Miles Christmas Cookies

More than 60 cute recipes for fun festive bakes
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-78879-659-0
Verlag: Ryland Peters & Small
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

Over 60 delightful recipes for festive cookies, from traditional favourites to creative new ideas, all of which make perfect gifts. Get festive and creative at the same time, with this cosy collection of cookie recipes for the holiday season. Decoration hints and tips are followed by recipes for more than 60 different cookies, from Jolly Santas, Coconut Snowballs, Frosted Fir Cones and Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups to Reindeer Pretzel Cookies and Meringue Snowmen. Go all out with packaging ideas for giving your home-baked treats as gifts and find tips on how to host a Christmas 'cookie swap' at home, from clever ways to display bakes to sending out invitations. A joyous collection of seasonal baking recipes that all the family can enjoy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Miles, Hannah

Leseproben

Cookie Swap Parties

One of my favourite things to do at Christmas is to host a cookie swap party. They are a chance to meet up with lots of friends or family in one go at a busy time of year, and a way of cheap and cheerfully gifting, and a fun ‘event’ that most can enjoy any time of day. The basic idea is to invite your friends and family to your home and each guest brings their favourite type of home-made cookie. Everyone then swaps their cookies and, having arrived a large selection of one cookie, you go home with the same number, but of all different varieties! It’s the perfect way to end up with a delicious array of cookies for Christmas. Cookie swap parties do not need much preparation – I just put on a large pan of mulled wine and serve a few Christmas nibbles, but the main focus should be the cookies and the creative ways they can be displayed, or even decorated.

Guests can bring several dozen cookies that can be shared out, or they can bring enough ready-wrapped bags of cookies so that there is one for each guest to take home. If you don’t want to make people bring cookies, why not have a baking party where you provide each guest with a basic cookie dough to which they can add flavouring and candies of their choosing, and then bake them all together – as long as you don’t mind the washing-up! You could also host a cookie party coffee morning.

How to Host a Cookie Swap Party

First you need to decide on a date and place for your party and choose whether to have a theme (see page 10).

Next, invite your guests – take the time to write invitations that explain the concept of a cookie party in case your friends have not been to one before. The idea is that your friends should pick their favourite cookie recipe and bake batches of these to bring to the party. You need to tell them the number of cookies to bring so that they have enough to exchange with all the other guests. You can either ask them to bring the cookies all together or to pack then into individual bags so that there is one bag of cookies for each guest. It’s important to make sure that you give clear instructions on how many cookies you need – everyone to bring 2 or 3 dozen is generally what is expected, but this will depend on how many guests are coming to the party. Always have a few extra on standby in case there are any mix ups.

It’s a nice idea to encourage guests to write up the recipe so that it can be shared (unless it is a treasured family secret!). This way, not only do your guests get batches of tasty cookies, they will have new recipes for their cook books so that they can bake the cookies they like again. You could also ask people to send you the recipes the week before so that you can compile them into a recipe sheet or booklet for all your guests that will make a memento of the event.

Don’t forget to enquire if people have any allergies, and let the other guests know if this is the case as it is important to make sure that there are no allergy concerns on the day.

Spend time planning decorations and music for your party. You could also prepare going-home bags or favours for your guests if you want to make it extra special – a simple cookie cutter tied with pretty ribbon is one of my favourite gifts for cookie lovers.

It is important to think about some savories to serve at your party as you need to counter the sugar from the cookies. Cheese straws, simple canapes, crisps and nuts all take no time to prepare. I love warm olives, roasted for about 5–8 minutes in a moderate oven.

Think about what drinks to serve. Glasses of milk to have with the cookies bring back childhood memories, but other options could be hot chocolate, festive mulled wine or even mulled cider. Or, why not design a signature cocktail to match your party theme!

During the party, I like to ask everyone to tell the other guests about the origins of their recipe and how to make it. If you want the party to have a little light hearted competition, get people to secretly vote for the tastiest, best decorated, most festive and the most original cookie of the evening and have prizes for the winning bakers.

If you have time, send thank you cards after the event, which I always think is a nice touch.

