Nothing beats a homemade gift, especially if it is this stunning cookie box, hich will wow everyone you gift these to. And the best part? It's all just one cookie dough, meaning much less hassle without sacrificing variety!
I have always been a fan of a homemade gift. As someone who has always loved cooking and food, being gifted a little homemade treat is truly wonderful. However, I had not encountered gifting a whole cookie/biscuit box until I moved to Germany. There, making biscuits over the Christmas period is a common activty, and although some enjoy the fruit of their own labour at home, it is also very common for these Christmas biscuits to be packaged in a nice box or bag and gifted to friends and family. I have enjoyed quite a few of these during my time there, and although some people go all out, making wildly different and elaborate cookies for their boxes, I learned to work smarter, not harder. You can make quite a few different kinds of biscuits with just a simple biscuit dough as a bse and still create a lovely biscuit box to gift. So today; we'll do just that.
What Will You Need?
Lots of cookie cutters: The more cookie cutters, the more different-looking cookies you will be able to make. You can find Chstimas cookie cutter sets quite cheapky at supermarket and homeware stores, but if you only have a couple, there are other things you can do: using different glasses, espresso cups and even shot glasses (yep. I have done that myself a few times), will give you different circular kinds of biscuit, and just as I have included some thumb print cookies here, you can also press them down with the back of a fork to create a different pattern.
Jams, chocolate & spreads: Once again, variety is needed to create different kinds of biscuits. Here I used store-bought lemon curd, melted dark chocolate, strawberry jam and nutella but you could use any kind of jam that you like, marmalade, Biscoff spread and even peanut butter - basically, the world is your oyster!
Decorations: It's nice to add a little decorative touch! For me, it was little sugar stars and simple powdered sugar dusted on top of some of the biscuits, but any kind of sprinkle will work, or sugar glaze.
A Couple of Things to Note:
I suggest doing all the biscuits in one baking session. For this, timing is very important. I suggest working in small batches, one type of biscuits per batch and to use a timer when the biscuits are in the oven, so there is no risk of you getting distracted while working another batch, and accidentally overcook the ones in the oven.
Cool your biscuits completely before you decorate them. While jam will be more forgiving, spreads, powdered sugar and any type of icing will require the biscuit to be fully cool before you decorate them, or the decorations will melt. Cooling down the biscuits completely also makes them harden, meaning they will be much less fragile and prone to breaking when you handle them.
You are free to free-style and create your own kind of biscuits but do watch out in terms of thickness: while almost all the biscuits here needed 13 mins in the oven, the thumb print ones where much thicker, so they needed 16-17 mins to cook. So if you stray away from these design, bear that in mind.
Ingredients - makes around 25-28 biscuits
375g plain flour
100g caster sugar
180g cold unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
4 1/2 tbsp cold water
For toppings and fillings
4 tbsp strawberry jam
4 tbsp nutella
3 tbsp lemon curd
75g cooking dark chocolate
2 tbsp sprinkles
1 tbsp powdered sugar
Method:
Mix the flour and sugar into a bowl, then tip the mix onto a working surface (I used a large chopping board) and create a well in the middle.
Add the egg yolks to the well and beat them loosely with a fork. Cube the cold butter, then add to the well with the yolks. Use your hands to slowly incorporate the yolks and butter with the flour, then knead for about 5 minutes, until you get a smooth, compact dough. Transfer to a bowl, cover and leave in the fridge for 30 mins to chill. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160C/320F.
Divide the dough into 5 balls, with 2 slightly larger ones than the others (for the sandwich cookies). Work one batch at a time, leaving the other dough balls in the fridge.
For the sandwich cookies: Roll the dough until 1/2cm thick. Using a circular cookie cutter, cut 10 cookies per batch. Use a smaller cookie cutter (even a bottle cap or shot glass will do here), to cut a circular shape within 5 of the cookies. Place all onto a lined baking tray and bake for 13 mins. They will be pale and quite fragile when they come out of the oven, but that is normal - leave them to cool and they'll be the perfect consistency. Leave to cool completely.
For the stars and pretzel biscuits (or any other shape you like): Roll the dough until 1/2 cm thick. Cut 5 biscuits per shape. Place all onto a lined baking tray and bake for 13 mins. They will be pale and quite fragile when they come out of the oven, but that is normal - they will harden as they cool. Leave to cool completely.
For the lemon curd thumb print cookies: divide the dough into 5 small balls, then lightly press your thumb onto each ball to leave your thumb print. You might need to use your fingers to smooth the sides of the cookies. Fill with lemon curd and transfer to a lined baking tray. Bake for 16-17 mins. Some of the lemon curd might spill, but you'll be able to easily remove it as soon as they come out of the oven with a pastry brush or a spoon. Leave to cool completely.
Once the cookies have fully cooled, it's assembly time: For the sandwich cookies, dust the cookies with the whole in the centre with powdered sugar. Spread just under 1tsp of either jam or nutella on the other rounds, then gently the sugar-dustated cookies on top to create your sandwiches. For the stars and pretzels, melt the cooking dark chocolate in a bowl placed on top of a pot of simmering water, then dip your biscuits into the melted chocolate. Add sprinkles to the stars. Leave on a plate or cooling rack to set.
Once the biscuits have all set, add them to a box of choice, along with any other treats you want: good options are mini meringue nests, gingerbread men or candy canes!
These biscuits will keep for about 5 days.
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