We look forward to our household cookie bakeoff every year and this year a few of us were feeling under the weather, so we weren’t sure it was going to happen. We were able to power through and get our cookies made. I for one was so happy because this year I went with a classic Christmas cookie flavor that I was excited about.
We didn’t vote this year since Tommy had a timing issue with his brownies (see below), but overall Carli and I both had winning recipes!
Britta’s Cookies: Soft + Chewy Gingerbread Cookies (with Almond Icing)
I am an avid listener of the A Beautiful Mess podcast and Elsie and Emma rave about their gingerbread cookie recipe. I love gingerbread but I don’t love a hard cookie so this was the perfect recipe for me to try. They’re perfectly dense and chewy with the most delicious spicy ginger flavor. I didn’t want to do the standard royal icing on them (although it looks pretty) so I found this delicious almond icing recipe. It was so easy to whip together and I love the mix of butter and almond flavor. I did add more almond extract than the recipe calls for. One note is that I would chill your dough for as long as possible. I found that after 30 minutes it was still pretty sticky so I had to add flour to my rolling pin. All in all, these were some of the best cookies I’ve ever made and they are perfect for Christmas!
Carli’s Cookies: Taylor Swift’s Chai Cookies
Carli and I have both always loved chai. It’s so cozy and delicious when done right (like our chai candle we launched this year). She decided to make Taylor Swift’s infamous chai cookies. They were so fluffy and had that spicy chai flavor. The icing added some nice sweetness, and these were a hit with the group. The recipe also didn’t make too many cookies, which is great if you’re not feeding a super large group.
James’ Cookies: Pistachio Cookies
As a group, we always laugh that year after year something goes awry with James’ cookies. You may remember his sand cookies from year one. This year he decided to do something different with pistachios and chocolate chips. The cookies had a strong butter flavor, which isn’t a bad thing, but they were also flat as paper. We think he added too much butter which is why they didn’t rise as expected. Overall, it was a good attempt and much better than the sand cookies!
Tommy’s Cookies: Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
I told Tommy he couldn’t do chocolate chip cookies again, so he found this difficult brownie recipe in a book at Barnes & Noble. I’ll link a similar one here if you want to attempt these yourself. Since Tommy’s recipe was so daring I helped him with a portion and I have to say I think there are too many eggs in here. For some reason, it would not bake on the inside, even after we put it back in the oven the next day. The texture was pudding-like, and they were very sweet. I also want to note we didn’t use the red food coloring which is why they look like standard brownies. All that to say I don’t think this was a user error, I think the recipe he used led him astray.
Let us know if you try any of these recipes for next holiday season!
xx, Britta