Lila's DIY Holiday Cookie Box

The holidays may be over, but that doesn’t mean you should ever stop baking. This past winter break I spent hours (and I mean 10:30am-5:30pm) in my kitchen baking constantly to create my ideal cookie box as a gift for my friends and family. It can get really expensive to buy gifts for each of your loved ones, so a cookie box is a great DIY gift that is not only meaningful, but equally as delicious. And cookie boxes are perfect for lots of occasions besides the holiday season. They’re a perfect gift for birthdays, Valentines Day, anniversaries, and even “thank yous”! 

Before you start your cookie box, it’s worth doing some research. I looked at all my favorite food blogs, cookbooks, magazines, etc. for recipes that sparked my interest. Next, I went to a gift wrapping shop and bought some cute boxes, tissue paper, and ribbon to make them look extra special. The best thing is that they’re totally customizable for your own tastes and there are literally thousands of recipes to choose from. This is what my final product looked like!

I made a couple versions throughout break to try some new recipes that I discovered and wanted to try and kept the crowd favorites like the Flourless Chocolate Walnut ones on Food 52! 

This box also includes my homemade Orange Cranberry Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies, Alison Roman’s Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread from Bon Appetit, Holiday Cake Batter Cookies from Sallys Baking Addiction, and my personal favorite: Carla Music’s Salted Rosemary Shortbread Bars. 

This box included some more traditional Holiday cookies like these Classic Vanilla Sugar Cookies from Food Network and my very own M&M Cookie recipe. Both of my boxes included my dad’s personal favorite: Chai Spiced Sandwiches with Biscoff Creme and a Chocolate Drizzle. I used Dorie Greenspan's Everything Vanilla Dough and quartered the recipe, added a ½ tsp of almond extract, 1 ½ tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp nutmeg, ½ tsp cardamom, and a ¼ tsp ground ginger. For the filling I creamed together a stick of unsalted butter, one stick shortening, 2 ½ cups powdered sugar, ½ cup Biscoff cookie butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp cinnamon, and a dash of salt until light and fluffy. Lastly, once I filled each of the sandwiches I finished them off with a drizzle of white or dark chocolate which I made by simply microwaving a ¼ of chocolate chips with tsp of vegetable oil in 30 second intervals until smooth! These were so much fun to make and they turned out gorgeous! I hope this inspires you to get in the kitchen and do some experimenting and happy holiday baking (and baking in general)!