Your Holiday Baking Checklist: Simplifying The Sweet

It’s the holiday season, with a whoop-de-do and a hickory dock. Don’t forget to hang up your sock, pick up a gift for old Uncle Doc or put the roast in at 10 o’clock. And we haven’t even tackled the elusive cookie baking that somehow fits in around regular life, holiday parties and shopping, shopping and more shopping. Here’s a checklist to help guide you through the butter, flour and sugar portion of that. But you’re on your own for the malls.

–What is my purpose in baking? Are you bringing cookies to a cookie exchange, gifting them to neighbors and the postman or just making a few to eat together as a family? First determine your goal so you can decide how many cookies you’re going to need.

–Narrow down your varieties. For most purposes, it’s good to pick no more than five varieties for gifting and giving. It is always easier to make more of one variety than it is to make two entirely different cookies with a completely different set of ingredients.

–Do the math and show your work. If you’re doubling a recipe, take the time to put the new measurement amounts on a sticky note on the recipe card or in the cookbook. This will help you from getting confused when making your shopping list, but it will also guard against innocent mistakes that cause the entire batch of cookies to be ruined, like forgetting an egg or adding way more salt than you need.

–Shop for containers at the same time you get your ingredients. I like to have all my containers and packaging supplies ready to go for baking day. It allows me to pack up whatever is being baked fresh once it has cooled, but I can also get frozen cookies out of the freezer and pack those in too, streamlining the whole process of delivering or mailing by having them ready to go right then and there.

–Make dough ahead. Several varieties of cookies require dough to be made ahead and refrigerated before rolling, shaping, molding or filling. Toss a couple batches into your mixer as you’re making dinner for a few nights and then all the measuring and mixing mess with be done and taken care of days in advance.

–Unload the dishwasher. It may seem miniscule, but I’ve found that having the dishwasher empty and available to toss in dirty dishes as you make them really cuts down on clutter, makes the kitchen seem calmer and less hectic and keeps them off your counter and out of your sink, leaving it open and available for rolling dough or rinsing off spatulas.

–Delegate responsibilities elsewhere. Just recently I made a batch of stained glass cookies where I needed certain cookie cutters. My 5-year-old was the perfect man for tackling the job of organizing and matching similar shapes. I then put the whole gang to work sorting out the candies by color. They loved being involved, and it freed me up to roll out the dough and clear off some counter space by loading a few things in the dishwasher.

Still feeling overwhelmed?

–Organize a cookie swap. A cookie swap is a fast and easy way to get a variety of cookies just by showing up with your one signature treat. Aimée gave some great tips on Simple Mom recently on how to host one successfully.