CHRISTMAS Cookies to GIVE as GIFTS
You don’t necessarily need expensive gifts to impress family and friends at Christmas; it’s better to choose something made with love and your own hands like the CHRISTMAS Cookies to GIVE as GIFTS: good, healthy because you know what ingredients you’ve used, but most importantly, easy and quick!
Today’s recipe is specifically designed for the holidays to prepare delicious cookies to serve with tea during the holiday season or to gift to friends and family, wrapped with a nice ribbon.
The dough is very simple and can be made by hand without any difficulty, and you can use any cookie cutters you like and have available! The secrets to getting perfect Christmas cookies are: resting in the refrigerator, which will allow you to have well-defined cookies even after baking; once baked, let them cool to avoid breaking, and then you can choose whether to serve the Christmas cookies plain, with powdered sugar, or decorated.
A cute and tasty Christmas recipe that can be prepared in advance, storing the cookies in a tin box, and assembled at the last minute to decorate the table on Christmas day, as place holders, or as a sweet gift.
You’ll be the first to be amazed by the result! The Christmas cookies to give as gifts are perfect for a snack, for Christmas Buffets or Parties, or to be pierced and hung as decorations on the Christmas tree. Try them, and you’ll love them!
For decorating these Christmas tree cookies, let your imagination run wild: colorful sprinkles, fondant, sugar icing, or simply a dusting of powdered sugar, they’ll still be delicious and will be snatched up.
For more ideas on CHRISTMAS COOKIES to give as gifts, don’t miss
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 40 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas
- Energy 282.81 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 27.46 (g) of which sugars 12.13 (g)
- Proteins 4.73 (g)
- Fat 17.98 (g) of which saturated 7.18 (g)of which unsaturated 4.04 (g)
- Fibers 0.85 (g)
- Sodium 92.47 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 60 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup hazelnut flour
- 1 egg (about 50 g)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 pinch salt
Tools
- Bowl
- Cookie Cutter
Steps
Mix the butter, cold from the fridge, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl without working the ingredients too long. Add the egg and continue mixing until fully absorbed. Add the two flours (all-purpose and hazelnut) and knead until a homogeneous dough is obtained. Shape the dough into a rectangular loaf, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Take the dough, work it for a few seconds with your hands to regain elastic dough, then roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 1/8-1/6 inch. Use cookie cutters to stamp and cut the dough. Place the cookies slightly apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a static oven at a temperature of 340°F for about 10/12 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let them cool completely.
The Christmas cookies to give as gifts are ready! You can enjoy them as they are, sprinkle them with a little powdered sugar, decorate them with royal icing or fondant, or wrap them to create your delicious Christmas gift!
NOTES
Use cold butter from the fridge to obtain a more elastic dough and a shortcrust pastry that won’t break or crack when rolled with the rolling pin.
I recommend using ready-made hazelnut flour because it has a better yield. Alternatively, you can toast hazelnuts, let them cool, then blend them in a mixer with 2 tablespoons of sugar (which you should subtract from the total sugar in the recipe). The sugar helps absorb the oily part they might release while being blended.
You can replace hazelnut flour with an equal amount of pistachio, almond, or walnut flour.
STORAGE
CHRISTMAS Cookies to GIVE as GIFTS can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week. You can prepare the dough in advance and keep it in the fridge uncooked for up to 4 days. Just remove it from the freezer the day before using it.
