CHRISTMAS COOKIES to give as a gift

You don’t need expensive gifts to impress family and friends at Christmas, it’s better to choose something made with your heart and hands: today, therefore, we will prepare CHRISTMAS COOKIES to give as a gift.

Better than store-bought cookies, tastier, healthier because you know what ingredients you’ve used, but especially easy and quick!

Now that we are in the full swing of the gift rush, instead of rushing through city center streets or spending hours online, spend half an hour getting your hands in dough and bake these delicious Christmas cookies. Because there’s no point in spending money on gifts that most of the time aren’t appreciated or, worse, are recycled, it’s better to opt for an economical and heartfelt solution.

Today we will prepare CHRISTMAS COOKIES to give as a gift that you can shape into any Christmas form you prefer: Christmas trees, gift boxes, reindeer, Christmas balls, elves, stars, gingerbread men, or whatever your imagination suggests. If you are also skilled with sugar decorations, you can prepare royal icing or cut out sugar paste and decorate them to make them even more beautiful.

The shortcrust base I used to prepare the cookies to give as a gift is a PISTACHIO SHORTCRUST BASE, a variant of the CLASSIC SHORTCRUST PASTRY prepared not only with the same classic ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, and eggs) but also with the addition of pistachio flour, which gives a pleasant flavor and a distinctly Christmas color.

Of course, if you prefer, you can also use other types of nuts without changing the quantity to achieve a walnut, hazelnut, or almond shortcrust pastry.

Prepare these delicious CHRISTMAS COOKIES to give as a gift and pack them in a nice tin box or transparent bags with a nice ribbon. They will surely be an appreciated gift, but most importantly, they will be delicious because who can resist Cookies!

For more ideas on CHRISTMAS COOKIES to give as a gift, don’t miss out

Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Economical
Rest time: 30 Minutes
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Portions: 40 cookies
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian

264.16 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 264.16 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 25.71 (g) of which sugars 11.37 (g)
Proteins 4.72 (g)
Fat 16.18 (g) of which saturated 6.70 (g)of which unsaturated 3.77 (g)
Fibers 1.54 (g)
Sodium 124.66 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 50 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 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup pistachio flour
8 1/2 tbsp butter (cold)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg (about 50 g)
salt (a pinch)

Tools

Bowl
Baking tray
Cookie cutter

PROCEDURE

Mix in the bowl of the mixer (paddle attachment) or by hand the butter, cold from the refrigerator, sugar, and a pinch of salt without working the ingredients too long. Add the egg and continue mixing until it is fully incorporated into the mixture.
At this point, add the two flours (all-purpose flour and pistachio flour) and knead until you get a homogeneous mixture. Shape the dough into a rectangular loaf, wrap it in cling film, and let it rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge.
After the resting time, take the dough and work it for a few seconds with your hands to obtain a pliable and workable dough again. Roll out the pistachio dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Take the cutters of your chosen shape and cut out the Christmas Cookies to give as a gift.
As you cut them, place them slightly spaced apart on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated static oven at a temperature of 340°F for about 15/18 minutes. They should be lightly golden. Wait for them to cool before removing them from the tray.

NOTES

Use cold butter straight from the fridge to obtain a more elastic dough and a shortcrust that won’t break or crack when you roll it out with a rolling pin.

I recommend using ready-made pistachio flour because it yields better results. Alternatively, you can shell and toast the pistachios, wait for them to cool, then blend them in a mixer with 2 tbsp of sugar (which you must deduct from the total sugar in the recipe).

The sugar helps absorb the oily part that the pistachios might release while being blended.

You can replace the pistachio flour with an equal amount of hazelnut, almond, or walnut flour as you wish.

STORAGE

CHRISTMAS COOKIES to give as a gift can be stored airtight for up to 2 weeks. You can prepare the pistachio shortcrust in advance and then keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for 1 month. Just take it out of the freezer the day before use.

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