Festive Cookies Recipes

Nothing beats a cookie!

Bake your biscuits this international cookie day!

First things first: Is it a cookie or a biscuit?

Welllllllll – that depends. Are you from the US or the UK? What we call koekies in South Africa is called a biscuit in Britain and a cookie in the US.

• UK Biscuit: Imagine things like ginger biscuits, short bread or spiced biscuits. Hard, crunchy and good for dipping in tea.
• US Biscuits: Basically, a bready scone, but served with gravy, usually at breakfast. Weird, we know.
• UK and US Cookie: A larger, “softer”, chewier baked treat.

For purposes of THIS article, we will be sticking to the word cookie, meaning a baked sweet treat that can be crisp and crumbly OR chewy.

The reason for this deep dive into cookie jargon?

We are celebrating International Cookie Day on the 4^th of December!

With the holidays approaching, we thought it could be a fun family celebration to get our hands on our favourite recipes and give you some inspiration for baking the perfect cookie.

With a quick office poll, (ok, we mostly work remote, so this was more of a WhatsApp group chat thing) we decided these are our firm favourites.

The classic: Chocolate chip cookies.

A classic for a reason, this is the quintessential “cookie”. Crispy around the edges, chewy in the middle and loaded with chocolate chips and chunks. The perfect “milk and cookie” cookie.

We love this recipe from the local foodie-super stars at Woolworths Taste. We love them and trust them.

Ingredients:

• 115 g butter
• 100 g white sugar
• 100 g light brown sugar
• 1 free-range egg
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 180 g cake flour
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
• 100 g macadamia nuts
• 8 tbs chocolate spread, chilled for 2 hours

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat.
3. Sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda and slowly fold into the butter-and-sugar mixture.
4. Once combined, add the chocolate and macadamia nuts and gently work into the dough.
5. Flatten a spoonful of dough in your palm, spoon a little chocolate spread into the centre and fold closed, sealing the chocolate spread inside. Take care not to squeeze out any chocolate spread.
6. Place on a baking tray, press down lightly and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
7. Cook’s note: A double whammy of chocolate and a molten, oozy centre makes these the best cookies ever.

Top Tip: If all else fails and you want a quick, kid friendly, minimum mess option, you can also simply ask Auntie Ina Paarman for some help. Her DIY choc chip cookie kit works like a charm.

The festive: Spesery Koekies/Spice cookies (Gingerbread flavours without being a ginger cookie)

If you think you can trust Woolworths and Ina Paarman, wait till you meet Carmen Niehaus. She is a literal South African food institution, and she gets what makes Mzansi’s tastebuds buzz. Her festive favourite “spice cookies” have been a staple at everything from Christmas parties to church bazaar’s and high tea’s!

Carmen Niehaus’s Spice Cookies (Makes four dozen cookies)

Ingredients

• 375 ml (1½ cup) cake flour
• 3 ml (full ½ tsp) ground cinnamon
• 3 ml (full ½ tsp) ground cloves
• 2 ml (½ tsp) ground ginger
• 1 ml (¼ tsp) ground nutmeg
• 2 ml (½ tsp) salt
• 125 g softened butter
• 180 ml (¾ k) sugar
• 1 XL egg, room temperature
• Optional: Cinnamon sugar made with castor sugar

Method:

1. Sift flour, salt and spices together in a large bowl.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a separate bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg to the butter mixture and mix well.
4. Combine wet and dry until a dough is formed
5. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least two hours, but preferably overnight.
6. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat oven to 180 ̊ C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
7. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about 3mm thick. Cut into shapes of your choice with cookie cutters and use a thin edged spatula to lift the cookies onto the baking sheet.
8. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes until they are light brown.
9. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar if you want to.
10. Allow cookies to rest on the baking plate for a few minutes and then transfer to wire racks with the same spatula for the final cooldown.

We love baking with Carmen – She’s been doing this for nearly 4 decades!

Do your part for cookie day!

Whether you bake your own or simply buy a tube of Oreos to devour in front of the TV, just remember to treat yourself to a cookie on the 4^th of December.

Need a proper meal to go with those cookies? Then read about our 7 Colour Sunday Lunches.