Is it Christmas Cookie Season Yet

Chocolate Orange Creams

It’s time to face facts. Christmas really is just around the corner. I am one of those people that decries the early arrival of all the Christmas paraphernalia: the mince pies that turn up in the supermarkets in October, the Christmas sections opening in department stores as early as September, Christmas songs appearing on the radio in early November as a ‘joke’. But. This year, I think I want to start the festive season a little early. I think we need a little joy. And really, it's only a week early; as soon as December starts, Christmas is fair game.

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To slowly get into the Christmas spirit, I thought I would start a new little series, all based around one of my favourite festive traditions. The Christmas cookie. This tradition looks a little different depending on where in the world you live. In the UK, Christmas cookies, sorry biscuits, are mainly resigned to a selection box bought from supermarkets, and the biscuits tend to be on the buttery crumbly side of the spectrum. In many Scandinavian countries, Christmas cookies really lean into ground nuts and spicing. In the US, however, Christmas cookies are a different beast all together. The American tradition of holiday cookie boxes, cookie swaps, and even cookie parties really appeals to me. Maybe it is my love of cookies; maybe it’s the social aspect. Either way, its a tradition I really enjoy. For those of you wondering what on earth I am talking about, let me give you a quick rundown. Also, note that I am British and live in London, so this is my experience, and I may possibly be missing some cultural importance.

Cookie boxes are, as they sound, boxes filled with a variety of cookies that are baked and then gifted to friends and family during the festive season. These cookies can really be just about anything, but there are some varieties that are more common than others. Cookies like decorated sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, jam thumbprints, and chocolate crinkles. This tradition of cookie-giving has actually turned into a bigger cultural part of the American Christmas season. Have you heard of cookie swaps? Where a group of friends each bake a different cookie and then come together for a party and swap their home-baked treats, creating their cookie boxes as a group? Or cookie parties where family of friends get together to have a marathon cookie baking session to create that year's selection? This tradition also left the home and became a mainstay of publishing, with most of the major food outlets putting out an annual Christmas cookie feature with new recipes every year. It has also inevitably become something that bakeries themselves have joined in on, with many bakeries making selection boxes themselves. This giant collective cookie haze is something I am completely enamoured with. I love the giving aspect, I love the creativity, I love the cookies!

For many years I have been trying to make the Christmas cookie more of a thing here in the UK. I have talked endlessly about it with my editors at different food magazines. I have tried to convince bakeries to jump on the cookie bandwagon, and I also put out recipes for new Christmas cookies most years. Is it working? I don’t know, but I like to think it’s very slowly becoming more of a thing on this side of the Atlantic. I am sure there are more, but two brilliant bakeries who share my love of the Christmas cookie are the incredible Nova Bakehouse in Leeds and Farro Bakery in Bristol. These two bakeries are among my absolute favourites in the UK, and I genuinely get excited when they release their annual cookie boxes around this time of the year. For the last few years I’ve had a tradition of ordering my parents the box made by Nova, as they are local to my parents and I love what they make. I think this year I may have to order a box from Farro too, purely for scientific research, of course!

To celebrate these cookie traditions, I will be giving you a bunch of cookie recipes in the run-up to Christmas. It won’t be every post, but between now and the big day expect to have a handful of fabulous Christmas cookie recipes to try out. Some of these will be in the free newsletter and some exclusively for paid subscribers.

Today's recipe is actually inspired by a classic of British Christmas biscuits, found in almost every supermarket biscuit selection box: the chocolate-coated cream biscuit. In some of these boxes, the cream filling is simply vanilla; sometimes they’re more adventurous. These biscuits were always my favourite as a child, I’m sure in no small part because they seemed extra special with their colourful foil wrapper. For my version today, I have kept things pretty classic with the flavours of chocolate and orange.