When do you start baking Christmas Cookies

[cabanafrau]

I may turn the entire thing over to my daughters this year. They've been picking up the slack last couple years, but I may not have time for any at all this year. Luckily they're both quite good at it.

 

[amcnj]

Currently I make 9 kinds. Some store better than others (harder and drier types) so they can be made a week to ten days out and be perfectly fine. Others are much better if you wait as long as possible (last year that was two days before).

Complicating factors are some family members may be away, so the dining schedule may need to be flexible, and
some cookies are mailed. Thus it can be tricky accommodating both the USPS deadlines and the dining requirements!

Once I know everyone’s schedule, it’s possible they may get made a little later this year, and the mailed ones sent afterwards. When I mail them before, there are several kinds that are missing as some types can’t be made too far ahead.

 

[easyas123]

Thus it can be tricky accommodating both the USPS deadlines and the dining requirements!

This reminds me - and thanks for taking into account shipping and how cookies store well - my MIL ships us cookies each year for Christmas. As I type I bet they've been made since just after Thanksgiving, and she won't ship them until closer to Christmas. We feel bad, we end up tossing them every year. In truth they aren't good when we get them and they weren't even good a hour after she made them! BUT we've (the collective we that includes other family members she sends them to) never been able to get her to take the hint that she need not go to all the trouble to make and ship all those cookies (and accompanying cat hair) and to come right out and say it would hurt her feelings and she would not take it well so we keep accepting them and feeling bad about tossing them.

 

[Shellsbutt]

This reminds me - and thanks for taking into account shipping and how cookies store well - my MIL ships us cookies each year for Christmas. As I type I bet they've been made since just after Thanksgiving, and she won't ship them until closer to Christmas. We feel bad, we end up tossing them every year. In truth they aren't good when we get them and they weren't even good a hour after she made them! BUT we've (the collective we that includes other family members she sends them to) never been able to get her to take the hint that she need not go to all the trouble to make and ship all those cookies (and accompanying cat hair) and to come right out and say it would hurt her feelings and she would not take it well so we keep accepting them and feeling bad about tossing them.

Yep-this is similar to my mother in law too. She doesn't ship us cookies as we live close by and will see her Christmas Eve, but she bakes about a month in advance and freezes everything. She loves doing it and experimenting with sugar free, gluten free, etc. I will try them but we do end up tossing the whole thing after a few days. My husband usually doesn't eat any of them and now he really can't because of the diet he's on now. I love her and we would never say anything because she really enjoys it. I made the mistake once years ago of saying how I loved her pork and bean bread(yeah, it's a thing) and she makes sure I get a loaf every year. I was just trying to be polite.

 

[jo-jo]

My wife has the 15th on the calendar for baking. In a normal year we would put Christmas decorations up about the 8th and do the baking the next week. Due to travel plans, we had to put our decorations up last weekend, which is early.
But her baking has been scaled way way way back. She bought five pounds of sugar and five pounds of flour. When we both were working we generally bought 50 pounds of flour and sugar for her baking.

I make double batches of chocolate chip cookies at least 6 times a year ( grandkids) , banana bread a bunch and then Christmas baking. I dont think I use more than 20 lbs of flour and ten pounds sugar all year.

i can’t imagine using 50 lbs just for Christmas baking.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Already have frozen the cookie dough for all this year’s cookies but one. Guess I’ll start baking them this weekend.

 

[pinkxray]

I don’t really like freezing baked cookies but will freeze some dough ahead of time. I have a list of about 10-12 cookies I like to make. I want to bring them to my work and hand out to others on Dec. 18 so I will try to make the dough and freeze as many doughs as I can this coming weekend. The following week I am off Friday so I will make the remaining doughs. Hoping to bake all the cookies that Sat.and Sunday and finish off the decorating Sunday. Cookies will be handed out at work and family the next day.

I will usually leave frozen cookie dough in balls of the kids favorites to be baked on Xmas so they are fresh. I bought all of my ingredients besides butter. Hoping it goes on sale soon because I use a lot of butter and it’s the on thing that hasn’t dropped in price around here this year.

 

[tvguy]

I make double batches of chocolate chip cookies at least 6 times a year ( grandkids) , banana bread a bunch and then Christmas baking. I dont think I use more than 20 lbs of flour and ten pounds sugar all year.

i can’t imagine using 50 lbs just for Christmas baking.

This is just what my wife made for her work (photo from 2015). Double that my work. Triple it for our daughter's work. Quadruple it for our son's work.

