Let’s Build a Holiday Cookie Tin!
With a roundup of my favorite recipes
I did not grow up with the classic holiday cookie tin or tray but as an adult I love them! When I was a kid, we were a big almond bark family. We dipped Oreos and pretzels in both white and milk chocolate, decorating them very freely with the opposite colored chocolate and sprinkles galore. There were years that we made the classic peanut butter blossoms and I remember unwrapping all the Hershey’s kisses out of their red, green, and silver foil, making sure to not accidentally throw the foil in with the chocolates as I mindlessly peeled away the wrapping. But a full cookie tin as a gift or a tray that had cookies cycled in and out throughout the month of December was not a part of my childhood.
I have now been an adult fully on my own for more than a decade, so I’ve had plenty of time to establish totally new traditions and try things out for a year or two. I’ve pretty consistently made almond jam thumbprints and peanut butter blossoms every year for the holidays since I was 22. Last year I hosted a holiday cookie party where everyone brought a different kind of cookie, and then everyone got to leave with a tin full of different treats. That was such a fun event but felt a little too intense for me to get together this year after a busy fall. I’ll probably have one next year because I did honestly miss having it a bit.
It felt much easier for me to coordinate making all the cookies in batches on my own, with my husband, and with a friend this year. Over the last week I’ve made a batch of cookies a day and thrown them in the freezer until I’ve made all of them to complete a cookie tin. I doodled an idea of what I wanted the tin to look like, making sure to not have more than one type of cookie so I don’t have all shortbread or only chocolate cookies. It’s been so fun to remind myself that making cookies really does only take an hour or two. Plus it’s a wonderful weeknight option to mix up the nights of TV watching, which I DO love, but I’m finding myself wanting some variety for the dark nights leading up to the solstice.
Here’s what my cookie tins will look like! If you receive one of these in the coming week-ish, please act surprised when you open it!
What to Bake
If you’re in the mood to also bake holiday cookies, I have so many ideas for you! You’ll want to make sure you have enough baking supplies on hand, so I’d recommend buying a couple bags each of flour, white sugar, brown sugar, an extra carton of eggs, some whole milk, a bunch of fun sprinkles if that’s your thing, and parchment paper.
You’ll want to consider having a variety of flavors in your tin, but also think about what shape your treats will be. You could go uniform and have all your cookies be round, which would be stunning, or have a variety of shapes. Think circles, spheres (truffles?!), triangles, squares and rectangles (bars work great), and long cylinders (twists, homemade Pocky, pretzel rods dipped in chocolate). Of course using holiday cookie cutters will ensure a mix of shapes in the tin.
FLAVOR
Varying up the types of cookie flavors is key to a well-balanced tin. A variety will ensure that there is something for everyone! If you’re unsure of where to start, you can choose one or two types of cookies from each category below, and you’ll be set!
Chocolate
Dark Chocolate Chili Cookies (also in the spice category)
Nutty
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Peanut Clusters
Spice
Dark Chocolate Chili Cookies (also in the chocolate category)
Fruity/Jam
Almond Shortbread Thumbprints with jam
Salty or Umami
Pretzels dipped in almond bark - decorate with sprinkles!
Circle Pretzels with Hershey kiss in the middle with an M&M or with a Rolo and a pecan smushed in the middle
Buttery
Classic iced sugar cookie
Cornflake Wreaths
Spritz Cookies
How to Package for Yourself, Gifting, Shipping
Whether you’re making a cookie tin or tray for yourself, or giving one to someone, presentation is everything, and keeping the goods fresh is important too! If you’re looking for some tins, you can check out any dollar store, a craft store like Michaels or JoAnn’s, or my favorite - thrift stores to get tins. I usually buy a new one every couple of years!
I look to the holiday cookie expert that I’ve learned so much from, Dan Pelosi, for guidance on how to keep cookies fresh. Check out his guide here. He suggests cutting parchment paper to the size of your cookie tin, which you can also use between layers of cookies, and adding a slice of bread to the tin. The bread acts as a moisture and flavor absorber so your cookies stay fresh! Switch out your slice of bread every couple of days or so. Sohla El-Waylly in a video once gave the tip to save those silica gel packets that come in various food products and use those in cookie tins to keep them fresh.
On the Joy the Baker blog, she has a whole post about how to package holiday cookies. She talks about choosing the right cookies that will hold up if they are being shipped, a consideration I don’t have to think about this year, and gives the tip of wrapping cookies in plastic wrap bottom to bottom when shipping! I think it’s so cute and adds just the right extra touch to use various sizes of muffin/cupcake liners to contain different kinds of cookies! It keeps them stacked nicely in the tin, and can help organize what can become an unruly mess. In the photo below, they’ve also added some cardboard dividers and ribbons to tie cookies together which is useful and adorable.
Happy Holiday Baking! 🎄🍪
Things I Like
Advent calendars - I have the Bonne Maman jam advent calendar and I’ve been making daily videos on TikTok
Creating new holiday traditions that are free from stress or an additional “to-dos”. My husband and I have celebrated St. Nick’s together for the last 10 years, but this year we added take-out to the tradition to keep it fresh and to lift a task from ourselves this last week.
My neck and shoulder massager has been working overtime lately to keep my upper body feeling better than terrible (love this part of being in my 30s).
May your week be gentle and may you eat well. 🌲🥣