Holiday Cookie Box: Make 8 Cookies With Only 1 Dough!

1. Welcome to the class, let's bake cookies!: Hello, I am Rita. I am a pastry chef from Lisbon, Portugal. I'm also a cookbook author and a Youtuber specialized in desserts, in pastries, mainly anything sweet. Welcome to this class where I will be teaching you my favorite way to do cookie trays or cookie boxes, an assortment of cookies, using just one dough and then flavoring it and shaping it in different ways. You will learn how to make this master dough. It's very, very simple, only four ingredients. And this makes those kind of cookies that are very buttery, crunchy. But when you are eating them, they kind of melt in your mouth. They are similar to the Danish cookies in terms of texture and flavor. This particular dough is very, very versatile because it's quite neutral in terms of flavor. So you can add any kinds of flavors. And also you can shape them in different ways. You can shape it with your hands. You can cut it with a knife, or you can roll it out and cut it with cookie cutters. You will learn how to make this dough and eight different cookies, eight different flavors and eight different shapes. Class is more oriented to the holidays in terms of the flavors and the shapes of the cookies. But obviously you can do them year round and adapt these cookies to any occasion if you're looking for an easy way to have an assortment of cookies to offer your guests in your home, or if you're looking for a sweet present to give your loved ones, this is the class for you. 2. Making the dough: Let's start by making the dough. And with this amount, you will be able to make around 70 or 80 cookies. So that's enough for a big tray of cookies, or about two or three cookie boxes, depending on the size. For convenience, I will leave the written recipe both in grams and cups in the class resources. Let's check out the ingredients and start with the dough. We will need butter. You can use salted or unsalted is up to you icing sugar, plain flour and corn starch in the bowl of the stand mixer, Place the butter that should be soft at room temperature, add the icing sugar, and then using the paddle attachment, start mixing it at medium speed and mix it for about two or 3 minutes until everything is very creamy. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can use a regular hand mixer, or even just a spoon and some elbow grease. You should have something that looks like this, a very thick and smooth cream At this point, add the dry ingredients, the flour and the corn starch, and keep on mixing just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. It should take about 1 minute. The dough should form a ball and it should be very smooth, soft, but it shouldn't be sticky at all. It should have this exact consistency. It's like a play dough consistency. If your dough is a little bit thicker than this one, you can add just a tiny little bit of flour until it's like this. Now that our dough is ready, we are going to divide it in portions so we can make different kinds of cookies. I'm going to use my scale, and I'm going to weigh eight pieces that have the same weight. But if you don't have a scale, you can just eyeball it. Now that our dough is divided, we are going to make our different kinds of cookies. And today we are going to go big and make eight different styles of cookies. But obviously, you can use this dough and do only one kind, or two, or three. You just have to remember to adjust the quantities of the flavors that you're going to add to the dough. The eight flavors that we are going to do today are vanilla diamonds, chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread style cookies, white chocolate and coconut lemon cookies, strawberry tumprint cookies, orange and almond and walnut snowball cookies. 3. Vanilla diamonds: Let's make the vanilla diamond cookies. We will need vanilla paste or extract a little bit of flour and sugar. We will add the vanilla to this portion of dough and we will start mixing it with our hands. And since the vanilla is wet, it will make our dough a little bit sticky. So we'll add a little bit of flour so it doesn't stick anymore. As soon as the dough has the same plate, though, consistence than before, we will start rolling it into a small log shape. It should have more or less an inch diameter. And then we will put some sugar in the table. And we'll roll this log on the sugar so it can stick to the dough. Then we will roll it in cling film and take it to the fridge for about half an hour. And then we can unroll it and slice into cookies if they are not completely around. When you cut them, you can adjust them with your fingers and give them rounder shape. And then place the cookies on a tray with parchment paper and bake them in a preheated oven at 170 centigrades, or 340 Fahrenheit, for about ten to 15 minutes. 4. Chocolate chip shortbreads: Let's make the chocolate chip cookies. We will need chocolate chips or chunks to mix into the dough, and then some more chocolate to cover the cookies. Add the chocolate pieces to your dough and then mix them very well so they can be very evenly distributed. And then do as we did before for the vanilla cookies. Roll the dough into a small log that has more or less an inch diameter. Roll it in cling film and take it to the fridge for about half an hour and slice the cookies. Place them in a tray with parchment paper, Give them a rounder shape with your hands if you want, and bake them in a preheated oven at 170 Centigrades or 340 Fahrenheit, for about ten to 15 minutes. When they are completely cooled, melt the chocolate and dip them halfway. Shake them a little bit so the excess of chocolate can drip off. Place them in a tray with parchment paper and let the chocolate dry, and you can take them to the fridge so the chocolate dries faster. They will be ready when you can take them off the paper very easily. 5. Gingerbread style cookies: Let's make the gingerbread style cookies. We will need cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. If you prefer, you can use other ****** or just cinnamon. If you want a simpler cookie and a gingerbread man cookie cutter, add the ****** to the dough and mix well until they are very well incorporated and the dough has a smooth consistency and uneven color. We will roll this dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it has more or less, 14-18 of an inch. That's about 5 millimeters. We will take the dough to the fridge for about half an hour, and then we can start cutting our cookies. You can re roll the cookie dough that it's left between the pieces of parchment paper and cut more cookies until the dough finishes. Usually since the dough is chilled, it doesn't need to return to the fridge. But if you feel that the dough is soft, you can take it to the fridge already rolled out for about 10 minutes. Place the cookies in a baking tray with parchment paper, and bake them in a preheated oven at 170 Centigrades or 340 Fahrenheit, for about ten to 15 minutes. 