Cookie Gift Baskets Tip & Recipe Blog

Posts Tagged ‘cookie gift’

Nothing is sweeter or more welcomed than a batch or two of homemade cookies. They’re delicious any time of year but they make the perfect Christmas gift. If you start early, you can get everything done well before Christmas Eve. Here are some tips on how to make sweet Christmas cookie gifts.

First, select pretty baskets or tins in which you will place your cookies. This is the most crucial step as presentation is key. The more unique and upscale your container, the more wonderful your gift will look.

Get creative. You can find small picnic type baskets, baskets with pretty ceramic side handles, antique cookie tins, festive new glass boxes or plastic tins. If it can hold a cookie, it will work. A good place to look is at craft stores where they have everything. You can even stack your cookies in a glass vase that is wide enough to fit.

Once you have found your vessel, include some pretty tissue paper. Select a Christmas themed tissue with printed snowmen or trees or just go with silver, gold, red or green. You’ll wrap the cookies in plastic food wrap and then include the tissue as a basket filler and outer wrap for the cookie packages.

What you bake is completely up to you. If you have a family favorite that everyone loves, go for it. If you’ve never baked before, you can find hundreds of cookie recipes by searching “Christmas cookie recipes” on the web. There are entire sites devoted to nothing but cookie baking. You’ll be surprised at the limitless expanse of options available.

Choose cookies that will travel and hold up well if you need to ship them. Biscotti are hard enough to make the journey as are Springerle, a German pressed cookie. If you don’t have to ship, you can pretty much make anything you like.

Go out shopping for the finest ingredients you can afford. Buy the best chocolate chips, vanilla beans and nuts you can. Great ingredients really do make all the difference. Check your list twice as there’s nothing more frustrating than having to run out for one spice you forgot when you’ve already got the mixer running.

Set up a work station where you have all your ingredients for one type of cookie. Put the ingredient away as you use it so that you know it’s already been added to the batter. Use lightly colored aluminum cookie sheets to avoid burning your cookies. Watch them carefully so you can take them out at exactly the right moment.

When your cookies are cooled, you can freeze them for up to two months. That means you can bake several batches ahead of time and when Christmas rolls around, you can assemble all your baskets. Try to deliver your christmas cookie gift baskets right away after you have filled them when they are still at their freshest.

Include the recipes if you like. Friends may love them so much they’ll ask you how to make them. You’ll be putting smiles on a lot of faces when you show up with a lovely cookie basket or tin. Just be careful, because once you’re known as the Cookie Lady, they’ll be wanting more cookies every year!

Cookies are welcome at any party. Everyone loves getting and eating cookies. If you want to include cookies in your wedding, why not make them as favors? With a little ingenuity and a little practice, you can make really fun and adorable wedding cookies.

Start with a really good recipe for sugar cookies. Don’t even consider store bought as they won’t taste or look good in the end. Then, decide on a cookie shape. You can choose a cookie cutter that looks like a wedding cake, a heart, a flower, a shoe, or even just an elegant square or oval. Use a big enough cookie cutter so that you get a nice sized cookie out of it that will take decorations well.

Each cookie will need to be hand decorated. You can easily make royal icing or use fondant to create a surface layer for your embellished designs. Pipe icing onto the cookies after they have cooled. Use your new initial or pipe on rosettes, dots, or even a word or two. Once you get the hang of using a piping bag, you’ll want to get creative with what you put on the cookies. Wrap and you have edible cookie favors.

Sugar Cookies (from joyofbaking.com)

3 cups (390 grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

or

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:

4 cups (440 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

3 tablespoons (30 grams) meringue powder

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

1/2 cup - 3/4 cup (120 - 180 ml) warm water

Food Coloring (I use Gel Pastes that can be found at cake decorating and party stores or else on-line)

For Sugar Cookies: In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove one-half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.) Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.

Note: If you are not going to frost the baked cookies, you may want to sprinkle the unbaked cookies with crystal or sparkling sugar.

Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes (depending on size) or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost with royal icing, if desired. Be sure to let the royal icing dry completely before storing. (This may take several hours.) Frosted cookies will keep several days in an airtight container. Store between layers of parchment paper or wax paper.

Makes about 36 - 4 inch (10 cm) cookies.

