Five Delicious Holiday Cookies To Freeze Now And Enjoy Later
Every December, I turn into a cookie-making machine. I’ll take over an entire corner of my house, piling containers of sweets and packaging materials into little towers. I make cookies to the detriment of all my other daily responsibilities. Let me tell you: Making that many cookie boxes takes planning, and I’ve learned some things along the way.
Sturdy characters such as shortbread can sit for a few weeks at room temperature, but most cookies are better eaten fresh. Luckily, freezing them is in my DNA—my granny’s freezer was seemingly filled to the brim with cookies, year-round. Depending on the cookie, some freeze better before baking, while others are particularly delicious when baked, frozen and then consumed partially defrosted. Airtight containers, layers of wax paper, freezer bags and vacuum sealers are your friends. Finishing touches like glazes and fillings often need to be done as close to consumption as possible, but the cookie bases can usually still be frozen. And mailing cookies is absolutely possible: Pack well-insulated boxes (biodegradable peanuts are a good choice) with frozen cookies that stand up well to extremes of temperature and over long periods, and then choose the fastest shipping method your budget can handle.
So fire up that spreadsheet, clean out the freezer and start filling it with cookies! Anyone who comes through your door this December will be greeted with sheer delight.
Cranberry-Glazed Eggnog Cookies
These delicious, eye-catching cookies from recipe developer Camilla Wynne combine two iconic holiday staples: cranberries and eggnog. Get this eggnog cookie recipe.
Black Forest Thumbprints
These cookies have all the flavours of Black Forest cake—chocolate, cherry, kirsch and vanilla—in a hand-held treat. Get this black forest thumbprints recipe.
Chocolate Ginger-Mint Sandwiches
One of the best dessert experiences of my youth was eating these sandwiches– two fudgy cookies bonded together by a melted After Eight—cold from my aunt’s freezer. This ginger-spiked version is even more festive than the original. Get this chocolate ginger-mint sandwich recipe.
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Orange Espresso Hazelnut Crescents
Nut crescents were a fixture in my granny’s cookie repertoire; her freezer was replete with old tins filled to the brim. I loved them dearly, and I don’t think she’d mind my updating the recipe with a little orange-espresso twist. Get this orange espresso hazelnut crescents recipe.
Caramel Apple Millionaire's Shortbread
My granny’s millionaire’s shortbread—a buttery base topped with a thick layer of caramel gilded with chocolate—was my favourite holiday cookie growing up. They froze well, and my cousin David loved them best when eaten straight out of the freezer. Here, I give them a caramel-apple spin that is, dare I say, better than the original. Get this caramel apple millionaire's shortbread recipe.
Clementine Dolci
These gorgeous citrusy cookies, which are shaped like adorable clementines, are based on Italian pesche dolci. They do take a bit of time to roll, excavate, fill, dip and coat with sugar, but I think the results are worth it! They are the only cookies in this collection that we don’t recommend freezing; as with their namesake fruit, fresh is best. Get this clementine dolci recipe.
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Camilla Wynne is a Toronto-based cookbook author, writer and recipe developer. Her most recent cookbook is Nature's Candy.
