Hello and happy cookie season! Any religion, any holiday, I am a firm believer that cookies in December span all kinds of people. And I love gifting cookie boxes. Like, I love it big time.
Now I will be VERY HONEST when I say I usually man this blog myself, and today we are going a bit old-school with photos of hand written recipes. But don’t worry, we also have the typed out version ready in case you’d like to print it!
So now, let’s get into the cookies! I was dying to make a few unique flavors this year, using the ginger sugar from my viral blueberry muffins, a cool shortbread technique, and of course, this Black Lime powder I’ve been dying to use.
PS, if you are wondering what boxes I used, I linked them here.
So here’s the full list!
Butterbeer Shortbreads
Think of these as salty-cozy-butterscotch. I love this method of making shortbreads because it’s very similar to making pie crust in a food processor. Pulse the butterscotch chips until they are nearly a powder first, then add the flour and pulse again so you get kind of a “butterscotch-powder” base.
From there you can add the butter, and it turns into a really nice, very malleable dough!
Butterbeer Shortbreads
Equipment
- 1 food processor
- 1 bench scraper
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butterscotch chips 85 grams / 3 ounces
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 280 grams / 9.9 ounces
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar 28 grams / 1 ounce
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 10 tablespoons cold salted butter cubed, 141 grams / 5 ounces
- 3 tablespoons ice water
For the topping
- 1/4 cup butterscotch chips 42 grams / 1.5 ounces
- 1/4 cup white chocolate 42 grams / 1.5 ounces
- Flaky salt
Instructions
- In a food processor, process the butterscotch chips into a fine powder. Add the flour and powdered sugar and process to get everything combined.
- Add the salt and the cubed salted butter. Pulse in the food processor until the butter starts to combine with the flour, then stream in the water while processing until a dough forms.
- Transfer the dough to either plastic wrap or a lint-free towel and squeeze it into a ball. Transfer to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- Once the dough has chilled, roll it out into a 10-inch by 5-inch rectangle. Place this on a baking sheet, cover and chill in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, preheat the oven to 350°F. Slice the dough lengthwise into 20 1/2-inch wide matchsticks.
- Space out the matchsticks on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes, or until the cookies are golden on the bottom.
- Melt the butterscotch chips and white chocolate together. Use a spoon to drizzle this in a zigzag pattern on the cookies, then top with flaky salt. Let cool fully before serving!
Fig Ginger Cookies!
This is a riff on literally any brown butter cookie you’ve seen me make, but I topped them with my famous ginger sugar (must!) and they turn into what I think a gingerbread cookie wants to be. Make sure to drain the figs well, or else they might keep your cookies a bit too soft in the center.
Fig Ginger Cookies
Equipment
- 1 small sauté pan
- 1 Stand mixer
- 2 sheets of parchment paper
- 2 half sheet pans
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter 226 grams / 8 ounces, divided
- 1 cup dried figs 226 grams / 8 ounces
- 1 cup granulated sugar 220 grams / 7.75 ounces
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 140 grams / 5 ounces
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon all spice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 280 grams / 9.9 onces
For the ginger sugar
- 1/2 cup turbinado sugar 100 grams / 3.5 ounces
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
Instructions
- Add half of the butter (113 grams) to a sauté pan over medium heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes, letting the butter fizz and foam, until it is a deep, dark brown. Transfer this to the bowl of a stand mixer and pop it in the fridge to chill. Leave out the remaining butter to soften.
- Tear the figs into small pieces and add them to a heat-proof bowl. Cover them with boiling water and set aside.
- When the brown butter is fully cooled and starting to firm up around the edges, add the remaining softened butter. Add in 220 grams of granulated sugar, 140 grams of brown sugar and beat until fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- Add two eggs and beat again until lighter in color and very fluffy. Then add in a teaspoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of ground ginger, half a teaspoon of all spice, half a teaspoon of cinnamon.
- Add the flour and mix it into the dough on the lowest setting, until everything is just combined.
- Drain the figs very well and squeeze out any excess moisture. Mix into the dough.
- Scoop the dough into 15 balls weighing 87 grams each. Let these chill in the fridge for 8 hours up to overnight.
- The next day, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Make the ginger sugar by mixing together the turbinado sugar and fresh ginger, squeezing the ginger into the sugar with your fingers until it is well combined.
- Roll the dough balls into balls and coat the tops with the ginger sugar.
