TIP & TREAT: Christmas Cookie Boxes

My sister, niece and I made Christmas cookie boxes for family members and they turned out great: 

We picked up regular brown boxes from Michael's and different styles and colors of ribbons to "wrap" them.  All you need to do is to alternate whether the ribbons go under or above each other: 








In the boxes, we included recipe cards that we printed on laser envelope labels & then placed them on card stock with some stickers (in the case of the sugar cookies):














We wrapped the Peppermint Bark in bags with customized stickers featuring our dogs -- the stickers were just made in Power Point and printed on full-page labels and cut out:








The recipes:


CHOCOLATE FUDGE 


4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 cups mini marshmallows 
1 cup sugar 
1/2 cup heavy cream 
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips


Directions: 
- Butter 8 inch pan and line with parchment paper.  Leave an overhang and butter the paper. 
- In a saucepan, combine the butter, marshmallows, sugar, cream and salt.  Cook over medium heat until marshmallows are melted (8-10 minutes)



- Off heat, stir in vanilla and chocolate until melted 
- Pour fudge in the pan, smooth top & cool 30 minutes 

- Refrigerate until set (approximately 1 hour).  For the Christmas spirit, we added powdered sugar on top, like snow!  We cut it into small squares, wrapped them and placed them in Christmas cupcake papers: 





White Chocolate Peppermint Bark: 


2 lbs white chocolate (chopped in 1/2 pieces) 
12 large candy canes 
1/2 tsp peppermint oil


Directions:


- Line 11x17 baking sheet
- In a double boiler (or use 2 pots on top of each other, the bottom one with boiling water), melt chocolate and stir constantly so it does not harden
- Cut or pound peppermint into 1/4 pieces (I recommend using a bag) 




- Stir candy and peppermint oil into chocolate
- Pour into baking sheet & chill until firm.





Sugar Cookies: 


1 1/2 cups butter, softened 
2 cups white sugar 
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups flour 
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt 


Directions:


- Cream butter & sugar until smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients. 



- Cover and chill dough for at least one hour 
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Roll out dough (I recommend using powdered sugar instead of flour to not dry out the dough and keep the flavor) & cut into your favorite shapes
- Bake 6-8 minutes 





Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: 


Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour 
1 tsp baking soda 
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt 


Wet Ingredients: 
1 cup unsalted softened butter 
1 cup sugar 
1 cup packed dark brown sugar 
2 large eggs 
2 tsp vanilla 


3 cups oatmeal (not instant) 
1 1/2 cups raisins


Directions: 
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees 
- Whisk together dry ingredients, set aside 
- Combine white ingredients (hand mixer on low) 

- Stir in dry ingredients until you can't see the flour (but don't mix too much or else they won't be as soft) 
- Add in oatmeal and raising and mix together 
- Bake for 11-13 minutes until golden





Thanks Sylvia and Livie -- already looking forward to next year :)