Lovers of Oreos will want to learn how to make an Oreo milkshake. It’s another way to use your favorite cookie in an innovative way. Many recipes exist for the beloved milkshake. Here is one you can easily commit to memory.

Take a dozen Oreo cookies, any flavor. Place them in a blender. Add 1-1/2 cups of cold milk. Swirl it up. Next add one pint of your favorite ice cream and a tablespoon of good chocolate syrup to the blended mix. Swirl. Pour into a tall glass and enjoy.

It’s so easy to make this milkshake that you can offer Oreo milkshakes at your next party. Set up an Oreo cookie favor bar complete with blender and have ice cream on ice or in a small bar freezer so guests can make their own shakes.

Some restaurants offer Oreo cookie milkshakes. They use a vanilla syrup in theirs to make it taste so good. You can find vanilla syrup in coffee shops or in the grocery store. It used to be a hard to find ingredient, but it isn’t anymore.

Next time the kids have a sleepover, why not let them set up a milkshake station? As long as an adult is nearby, they will be able to handle making this easy concoction.

Some recipes for the Oreo milkshake call for chopping the cookies ahead of time. That will result in a smoother blend. But Oreos will break up just fine in the blender. Why create another step for yourself if you don’t have to? Vary the amount of Oreos you use and you’ll get a thicker and more chocolatey mixture that’s more like a smoothie. If you use less milk and more ice cream, you’ll get more of a blended ice cream treat. And, of course, the more syrup you add, the sweeter it’s going to be.

Invent your own twists on the Oreo milkshake. Add some malted milk powder for an old time classic malted milk shake. Or vary the ice cream flavors. Cherry vanilla or rocky road will add to the texture and completely change the taste. Adults may find that coffee ice cream is their new favorite smoothie flavor when mixed with Oreos.

Toppings for your milkshake can also be inventive. Add whipped cream or peppermint candy pieces. Stick a cookie straw in it for a fun way for kids to down their shakes. Shake on some cinnamon or cocoa powder. Or shake on a few shots or sprinkles in chocolate or rainbow colors.

The Oreo milkshake is a happy, fun to create drink that you can whip up anytime day or night and its a great summer cookie treat. Keep the ingredients in the house for those late night snack attacks or for when the kids are bored on a rainy day. You’ll be the hero when you pull out the fixings for an Oreo milkshake fest.

Oh, and don’t substitute other brands of faux Oreos or you may end up disappointed. Other brands really don’t taste like original Oreos. However, you can get creative and use other Oreo flavors such as Peanut Butter Oreos or Fudge Mint Oreos. There are also holiday Oreos that come in red and white peppermint candy flavor which will add a nice touch to holiday milkshakes.

What do you give when someone far away has a birthday, an anniversary, or a new baby? If you want to ship a gift, you usually have to go and shop for the gift, wrap it, and then look for a suitable box to ship it in. By the time you write the label out and get to the UPS store or post office, you’re exhausted! There’s a better way to send a gift with a few simple clicks of your computer mouse.

We sell these tasty cookie gift baskets online! They’re made to order and then ship right to the recipients' door so you never have to run around town getting in and out of the car.

Cookie flowers have been popular for some time now. These decorative cookies are really more like pops as they come on long stems. They resemble a cookie rose. But they can be decorated with any kind of theme imaginable.

Cookie companies have really turned this into an art. The frosting and colorings that are being used now are so vivid, you’d swear that the cookies are real and not just representations of flowers.

Go for a theme that matches your gift-giving holiday. Cookies for Mother’s Day can mean red rose cookie blooms. New baby? How about a basket filled with long-stemmed baby bottle cookies or ducks or even baby faces? The icing artists who make these cookies are so skilled that the frosting really pops to life.

There are cookie bloom baskets for every holiday, no matter how obscure. Nurse’s Day? We have nurse cookies! Send over a basket to your favorite hospital staff complete with nurse’s hats, thermometers, and stethoscopes done in sugar. How about Groundhog’s Day? You can get a representation of that little fuzzy shadow-seeker, too! There’s really no limit to what you can order in the cookie realm these days.

