The 7 Recipes in This Year's Cookie Box
A 2025 Cookie Box Recap
This year’s cookie box bonanza wrapped on Wednesday evening and since then, we’ve been in distribution mode. You might think spending almost three days of your life on seven different cookie recipes to fill 17 cookie boxes is the hardest part about this holiday tradition. It’s not. The hardest part is hand-delivering to and coordinating pick-ups with the box recipients when no one has a car or everyone is leaving town! My friends were great this year and helped a lot by coming to me :) When is a gift not a gift, right?
At a recent holiday party, a friend told me, “You must get a lot of joy out of doing this every year!” And I just had to laugh. I do make them as a nice gesture for my loved ones — and I wouldn’t do it if I hated it — but I responded, “It’s not joy, it’s a sickness.” The word “passion” is Latin for “to suffer.” When Olympic athletes win a gold medal, many of them experience a mental health decline. They’re at their best when they are striving, and now they have nothing to strive toward. The saying, while oft found on HomeGoods decor, is sadly true: It’s the journey, not the destination. In a way, that’s how I feel about pushing myself to the limits by making intricate pies on Thanksgiving or hundreds cookies in December. The end goal wouldn’t be worth achieving if it wasn’t for the struggle — not the other way around.
That being said, I feel a small amount of peace and contentment now that they’re done. I’m usually not someone who can relish their own accomplishments. Having a career steeped in the grind of social media and the content mill, it’s like a hamster wheel. It can feel as though even when you’ve completed something, you’re still not done. Maybe everyone feels this way. But every year, this exercise — with late nights of baking, frosting, packaging — brings a sense of closure I seldom experience.
Before you continue, you might want to read my deep-dive “How I Make My Cookie Boxes” for all my tips and tricks on planning, timing, what recipes to include, packaging and more. Also above, watch my cookie box vlog where I documented the whole the process (with Part 2 Coming tomorrow!).
Passionfruit Pâtes de Fruit
For a few years now I’ve wanted to add a gel or gummy element to my cookie box. With a pack of frozen passionfruit puree taking up space in my freezer, I knew this was the year to make it happen.
These little “fruit pastes” are made by cooking sugar, fruit puree and liquid pectin to make small gems that are a cross between jello and a gumdrop. I used a pinch of citric acid in sugary coating to make them very tart. Get the recipe on America’s Test Kitchen.
Stamped, Glazed Soft Gingerbread
These made an appearance in last year’s cookie box, and because I ordered two new cookie stamps from Etsy earlier this month, I simply had to make them again. (My other stamps are from Nordic Ware.) The recipe comes from my trusty copy of Tartine, Revisited by Liz Prueitt and Chad Robertson but can also be found here. I also make a couple regular cutout shapes to decorate with buttercream or royal icing.
Holiday Sugar Cookie Cutouts
I agonized over this recipe when I was developing it years ago, trying to nail down a sugar cutout shortbread that would taste buttery, not floury, but still hold its shape in the oven. As for the accompanying buttercream recipe, it crusts over to maintain the integrity of your designs, but still stays creamy. Also, it keeps the cookies fresh for days.
I made two batches of this dough about a week in advance, sheeted it between parchment paper, placed the sheets in a zipper bag, and froze them. Then I cut out and baked them off the morning before pick-up day, and frosted them the morning of pick-up day.
Peppermint Bark Toffee Crackle
This recipe is probably the highest reward to lowest effort ratio in the whole box. I mean, it combines two holiday favorites: peppermint bark and saltine toffee. Of course, I had pretzel thins on hand, and while they were a little tougher than saltines to get in one layer, it worked beautifully. This keeps so well you could make it two, even three days in advance.
Matcha Whipped Shortbreads
My first foray into piped shortbreads didn’t go as well as I wanted. I used this recipe from Camilla Wynne and added about 2 tablespoons of matcha to the dough (it probably only needed about 1.5). As a result of either the added matcha or my kitchen temperature, I needed to thin out the dough with some heavy cream to get it to pipe and I added too much. This caused a lot of the definition, especially in the rosettes, to melt away in the oven. The squiggles held up much better though! To finish them, I brushed on a lemon juice-butter glaze from this Yossy Arefi recipe.
Ginger-Molasses Cookies
The cookie recipe that will send my friends into a revolt if it’s not included in the boxes every year. It’s chewy. It’s spicy. It’s sparkly. It’s crackly. It’s the ginger-molasses cookie on easygayoven.com. I prepped, portioned and froze this dough about a week ahead of time and baked them off the day before box pick-ups.
Aperol Spritz Rainbow Cookies
I forgot to mention these in both videos and in this post originally. It's not their fault! I just forgot about them because shhhh I froze them when I developed them earlier this month and then thawed them to include in the cookie box. They freeze very well, I can now attest. Here’s the recipe!
Okay, that’s all until next year…. or do I have another cookie recipe in me to squeeze in before the holidays end? I guess we’ll find out together!
Hahahaha I laughed out loud at the intro. The hamster wheel rarely stops. Happy closure season, EGO! 🍪
SO FIRE!!!!