Party Theme Ideas

Whilst just hosting a general cookie swap party is perfectly enjoyable, you may want to give your guests a theme to add some extra creativity and excitement. If you host an annual cookie party then guests will look forward to hearing your theme, so be creative. My favourite ideas are:

ROUND THE WORLD COOKIE PARTY

Give each of your guests a different country as their theme and then each person brings a traditional cookie from that country. You might have Anzac biscuits from Australia, linzer cookies from Austria, snickerdoodles from America and custard creams from England. To decorate your party room you can use flags, and if your guests are feeling particularly creative, they could bring items from their theme country for the cookie display.

DECORATED COOKIE PARTY

Task your friends with decoratively icing their cookies, or alternatively, ask everyone to bring plain cookies and ice them together – for this you would need to provide bowls of royal and glacé icing, food colouring, icing bags and nozzles/tips, and plenty of sweets/candies for decoration. For inspiration, print out decorating ideas and place them on the tables.

COLOUR THEMED PARTY

Ask your guests to bake cookies within a colour theme – for Christmas you could pick red and green, and decorate your room with red and green table cloths, Christmas crackers and paper chains. If your cookie swaps become a hit and you host one at other events, try pink and blue for a baby shower swap, or black and white for a bridal shower. Or theme a party as a ‘rainbow’ and ask for multi-coloured cookies.

SECRET SANTA COOKIE PARTY

If you fancy challenging your friends give them each a secret recipe to cook for the party, or get everyone to provide a recipe and swap them for another person to bake and bring along.

CHOCOLATE COOKIE PARTY

Ask your guests to bring cookies made with chocolate, and serve hot chocolate with the cookies for an extra treat for chocaholics.

CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATIONS

Ask your guests to bring cookies that can be hung, so that everyone can take home pretty cookies to decorate their own trees. See pages 84–109 for suggestions.

CHRISTMAS JUMPER/SWEATER PARTY

Why not suggest that your guests come wearing their favourite festive tops and decorate your cookies as a Christmas outfit.

FESTIVE FRIENDS

Theme your party around Christmas characters so each guest is given inspiration for their cookie – reindeer, penguins, Santa etc. See pages 60–81 for suggestions you could use.

Packaging and Display Ideas

PACKAGING

There are many different packaging ideas for your cookies. If you are not asking your guests to bring their cookies already packaged, as host, you will need to provide gift wrapping. This is the bit I love as I am forever collecting ribbons, boxes and other decorative items to use for my baking. These are a few suggestions:

• Cake boxes lined with festive tissue paper

• Large glass or Kilner jars

• Biscuit/cookie or cake tins

• Clear plastic bags or cellophane with ribbons

• Make giant cones with decorative cardboard

• Popcorn buckets or pretty paper candy bags

• If available cheaply, you could provide each guest with a festive serving tray or platter so that they can take their cookies home displayed, covering them with clear clingfilm/plastic wrap

You may want to provide a selection of the above so everyone can be creative. Add lots of ribbons, stickers and gift tags so that guests can. Even brown paper is made special with stripy twine or patterned rubber and ink stamps. You could also provide your guests with plain boxes and allow time for them to be decorated, and then award a small prize for the best decorated box.

Alternatively, ask your guests to bring their own packaging or containers for taking their cookies home. This will make life easier for you.

TABLE DISPLAYS

The highlight of your party should be the display table – lay a pretty cloth and adorn the table with festive decorations. If your guests are bringing loose cookies, cover your table with cake stands so that each guest can use one each. It is good to use a variety of heights so that all cookies can be admired. Make sure that you have room on the table, or have another table spare, for serving savoury nibbles, or hand these round separately.

The Italians have a wonderful tradition of cookie gifting tables, mainly used at weddings, where you bake a multitude of cookies in different colours and styles, and display them on a large table in patterns. Each person is then given a gift box to pack full of cookies to take home. You could use this idea for your party, and as each guest arrives, ask them to add their cookies in patterns and lines on the table.

Think about adding those festive extras such as bunting saying “Cookie Swap” or tying baubles on ribbons and hang them across the room. Table flowers can add a special touch – fresh flowers or even a simple vases of holly will do nicely. If you have the time, making paper chains with children is another lovely way to decorate the room. And don’t forget to take a group...