You can also create your own cookie blooms. It’s really easy. Just choose a sugar cookie recipe and a cookie cutter that’s big enough to accommodate icing detail. Small, intricate cookies don’t work well for cookie blooms. You want a big and bold shape like a giant star or sunflower or teddy bear outline.

The only real trick is to get long stemmed lollipop sticks at the craft store and insert them before you bake the cookies. Many a disappointed home baker has tried to get the sticks in after baking and it’s just impossible. You’ll end up with crumbled cookies. And don’t try to move the cookies off the sheet pan before they’re completely cool or you’ll end up pulling the whole stick out.

Decorate with royal icing and icing tints or food coloring powders. The powders are found wherever cake making supplies are sold. And that’s how commercial bakers get the colors so vivid—a tip from the pros.

Stand your cookies up in a floral foam block or a cube of Styrofoam, then place in a basket that has been lined with fabric or a linen napkin. Make sure to hide the foam so it looks like the cookies are standing on their own. This is one thinking of you gift you’ll want to carry over to a friend’s house instead of trying to mail.

So you want to prepare a homemade basket that is filled with luscious goodies? It couldn’t be easier if you plan on making cookies the center of your basket. Bake a few batches and you’re on your way.

Find a basket that is sturdy and attractive. You can certainly reuse baskets that you have. Just make sure that you’re using something that looks elegant and can pass for brand new. Any misshapen basket or one that is obviously on its last leg is a bad choice.

Once you have your chosen basket, get ready to fill your basket with a liner. This can be a pretty cloth napkin, a piece of fabric, or even a decorative piece of wrapping paper that will hold up well. Brown packing paper can also be used to give your basket a rustic feel and look.

Basket in place, lined and ready to go, you’re on to the fun part. Decide which recipes you will use to fill your basket. Think about classics and family favorites alike. If you have a standby chocolate chip cookie or sugar free cookie recipe that everyone seems to love, be sure to include it.

Once all your cookies are baked, think about the packaging. You can wrap several types of cookies, each in their own cellophane bags for individual treats. Or you can wrap the same type of cookies in one plastic bag, another in another. Just don’t combine different types of cookies in the same bag or leave them all loose as all the cookies will take on the flavor of each other and you’ll have one tasteless mess.

Now, arrange the cookies into lovely little parcels. You might choose to wrap each plastic bag in a pretty paper or even stand them inside a paper cone. It’s up to you. You can also just place layers of cookies into the basket flat, but inside bags.

If you’ve got all the same type of cookie, you can go ahead and leave them all out in the open in the basket. Start layering them like shingles on a house so that they look decorative and well-placed. If you want to include cookie pops, you’ll need to insert sticks into the cookies before you bake them. And then individually wrap them and add to the basket. It’s nice to have some elements standing and others flat at the bottom of the basket. Vary the heights, too. Some cookie pops can be sticking out while others are lying off to the side.

Tie it all up with a pretty ribbon and your gift is ready to go. One nice thing you can add to your basket is the recipe for the cookie you’ve included. If you’ve included several varieties, be sure to write out the recipe for each. You can hand write or type onto recipe cards or other decorative card stock. Punch a hole through the card and tie on with ribbon.

Don’t forget about a gift card. You’ll want your recipient to know who it’s from after all your hard work. Take the few extra minutes to make a decorative card that shows your recipient’s name in fine penmanship or even glitter. The more decorative your gift basket becomes, the more it looks like a fine, well-intentioned thinking of you gift to a dear friend or relative.

Woo-hoo!  Our delicious longstem cookies were chosen as the gift of the day but the tasting team over at the Gourmet Gift of the Day blog.  It appears that one of the husband of one of the blog staffers sent her a dozen of our gourmet cookies in a gift box.  She loved the cookies and presentation of course... hence the award.  And we are thrilled!

Our longstem cookies are available in numerous longstem box colors including gold, white, light blue, pink and red (during Valentine's Day).  You can choose from various cookie flavors including macadamia nut, peanut butter with peanut butter chips, chocolate chip with or without nuts and more.  The cookies on stems are presented with ribbons on a bed of tissue inside the box.  Prices start at just $33 for a half dozen of our jumbo cookies that weigh over 1/4 lb each.  For more information or to purchase this gift, see our Longstem Classic Cookie Gift Boxes.