 

[TCRAIG]

The better question for me is -‘When can I show up at somebody’s house to sample the cookies’? I’ve never made any…

 

[CdnCarrie]

Homemade cookies tend to taste stale after a few days. I think those made closer to Christmas tend to taste better since they don't have any preservatives unlike cookies you might buy at the store.

I freeze them and get them out just before Christmas.

 

[jo-jo]

This is just what my wife made for her work (photo from 2015). Double that my work. Triple it for our daughter's work. Quadruple it for our son's work. View attachment 815574

I only make about 8 different cookies. Most take 2 -3 cups of flour per recipe. 4 cups of flour weighs a pound. So during December, over 50 batches of cookies were made In your household? Roughly 2 1/2 dozen a batch, that’s at least 1500 cookies . When did she sleep?

Or am I misunderstanding you? Was that 50 lbs a combination of flour and sugar ? I was reading it as 50 lbs each.

 

[jo-jo]

I freeze them and get them out just before Christmas.

I freeze dough and do the baking just before Christmas.

 

[tvguy]

I only make about 8 different cookies. Most take 2 -3 cups of flour per recipe. 4 cups of flour weighs a pound. So during December, over 50 batches of cookies were made In your household? Roughly 2 1/2 dozen a batch, that’s at least 1500 cookies . When did she sleep?

Or am I misunderstanding you? Was that 50 lbs a combination of flour and sugar ? I was reading it as 50 lbs each.

My wife just came home from work. She confirms It was 50 pounds EACH of flour and sugar. Took 3 days full time. She says was easily over 1000 cookies, she figures about 40-50 cookies per batch and around 20 batches. Snicker doodles, chocolate chip, peanut butter, spritzes, and peanut butter cookies with a hershey's kiss on it. Plus Fudge, Peppermint bark, chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered walnuts, and cinnamon glazed walnuts.

 

[jo-jo]

My wife just came home from work. She confirms It was 50 pounds EACH of flour and sugar. Took 3 days full time. She says was easily over 1000 cookies, she figures about 40-50 cookies per batch and around 20 batches. Plus Fudge, Peppermint bark, chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered walnuts, and cinnamon glazed walnuts.

And she lives to tell the story. Amazing. She’s a better person than I. I don’t like my friends that much.

 

[tvguy]

And she lives to tell the story. Amazing. She’s a better person than I. I don’t like my friends that much.

She retired 2 1/2 years ago. She went back to work temporarily 2 months ago and three people in the first hour she was back asked if she was bringing holiday cookies in this year now that she is back.

 

[bluezy]

I mix all the doughs in November. I scoop the dough into individual balls and freeze them for a few hours and then put them in a ziploc bag labeled with the type of cookie and the baking instructions. Then I bake everything a few days before Christmas. If I need to take cookies somewhere before that, I just pull out a few of each kind of the frozen dough balls and bake them that day. I like doing all the mixing one day and the baking a different day. It feels much less exhausting than doing *everything* in one day.

I don't like the way baked cookies taste after they've been frozen, but I don't notice any difference in the taste if I freeze the dough before baking.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I only make about 8 different cookies. Most take 2 -3 cups of flour per recipe. 4 cups of flour weighs a pound. So during December, over 50 batches of cookies were made In your household? Roughly 2 1/2 dozen a batch, that’s at least 1500 cookies . When did she sleep?

Or am I misunderstanding you? Was that 50 lbs a combination of flour and sugar ? I was reading it as 50 lbs each.

I make about 2,000 cookies for Christmas, usually about 10 kinds. I give boxes to friends and those who work for me and bring platters to parties. It usually takes me about 6 days to make them all.

 

[JBRB828]

I bake 5 different types, but I make 3 batches of chocolate chip, everyones favorite. I bake the week leading to Christmas.
I will be making cutout butter cookies with my 7 year old GD on the 16th. She excited to decorate them.

 

[tcufrog]

I used to bake snickerdoodles for all of my kids' teachers and wrap them up in a fancy way. I don't have time this year though so I instead invited some friends and their kids over to bake and decorate sugar cookies. I have all sorts of cookie cutters. It should be fun.

 

[CGB]

November 30th. For ten years, I've baked cookies for our workplaces each workday in December. My normal "list" has about 16 cookies on it and I typically try two new recipes each year. If the "cookie of the day" has allergens, I bake a batch of a new recipe as an alternative. I enjoy it and I love how our coworkers get so excited to find out what the cookie is each day. I've never tracked the number of cookies I've baked, but I'm trying to this year just for curiousity's sake. I'm currently at 38 dozen (but that includes 3 dozen going in the mail tomorrow). I'm also experimenting with doing a gluten-free version of each cookie for a coworker. Levels up the challenge!