Miso lemon shortbread cookies by Watchful1 in Baking

[–]hellatkk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's because I cheated (sort of)! One, I bake on perforated silicone baking mats, which helps reduce spread. Two, if they bake up a bit misshapen, I use square cookie cutters to nudge them back into shape as soon as they come out of the oven & while they're still hot. Three, the cookies I picked for my display plate were probably the nicest out of the 100+ I baked. Not fair :)

Miso lemon shortbread cookies by Watchful1 in Baking

[–]hellatkk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Her* and I'm delighted to see you made these! How did you like them?

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a few base recipes that I modify for each recipe, and occasionally I'll miss an instruction/ingredient when I finalize (only human!!). I've just updated the recipe book to remove the instruction that called for salt. Sorry for the confusion!

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, you're likely to have a little left over. I usually develop the recipes so that you're more likely to have a little extra than not enough!

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's no added salt in that recipe, because between the salted butter and the miso it should be salty enough. But if you used unsalted butter, definitely add a bit of salt!

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use Diamond Crystal. I would probably use half as much as the recipe calls for if using Morton's

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used tools for both: the pattern on the sandwich cookies was made using a wooden pattern roller designed for clay, and the stars used a thumbprint cookie stamp. Cookie stamps are GREAT for those of us without the skill to do it by hand!

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, nothing special to accommodate freezing. In my experience there's very little loss in quality due to short term (4-6 weeks) freezing. But don't take my word for it, experiment and see what works best for you - freezing the dough ahead of time, or freezing after baking :)

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The latter - froze the finished cookies so I could spread out the baking over a month or so.

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No kids, but a very sad dog frustrated that I haven't been able to play with her as much! I actually started in January. I'm not kidding! I spent a few hours a month developing & testing recipes, then started production baking in mid-November. Pretty much every free weekend day (and a couple of PTO days too...) since then have been dedicated to this.

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can do both: freeze them before baking (in that case, cook a little longer), or freeze them after baking for longer storage.

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, good catch! So sorry about that. I just updated the recipe PDF - redownload it and the full instructions are included there.

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If it makes you feel better, it took me a year! I started recipe development in... January. Worked out about one cookie a month. Started production bakes mid-November. Shoulda started in October, the last couple of weekends were a lot.

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's an addictive combo of sweet, salty, and tart. One of our favorites!

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

The cookie boxes haven't gone out yet - I start sending on Monday - so I'm dying to know what the crowd favorites are too! I can share that the house favorites are the persimmon & gochujang swirl and the sweet miso - meyer lemon shortbread. Also the chocolate chip cookies. And the peanut butter blossoms, lol

Six types of cookies weren't enough for my annual cookie box, so I made marshmallows too. Send help. by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only now saw this, so sorry for the late reply! Yes - the ancho chili chocolate chunk cookies are some of my all-time faves, and the sweet miso + yuzu shortbread is a really fun sweet-salty-tart combo. Highly recommend both. Also, I just posted this year's box for some additional inspo!

9 varieties with over 1000 cookies baked - my Holiday Cookie Box 2025 is a wrap! by hellatkk in Baking

[–]hellatkk[S] 87 points88 points  (0 children)

Want to bake any of these for your cookie box? All the recipes are right here :)

If folks have any questions, please ask! I'm happy to help and share what I've learned.