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To do this massive amount of cookies on the same day takes a lot of planning. So, this post is about how we do cookie baking more efficiently without spending extra money on overbuying ingredients and how we reduce our time making them. I hope these holiday cookie-baking tips help first-time cookie-bakers and anyone who wants to bake lots of cookies all at once. Let's begin.
Jump to:
- Our story
- What ingredients do you need to track?
- Decide what cookies you want to make.
- Decide on the number of recipes to make
- Go through each recipe and add all the ingredients and how much is needed.
- Now, go shopping for ingredients.
- Schedule the Cookie Baking Tradition
- Organize the ingredients and measure out what you need.
- Decide on the recipes to do first, second, and third
- Start baking one recipe at a time.
Our story
Last weekend, we spent almost the entire weekend baking...cookies. Yes, cookies. We like to give them out as holiday gifts to family and friends. Our kids' friends and teachers love them, too. We usually do about six to eight different types of cookies each year. These many different types of cookies are just right for us to place a variety in every container and platter (Affiliate Link) we set up for this busy holiday season. We have been making cookies each year since my husband and I got married almost 25 years ago. Wow, it has been a long time. Feel free to visit our Cookie Recipes; you can make them for your future cookie swap events.
What ingredients do you need to track?
Many ingredients are similar in cookie recipes. Below are the ones I found I could easily track on my cooking ingredient master grocery list.
Dried Ingredients
Below is the list of dry ingredients usually mixed together separately from the wet ingredients. They may also be sifted if the recipe recommends a smoother cookie.
- Flour - Gluten Free, All purpose
- Sugar - White
- Brown Sugar
- Confectioner Sugar
- Salt - Iodized or Kosher
- Baking Soda
- Cream of Tartar
- Cocoa
- Ground Cinnamon (Affiliate Link)
- Ground Cloves
- Ground Ginger
- Whole Nutmeg
- Instant Espresso powder
Wet Ingredients
Below is a list of the wet ingredients that are usually mixed and beaten first before adding the dry ingredients.
- Eggs
- Butter
- Margaine
- Shortening
- Milk
- Vanilla
- Almond Extract
- Heavy Cream
- Cream Cheese
- Molasses
Add-on Ingredients
Everything else your recipe calls for is the add-on ingredients. Below is a list of the possible options.
- Chocolate morsels
- Nuts - pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds
- Peanut butter morsels
- Caramel
- Butterscotch
- Currents
- Peppermint Candy (Affiliate Link)
- Fruit Jam
Now that you know the list of ingredients that could be in your recipes, I am going to walk you through the steps we did.
Decide what cookies you want to make.
A week before, I pulled out the recipes that we reuse each year and the new ones we found. We usually do a few new types of cookies each year to change it up a bit.
Tip: Have a holiday binder that holds all your reused holiday recipes for safekeeping. It helps if you can find the recipes easily. I like to use these folders with Velcro flaps to keep all the cookie recipes in one place. Click on the image and buy them on Amazon.com (affiliate). I will receive a small commission from your purchase at no additional charge to you.
Below are some cookie cookbooks I found on Amazon!
Decide on the number of recipes to make
We usually made the basics and then had one or two recipes that were new for that year. This will determine how long the cookie-baking tradition will take.
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Go through each recipe and add all the ingredients and how much is needed.
Then, I gather the recipes together. I write the recipe name at the top and then go down the column to include the quantities I need for that recipe. I continue to do this until I am finished all the recipes. The "Master Holiday Cookies Shopping List" checklist (Affiliate Link) helps me a lot. I created it after realizing it was so overwhelming to gather the quantities I needed together on a piece of paper. I then add the totals in the Total Needed column for each ingredient.
Note: I have included all the essential ingredients for cookies on the checklist (Affiliate Link) and added extra rows so you can customize this list to your needs.
Get a free copy of this printable and all our ebooks to help you get organized!
Now, go shopping for ingredients.
But wait! Before I go shopping, I go through my coupons and see if there are any coupons that I can use. This year, I found lots of coupons to use, so I saved big. I usually shop a few days before the baking cookie frenzy. If you really like to plan ahead, grocery stores like to put baking items on sale at the end of October. So, shopping early for chocolate chips, flour, sugar, etc... will be even more affordable.
Schedule the Cookie Baking Tradition
Making a schedule on which weekend works for baking is key (Affiliate Link) to a successful cookie-baking holiday tradition. I like to schedule it before any family activities but after Thanksgiving. Usually, it would take a full weekend to make as many cookies as we make. In other years, we only made four cookie recipes, which we could do in one day.
I usually ask everyone who wants to participate what day works for them by giving them a few weekend date options.
Organize the ingredients and measure out what you need.
On the day of the cookie baking tradition, I put all the purchased ingredients in one place on the counter, usually near my baking zone, which holds my flour, sugar, and other essential parts for baking. I also pulled out the baking tools I use as well and got the organizing.
The baking sheets and cooking racks were near the range for easy access.
***AD*** from Released Repurpose Reorganize: My List Simplified journal is a wonderful organizing tool for planning a move or a renovation. Use it to corral all the to-dos.
The blender was in another area with all the wet, dry, and add-on ingredients. Usually, it was in the far corner of my kitchen, so it wasn't near the range. It is too congested near my range.
Decide on the recipes to do first, second, and third
Now it is time to plan out the order of recipes. I usually like to review the instructions for each recipe by going and determining which recipe is easiest to begin, what recipe needs refrigeration before finishing, and what recipe can be done quickly. As I go through the recipes, an order usually emerges to make the process more efficient.
If you have kids or teens involved, you can also assign what kid is doing what cookie at this time. We make Pizzelles every year. This recipe uses an electric iron, so one of my kids can stay near the Pizzelle iron and work with this batch of cookies in another area, so it doesn't interfere with my other cookie-baking activities in the kitchen.
Start baking one recipe at a time.
As the day of baking arrived, I started with the refrigerator cookies that we made so they could get cold. Then, I moved on to the homemade Pizzelles that my son worked on for hours. After I got him started, I worked through each recipe one by one.
Tip: When you do any marathon cooking, know that you will not want to cook dinner after you are done. I like to order a pizza or go out to eat on those days of marathon cooking.
That's it! Here is a photo of one of our holiday cookie-baking traditions.
Please visit our kitchen organization or pantry organization posts for more inspiration.
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If you want to know the names of the recipes or the ingredients, please leave a message below. Above all else, have an enjoyable experience baking cookies and spending time with family. I know we sure did.
Visit our cookie recipes for more inspiration!
Here are some additional posts I found online to help you with organizing your cookie baking.
Ten Things Cookie Bakers Really ought to Know
Organizing Your Way to a Simple Christmas: Baking
Please note these are affiliate links through Amazon, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn affiliate fees if you decide to make a purchase.
Janet Barclay
Now that the kids are grown up and we don't entertain much, I don't do nearly as much baking as I used to. When I did, your planning chart would have been super helpful - I wish I'd thought of doing it that way!
Sabrina
Thanks Janet! I created this form this year because I was always forgetting an ingredient. This way, I can make sure I pickup everything I need and not waste time running back and forth. It was a huge help.