8 Christmas Cookies Using 1 Cookie Recipe!
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- 180g/6ozs. butter, softened
- 200g/7ozs. caster or superfine sugar
- 180g/6ozs. brown sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2.5 cups plain all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarb
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
Step 1 - Beat the butter and two sugars together for 3-4 minutes until it becomes pale in colour. Add the eggs, one at a time and the vanilla. On low speed add the flour, bicarb and salt and mix until it becomes a dough (do not overmix).
Step 2 - Divide the dough into 250g/8.8oz portions. You should have enough to make 6 portions of 250g/8.8oz of dough. What I did was make smaller half lots of some of them so that I would have 8 types of cookies.
Cookie 1: Classic Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Add 175g of milk or dark (or do half half) chocolate chips to the 250g dough and mix. Use a small ice cream scoop to portion cookies and place 5cm/2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake at 180C/350F for 8-10 minutes.
Cookie 2: Chocolate Choc Chip Tahini & Sesame Cookies
- Add 125g/4ozs. of milk chocolate chips to the 250g dough along with 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and add 1.5 tablespoons of tahini. Shape into small balls and roll in 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds. Place 5cm/2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake at 180C/350F for 8-10 minutes.
Cookie 3: Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies
- Add 1/3 cup of rolled oats, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and a fat pinch of salt to the 250g of dough. Divide this dough in half. You'll use half of this to make these cookies and the other half to make the PB&J cookies below. Roll out into small, flat cookies and flatten gently. Use a flour dipped fork to make a hatch pattern. Bake at 200C/400F for 9-12 minutes or until firm and crispy. Match like sizes together.
- Make the peanut buttercream filling by processing 60g/2ozs. of soft butter, 60g/2ozs. of peanut butter and 1 cup of sifted icing sugar in a food processor. Fill a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe onto one half of the cookies and sandwich together.
Cookie 4: PB & J Thumbprint Cookies
- Use the peanut butter and oatmeal dough above. Roll out balls of cookie dough and flatten. Use the lid of a wine bottle and press out round depressions in the centre and use a fork to make patterns around the outside. Fill with strawberry jam. Bake at 200C/400F for 10-14 minutes or until firm and crispy (these can be soft if not baked long enough).
Cookie 5: White Chocolate & Coconut Rolled Cookie
- Mix 2/3 cup of white chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut with 250g of the cookie dough. Shape into a log around 5cm/2inches in diameter and freeze until firm. Slice rounds and place on a baking tray an inch apart (they won't spread that much) and bake at 180C/350F for 12 minutes or until golden and set.
Cookie 6: Chocolate Chip Crunch Sugar Cookie
- I made a half batch of these. Add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and 50g/1.7ozs. of milk chocolate chips to 125g of the original cookie dough. Knead and then shape into a log shape around 4cm/1.6inches in diameter. Place 1/4 cup of raw sugar on a plate and roll the cookie dough roll in this, coating the outside well with sugar. Place the cookie dough roll in the freezer until firm. Cut into slices and bake at 180C/350F for 8-10 minutes.
Cookie 7: Kid's Candy Gingerbread Cookie
- Mix 1/2 teaspoon gingerbread spices with original cookie dough and make into small rounds (I made these quite small as kids cookies). Press red and green m&m's or smarties on top. Bake at 180C/350F for 8-9 minutes.
Cookie 8: Pistachio Crunch Mini Cookies
- I made a half batch of these but I wish I had made a full. Mix half a batch or 125g/4ozs of batter with 1/4 cup finely chopped pistachios and 2 tablespoons raw sugar. Place 1/4 cup raw sugar on a small plate. Shape into small balls and dredge both sides in the raw sugar. Bake at 180C/350F for 10 minutes or until crisp.