- Bake the cookies for 17-18 minutes, or until the cookies no longer look moist in the center. Let cool before serving!
Yuzu Ginger Black Lime “Lumps of Coal”
And this is the Black Lime I like to use!
If you aren’t sure what black lime tastes like, think of it as smoky-citrus. These are definitely the most adventurous cookie, but I love them! It’s a like a citrusy pecan sandie, minus the pecans.
Yuzu Ginger “Lumps of Coal”
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer or hand mixer
- 1 tablespoon scoop
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup salted butter 113 grams / 4 ounces, softened
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar 55 grams / 2 ounces
- 1 tablespoon yuzu juice
- 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- 1 cup all-purpose flour 140 grams
For the topping + glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar 60 grams
- 1 tablespoon yuzu juice plus more if needed to thin it out
- 2 tablespoons Black Lime powder
Instructions
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- Add the yuzu juice, salt, baking soda and ginger and mix again.
- Add the flour and mix on the lowest setting until a stiff dough forms.
- Use a 1 tablespoon scoop to portion the dough into 15 dough balls that look like mounds. They won't change much in the oven, so make sure they are the size and shape you want to look like "coal."
- Chill in the fridge for 8 hours up to to overnight.
- The next day, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Bake the cookies for 14-15 minutes or until golden on the bottom. Let them cool completely.
- While they are cooling, whisk together the powdered sugar and yuzu juice to make a glaze. Dip the tops of each cookie into the glaze, then flip them onto a cooling rack.
- Dust the cookies with the black lime powder to make them look like coal. Give the glaze a few minutes to set and then they are ready to serve!
Snickerdoodle Puppy Chow!
If it doesn’t have cream of tartar, it’s not a snickerdoodle. Those are the LAWS. Those are the FACTS. This puppy chow uses a small amount of white chocolate to hold together the real necessities here, which is cream of tartar and cinnamon. This also uses a whole box of Chex cereal, because I CARE about you!!
This is the gold dust I like to top this with, but no pressure!
Snickerdoodle Puppy Chow
Equipment
- 1 Small Pot
- 1 heat-proof bowl
Ingredients
- 9 cups Chex cereal 1 full box
- 1 cup white chocolate 198 grams / 7 ounces
- 1/4 cup salted butter 57 grams / 2 ounces
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons hot water
- 2 cups powdered sugar 280 grams / 9.9 ounces
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Instructions
- Add the Chex to a large bowl.
- Using the double-boiler method, melt the white chocolate, salted butter, and granulated sugar together. The mixture might separate, so quickly whisk in 3 tablespoons of boiling water to emulsify it into a smooth melted chocolate texture.
- Pour this over the Chex, cover the bowl and shake well to combine.
- Whisk together the powdered sugar, cream of tartar, cinnamon and salt. Pour this into the bowl with the Chex.
- Shake again until everything is well coated. Taste and add salt as preferred!
And that’s it for my Christmas cookies this year!
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3
Handwritten or in blog form I love that you do this every year, it’s my favorite thing to make your cookies for my loved ones, thanks for all you do!
All the cookie recipes sound so amazing, especially the fig ginger cookies. Can’t wait to try them out! One question, would the 2 cups of AP flour or 280g be the correct measurement? Wanting to clarify as the grams for the AP flour appears to be slightly larger than the average cup-grams equivalent.
Always always always use the grams that I list if you have a scale!
Hi,
how can I substitute the black lime?
Love these recipes! Thank you
You can just skip it if you can’t find it! Maybe pulsed up black sprinkles will give you the same look, but it’s a hard flavor to sub, unfortunately!
How long can I refrigerate the shortbread? What if I leave them more than overnight?!?
Thank you! So good!
If they’re well covered, they can fridge for 3 days!
What is the maximum time that I refrigerate/freeze the fig ginger cookies? Trying to space out my cookies this year so I do not have to do them all in one day! Thanks. All of your recipes are so delightful!
Oh my GOSH I am so sorry for my delay here, I was traveling! But those are very forgiving, if they are covered tightly they can be refrigerated for up to 3-4 days!
I made the butterbeer shortbreads and they were really yummy!
I used one of the reject edge pieces as my guide for checking the underside, to achieve that perfect golden color. My drizzle was not very pretty, but the simplicity and flavors of this were spot on!
I’m so happy you liked them!
