Bring on the holiday cookies
There’s no better way to celebrate the holidays than in the company of your loved ones and what could be more fun and festive than a cookie exchange? Simply bake up a few dozen of your favourite cookies, invite your family and friends to do the same, and bring everyone together for an afternoon of holiday cheer and cookie swapping.
My friend Kelly Neil and I hosted a cookie exchange last month and we came up with some new cookie recipes inspired by the PC Insiders Collection for Holiday. I made the perfectly soft and chewy Double Chocolate Coconut Chip Cookies and Kelly brought the cutest little Orange Sugar Cookies sandwiched together with a crunchy chocolate hazelnut buttercream. With a range of fun new products like the new PC
Milk Chocolate with Toasted Coconut Bar and the PC Crunchy Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, you too can create holiday cookies everyone will love.
For drinks keep it festive — some mulled cider or hot chocolate in addition to tea and coffee will make the perfect compliment to your cookie feast. If you wish to imbibe, a holiday-themed cocktail or local bubbly will surely impress. For snacks, cheat on the prep time with a cheese and charcuterie board and some simple pre-made appetizers that go with ease from freezer to oven to table. Most important — free yourself to do the things that really matter, like making memories with family and friends and eating all those cookies!
For more holiday inspiration, visit pc.ca/insiders.
Double Chocolate
Coconut Chip Cookies
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 (300 g) PC Milk Chocolate with Toasted Coconut bar, roughly chopped
1 cup PC Coconut Chips ½ cup PC The Decadent Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
Mix together sugars and butter. Stir in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour, soda and salt, mixing until just combined. Fold in chocolate and coconut. Refrigerate dough 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350of. Scoop about 2 tbsp onto a baking sheet. Bake about 9-10 min until golden brown but still soft. Let cool 5 min. Makes about 4 dozen.
Orange Sugar Cookies with Crunchy Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream
Recipe courtesy of Kelly Neil
2 ¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt
Zest of one medium orange 1 ¼ cup sugar
¾ cup butter, room temperature
1 egg, lightly beaten
2-3 tablespoons milk 1 tablespoon white corn syrup 2 teaspoons vanilla
Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and orange zest in a bowl together and set aside.
Add sugar and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on medium-high for 10 minutes, stopping halfway to scrape down sides of bowl. Add egg and mix well. Scrape down sides of bowl and repeat with milk, white corn syrup, and vanilla, mixing well and scraping sides of bowl between each addition.
With mixer running on low add flour ¼ at a time until all flour is mixed into butter. Remove bowl from stand mixer and finish mixing by hand. Divide dough into two. Shape into disks and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Place dough disks in fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Remove dough from fridge and unwrap. Sprinkle counter with flour and roll dough out to ¼-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch circles, place circles on cookie sheet, and place sheet in freezer for 15-20 minutes. Preheat oven to 350of while cookies are in freezer.
Remove cookie sheets from freezer and place into pre-heated oven. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges of cookies are lightly golden. Remove cookies from sheets immediately and cool on rack. Sandwich cookies together with Crunchy Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream.
Crunchy Chocolate
Hazelnut Buttercream
1 cup butter, room temperature 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
½ cup PC Crunchy Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
½ teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
Place all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes until well mixed and light and fluffy. If buttercream is too thick, add milk 1 teaspoon at a time to thin. If buttercream is too thin, add icing sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time to thicken.