolate orange and speculaas cookie doughs. assemble the speculaas sandwich cookies
a day before - assemble and pack the cookie boxes for transport
day of - carefully fly the cookie boxes interstate as your carry-on baggage and gift away!
these were a labour of love, but i can’t wait to do it again next year!
p.s. anyone interested in a cookie swap for christmas 2024? let me know!