Since everything is measured by volume could I easily double the recipe? I’ve doubled cookie recipes before and it didn’t turn out well so wondering if there’s a foolproof method since I’m making double/triple quantities for my cookie boxes this year. Excited to make the yuzu ginger ones!!
Absolutely! In my video I doubled them as well 🙂
Can I substitue the flour in the recipes for gluten free flour? Specifcally for the fig ginger cookies?
Hi there! I haven’t personally tested it but I know most gluten free users of my blog find big success with the King Arthur 1:1 blend!
What kind of chex mix for the puppy chow? They have a cinnamon one. Could ai use that one and omit the cinnamon in the recipe?
I recommend using plain Chex cereal if you can!
Excited to try al these! Wondering if I could use DF butter with same results?
I love Miyokos for a DF butter, and I find it works similarly for these cookies!
hi! how long does the puppy chow keep? should i store at room temp?
If it’s kept in an airtight container or bag it’s good for 7-10 days! Store at room temperature 🙂
can the figs in the fig ginger cookies be removed? i’m not the biggest fan of their flavor or texture when they’re dried 🙁
Sure! Dates or raisins are also a great sub if you prefer that!
My short bread cookies spread out in the oven making them more like pancakes than match sticks… what can I do ?
Oh wow, did you measure by weight? And how long were the shortbreads able to chill? What brand of butterscotch chip did you use? With the high ratio of flour to butter here, there should be close to zero spread!
I did not measure by weight, but I can. I chilled the dough more than overnight- more like 24h. And I used nestle toll house butter scotch.
Pancakes is a bit of an exaggeration- but they definitely didn’t hold their rectangular shape.
I’ll try measuring by weight.
Good thing I did a test batch! They were still delicious 😋
Nestle tollhouse is the brand I used as well! Altitude will definitely change some things, I’m not an expert at baking at altitude but aim to measure by weight and that should help! The dough should be stiff and sliceable.
Making my second dough today…I’m baking at high altitude also
My ginger fig cookies spread pretty thin. I’m not sure what I did wrong, I measured all the ingredients by the gram. I did have to use unsalted butter – could that have caused them to spread?
I am so sorry that happened! It was most likely the moisture in the figs, you need to really press out as much water as you can. If this happens again you can use a cup or bowl to swirl around the edges when the cookies are still warm and susually that brings them into a salvageable cookie!
Hi Justine, I just finished making the puppy chow recipe and I think that the ratios need adjusting. There simply wasn’t enough of the white chocolate mixture to cover the majority of the chex. The one change I made was that I only added 1.5 tbl of hot water, rather than 3 tbl; however, I’m not sure that another 1.5 tbl of liquid would have made a huge difference.
I noticed that there wasn’t enough white chocolate after I already poured it on the chex and I knew I had to move on to the next step before that white chocolate dried. Once I added the powdered sugar mixture, it was obvious that about half of the cereal had some of the white chocolate mixture on it, while the other half was just cereal with powdered sugar.
If I were to make this again, I would ensure that my white chocolate ratio more closely follows the Chex official recipe (we’re missing the 1/2 cup peanut butter!). Despite this long-winded comment, I think the puppy chow is really delicious and definitely reminiscent of snickerdoodles. I’m excited to bring this to a nut-free family party!!
Hi there! Thank you for your comment, I always take them into account, and many take me back to the drawing board, but on this one I have to very respectfully stand behind my recipe! There’s a reason we aren’t following the Chex ratios (they use vague measurements/no weight amounts so it’s never been a recipe I would want to imitate), and throwing in peanut butter is a very overpowering flavor, and it would take away from what this mix is supposed to be! I will say the tablespoon might have helped more than you think, since your white chocolate should not get close to hardening within the mix, it should be thin and sticky for a good amount of time. In the development of the recipe a huge concern was the white chocolate being too thin so that the cereal might have gotten soggy, which is why I went through countless ratios before ending on this one. My testers and I felt it to be the best for coverage while still keeping the puppy chow from going stale or mealy.
I know I am getting long-winded, but my best guess of what went awry here is that you poured the chocolate all in one place in the bowl, where pouring it evenly across the surface before shaking might have been a better bet for the tools/bowl that your were using. Either way, I am so sorry this recipe did not meet your expectations, but I strive to keep the quality high across my work. Of course, every recipe out there is meant to be adjusted to your needs! If you add more in the future, please keep me posted on how it turns out!