Every Christmas for the past 20 or so years, I’ve made more than 60 dozen cookies to give to friends and family. I’m not gonna lie, it’s a crazy amount of work, but I love it. The first time I did it, it took me over a week to bake and decorate all those Christmas cookies. But over the years, I’ve made continual improvements to the cookie making process that have whittled that down to 3 days, tops. Since it’s the biggest baking weekend of the year, I thought I’d share some helpful tricks I’ve picked up!
First thing to note, I do not have a Martha Stewart-sized kitchen. I started making all these cookies in an apartment with 3′ of counter space, so you don’t need a giant space- although extra space does make it easier.
Basic Tools
I admit, I am a kitchen tool junkie. I don’t have one set of good knives, I have two. I have oodles of prep bowls, a plethora of measuring cups and spoons, an army of wooden spoons and rubber spatulas, a raft of cutting boards, and a battalion of baking sheets. At one point, I even had two Kitchen-Aid mixers. It’s a problem. But you don’t need a bunch of fancy gadgets to make good cookies! Here’s what you will need:
- 2 baking sheets
- Preferably light colored, and not air-cushioned. I like these pans. Dark baking sheets get hotter faster, and it’s easy to overtake things. Air-cushioned sheets don’t bake as evenly, and generally add more time to baking.
- Parchment paper
- Trust me, a roll of parchment will change the way you bake. You can buy Silpat or other silicone mats, but they’re expensive. Totally worth it, if you can make the investment. If you can’t, spend $3 on some parchment paper.
- Waxed Paper
- This is great for wrapping, rolling, storing and decorating. Turn out your dough onto some waxed paper to form before refrigerating/freezing. Roll out dough between two sheets to avoid adding much flour (or having it stick to the board). Put a couple for sheets under cookies before you decorate to make clean up super easy.
- Measuring cup
- If you have a set of cups( 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 3/4, 1 cup) or a glass measuring cup, you’re set. It’s great to have both, but you can work with what you have.
- Measuring spoons
- One set (1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, 1 tbsp) will be just fine. I go through these so fast when I’m baking that I bought 5 sets, took them off the rings, and stored them in a jar on the countertop for easy access.
- Bowls
- As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many prep bowls! A set of three mixing bowls will be enough, as long as you have additional bowls/containers to use for prep work. I highly recommend getting a set of clear glass bowls in various sizes to make prep easy anytime you cook. This year, I sure Ziploc bags for the flour mixes, and it saved a bunch of space and made it easier to dump things in the mixing bowl.
- Mixer
- If you have a hand mixer, you’re set. You don’t need a standing mixer to bake well. A standing mixer can be a huge help with cookie making, but they’re big and expensive, and if you don’t use it more than once a year, it seems impractical.
- Spatula
- A rubber spatula is a must for any kitchen. You can use a spoon, for sure, but the spatula makes sure nothing stays in the bowl.
- Rolling pin (optional)
- Okay, if you’re not making any cookies that need rolling out, like sugar cookies, you can omit this one. I’d look for a wooden pin with an easy spinning action, not too heavy. I use a french rolling pin, which has no handles, but that’s a matter of personal preference. I started out with the basic model, and it worked just fine.
- Cookie Cutters and Decorating tools (optional)
- Like the rolling pin, you don’t need these unless you’re planning to do cut-outs and decorate them.
Freeze Your Dough
This is the very best tip I can give you. I make 95% of the dough for my Christmas cookies the weekend after Thanksgiving, and then I freeze it. If you’ve ever tried to make a bunch of cookie dough and bake it on the same day, you realize how much time that takes, especially if the dough needs to spend any time in the fridge. Making the dough in advance lets you get right down to the baking without much fuss. Just move the dough from the freezer to the fridge the night before you bake. If you forget, pull the dough out and rest on the counter for an hour before dealing with it.
