Klarity

Scrolling on Tik Tok the weeks leading up to Christmas, my feed was made up solely of cookie recipes and assembling the viral cookie boxes. Since I love to bake, I was very easily influenced to create some of my own. I decided to challenge my baking skills and make them all in one day. One night, I scoured Pinterest to find some new and classic recipes. I settled on a few of my favorite staples: peanut butter blossoms, kitchen sink, chocolate peppermint, snickerdoodles, anisette, coconut macaroons, and frosted sugar. I woke up early the morning of the twenty-first and headed to the grocery store to collect every possible ingredient I would need. I left with about half of the baking needs aisle, determined to make the best cookie boxes my neighborhood had ever seen.

Standing in front of my counter covered with countless ingredients, I had no idea where to start. It was so daunting, I decided to randomly choose one recipe and start from there. I started off with the peppermint chocolate cookies, which were so delicious and perfectly minty. They reminded me a lot of the mint girl scout cookies. I did decide to make a frosting to top these cookies with. It was very simple, just milk, confectioner’s sugar, and a dash of peppermint extract. I think this enhanced the peppermint flavor I was going for. It was not overcome by the chocolate of the cookie. In addition to that, I think it made the presentation a lot better. They appeared to be a success considering my family ate a solid fraction of them as I was baking the others. I was so distracted as I went about making the rest that I had forgotten to take a picture of each finished product except for these ones.

They were the perfect warm up, and as I moved onto the next recipe, I got into the flow of making so many different cookies at once. Since around half the cookie’s required their dough to be refrigerated before baking, I went ahead and made those first. Then while they sat in my refrigerator, I mixed and baked the remaining cookies. I think this was a really important step since I was trying to make them all at the same time. I would recommend looking at all of your recipes before starting and start with the ones that require the most time.

I was most excited about making the coconut macaroons, since they are one of my favorite pastries ever. They were also surprisingly the easiest to make. I do think that next time, I would dip the bottoms of them in the chocolate rather than drizzling it over the top. I think this would have made them look slightly better, but they still tasted absolutely amazing. I will be making these for every holiday from now on.

The peanut butter blossoms were also so much fun to make. I usually just make the boxed version, but these were so much better and so worth the extra effort. As soon as I took a bite, I knew I would never be able to go back to the box. The peanut butter flavor was so strong and the cookie itself was so gooey, perfectly paired with the slightly melted chocolate on top.

I think that I enjoyed the process of the kitchen sink cookies the most. There were so many different ingredients that I had never used in cookies before. There were mini pretzels, white chocolate, M&Ms, and potato chips, which all complimented each other so well. I also used the Christmas themed M&Ms, which made the cookies look super festive for the holidays.

After about 7 hours, they were almost complete. I had to wait for most of them to cool before adding finishing touches such as frosting or candy pieces. And in those 7 hours, every single one of those cookies had become my babies. I had made around one hundred cookies and somehow they all came out exactly how I wanted, with the exception of the anisette cookie frosting turning a little purple. I was so pround of my sweet little creations and had become terrified that my dogs would devour them over night. I was too tired to assemble the boxes that night, so I carefully wrapped each individual platter of cookies and hoped they would survive the night without being eaten by dogs or family members. Thankfully, they were perfectly safe.

The next morning, once everything had cooled and solidified, I packed an assortment of my cookies in to little holiday boxes to distribute around my neighborhood. It’s a great gift for any of the people in your life, but my family has traditionally used them as a holiday surprise for our neighbors. Even after my deliveries, I still had about forty cookies left over for my family and me. They did not last long though, barely a few days had gone by before we had devoured every last one.

I know the holidays have just recently passed, but I would strongly recommend everyone try making some of these recipes at some point. I think that these cookie boxes can be made outside of the winter holiday season. They would be amazing “just because” gifts for your friends or just a great way to pass the time. I had so much fun baking for an entire day straight, and I am looking for an excuse to do it again soon. Though I was extremely tired by the end of the process, it was most definitely worth it. I learned so much about baking and found so many great cookies that I will continue to make.

This was the first time I had ever assembled cookie boxes on my own, let alone make so many different recipes at once, and I was very proud of how they all turned out. I still cannot believe that I was able to make so many cookies over the course of just one day. In the end, I was just too proud of how these turned out that I couldn’t resist sharing my cute little creations with you all!