6. Coconut and white chocolate squares: Let's make the coconut and white chocolate cookies. For these cookies, we will need the dough plan and then we will cover it after baking it with white chocolate and coconut flakes. We will roll this dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it has more or less 14-1 eighth of an inch. That's about 5 millimeters. Try to give it more or less a square shape and then take it to the fridge for about half an hour. After that time, we will start cutting the cookies. And for this particular cookie, I'm choosing to make squares. Obviously, you can do the cookies any shape you want, but for the squares, it's pretty simple. You just cut them with a knife. Place the cookies in a baking tray with parchment paper, and bake them in a preheated oven at 170 Centigrades or 340 Fahrenheit for about ten to 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely and then melt the white chocolate, And dip the cookies more or less halfway. Shake them so the excess chocolate can drip off. Place them in a tray with parchment paper, and before the chocolate dries out, sprinkle it with a coconut, and then let the chocolate dry completely. You can put the tray in the fridge, it's much faster, and the cookies will be ready when you can take them off the paper very easily. 7. Lemon Christmas trees: Let's make the lemon cookies. We will need for the dough, lemon zest and a little bit of flour. And then for the glaze, icing sugar, lemon juice, and a few drops of green food coloring. If you want, add the zest to the dough, and since the zest is wet, it will probably make your dough a little bit sticky. So add a little bit of flour until the dough has the same consistency as before. We will roll this dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it has more or less, 14-1 eighth of an inch. That's about 5 millimeters. Take the dough to the fridge for about half an hour, and then cut the cookies with the shape that you want. In this case, I'm using a small Christmas tree cookie cutter, and as before, you can re, roll the dough and keep on cutting shapes until your dough finishes bake the cookies. As I explained before, for all the other flavors and when they are cooled down, let's make some decorations with a little bit of glaze. Add the lemon juice to the icing sugar, and mix until you have this consistency that is very flowy and it falls easily from the spoon. If you want to turn it green, just add a tiny drop of green food coloring and do some decorations over the cookies. Let them dry completely at room temperature. It should take about half an hour and they will be ready when the glaze is completely dry and it doesn't stick to your fingers. 8. Strawberry thumbprints: Let's make the strawberry cam print cookies. For these cookies, we will need some jam. I'm using strawberry, but you can use other flavors of jam. And some sugar roll the dough into nine or ten little bowls. You can just take pieces out of the dough and roll it. Or you can do, as I am doing here, I like to roll the dough into a thin log and then cut the pieces. I find this way, the cookie balls have a more even size and then we just have to roll them between our hands to shape them. And then roll each cookie ball into sugar to coat evenly. And place them in a tray with parchment paper. With your tongue and the help of the other fingers, make an indentation in the center of each cookie bowl, and then fill it with about two a teaspoon of the jam. Bake them in a preheated oven at 170 centigrades, or 340 Fahrenheit, for about ten to 15 minutes. 9. Orange and almond cookies: Let's make the orange and almond cookies. For these cookies, we will need orange zest, a tiny little bit of flour, and sliced almonds add the zest to the dough. And since the zest is wet, it will probably make your dough a little bit sticky. So add a little bit of flour until the dough has the same consistency as before. We will roll this dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it has more or less, 14-1 eighth of an inch. That's about 5 millimeters. Take it to the fridge for about half an hour and then cut your shapes. You can use any cookie cutter. I'm using a round fluted one, and as before, cut all your cookies and re, roll the dough until you finish it. Then place them in a tray with parchment paper. And brush the cookies very slightly with a little bit of water so the almonds can stick. Place some flaked almonds over each cookie. Don't overlap them and press them slightly, and bake them in a preheated oven at 170 centigrades or 340 Fahrenheit, for about ten to 15 minutes c. 10. Walnut snowballs: Let's make the walnut snowball cookies. For our last cookie, we will need chopped walnuts and icing sugar. Add the chopped walnuts to the dough and mix very well. And then with the dough, we will make about eight or nine cookie balls. You can take pieces of the dough and roll them, or you can do, as I'm doing here, just shape the dough into a thin log and cut pieces, and then roll each piece into your hands until you form your cookie balls. Place the cookies in a baking tray with parchment paper and bake them in a preheated oven at 170 Centigrades or 340 Fahrenheit, for about ten to 15 minutes. When the cookies are still slightly warm, roll them in icing sugar very well to cover completely. Be careful doing this because at this point the cookies are still a little bit soft and very fragile. 11. Let's assemble a cookie box!: Now that our cookies are all finished and cool down, they are ready to enjoy or to put them in their cookie boxes or tray. And we are going to assemble a cookie box. Now, if you are not going to do this right away, you can store them in an airtight container and they will last for at least three weeks. You can use any shape of cookie boxes. It's important that your cookie box closes like an airtight container, so the cookies are well stored and they don't get soft. All you have to do is arrange them as you like. And as simple as this, your cookie box with eight different kinds of cookies is ready. 12. Goodbye and class project: And now that we have our cookie boxes ready, it's time to end the class. I really hope you have enjoyed it and are now inspired to create cookie boxes. And actually I will invite you to assemble a cookie box as the class project for this class. Don't forget to upload the picture so we can all see your cookies again. I am Rita. I really enjoyed my time with you in this class and I will see you in my next one. Bye bye.