I started doing this with dough that needed to sit in the fridge for a while, like sugar cookies. There’s a boatload of recipes for refrigerator cookies out there, all of which can be frozen. A lot of these doughs get shaped into rolls for their time in cold storage, so it’s an easy slice and bake when they come out. I even freeze dough for drop cookies, like chocolate chip. And you can make them months in advance! Cookie dough lasts up to 6 months in the freezer. If you’re bored one rainy weekend in October, start making some cookie dough to freeze. The Kitchn.com has a great primer on this.
Printed Recipes
This one took me a long time to do, but once I made the commitment, it has proven to be extremely helpful. If you’re like me, you use multiple sources for your recipes. When you’re making 10 different cookies, having 10 cookbooks out takes up a lot of counter space. So I sat down one day and started a document that listed each recipe on one page. I printed them off, and put them in a large envelope that I stored with the cookbooks. A lot of people use recipe cards, which serves the same purpose, but they’ve never been my bag. Having the recipes all at the ready makes it easy to make list of ingredients I needed, and it doesn’t matter if some dough lands on the page. I can easily reprint.
Another tip is to stick a magnet board on the kitchen cabinet door above the counter you use most often to cook. Then you can easily pin the recipe at eye level, and free up some counter space. I also love having a printed recipe for the next tip….
Mise en place, or the magic of the cookie assembly line
This is my favorite kitchen tip of all time. Mise en place is a French culinary term that means “putting in place.” This means that all of your ingredients are measured, cut, peeled, diced, etc. before you start cooking. If you’ve ever been halfway through a recipe and had to stop cooking to cut/grate/mince/beat/measure some ingredient, this tip will change your life. This is why I have a million prep bowls.
When I start making the dough for cookies, I bring out all those printed recipes. I line up the recipes on the counter next to the mixer, get out the bowls, measuring implements, and ingredients and start putting things in place. At each recipe’s spot, I measure out all of the ingredients needed for that recipe in assembly line fashion. How much flour? Into a different bowl for each recipe. I go through the major ingredients first: flour, sugar, eggs, butter; then into the smaller measures – salt, baking soda/powder, zest, extracts, spices. If they get added together, they go into the same bowl. Soon I have a bunch of stations with all the ingredients particular to each recipe.
This year’s cookie making mise.
The recipe goes up on the magnet board over the mixer, and you have all your ingredients ready to go. Mix one dough, wrap it up and stash in the fridge, wash the bowl and beater, and on to the next one.
Setting up in your kitchen make take a little planning. It’s great if you have a long counter, and can make a station next to the mixer for each recipe. Also, think about how you’re going to work. My pattern is mix dough, dump dishes in sink, turn out dough on pastry board to wrap, dough goes in fridge, dishes washed, repeat. As a result, my mixer is on one side of the sink and the pastry board on the other. I don’t have to make a bunch of additional steps to get messy dishes in the sink, and that is critical to my next tip….
Clean as you go
Nothing will make you get in the habit of this like having a super tiny kitchen and few tools. Even if you have a ginormous kitchen and every kitchen tool known to man, nothing puts you in a crap mood faster than having to deal with a huge mess after you’ve just made all that dough. And I hate cleaning anyway.
After setting up my mise en place, I put all of the ingredients away and wipe down the counter before I start in on the dough. When I finish one batch, I wash everything I just used or stick it in the dishwasher if I don’t need it again. Two other kitchen helpers that you can use for every day cooking:
- Kitchen towels- I line the counter with these when setting up the mise en place. It keeps eggs and fruit from rolling around, catches spills, and stabilizes the cutting board. When I’m done making dough, I pick these up and shake them into the trash.
- Garbage bowl – designate a small bowl for your garbage. This is great for egg shells, peels, etc, and you only have to make one trip to the garbage can.
Those are the major helpers that I’ve incorporated into my routine over the years. I hope these tips help you as much as they’ve helped me!
People often ask me why I make all these Christmas cookies every year. I do it because it’s the one thing I know how to do that makes everyone happy, including me. I hope you find some joy in your kitchen this Christmas!