This butter cookie box is perfect for gifting around the holidays. It's filled with 10 different crisp and tender butter cookies that are made from ONE cookie dough recipe - so easy, delicious, and beautiful!
Jump to:
Christmas cookie boxes are a labour of love but they are so worth it when seeing your friends and family enjoy all the delicious homemade cookies you worked so hard to make. These boxes are very popular homemade gifts for the holidays but you can also make similar boxes for other occasions (like Valentine's Day and Easter) or just for fun.
Instead of fussing with several different cookie recipes, I've developed this recipe to make ALL the cookies in this butter cookie box with only ONE dough recipe. You make the dough once and the rest is all about cutting out your cookies, baking, and decorating them. When you're making hundreds of cookies all at once, it's best to keep things simple!
What's in this butter cookie box
The key to making the BEST Christmas cookie boxes is variety! You should have a variety of flavours, looks, and textures. Think of it like a box of assorted chocolates!
Since all the cookies in this butter cookie box are made with the same cookie base, we're dividing the dough into three and adding chocolate and matcha flavouring to two of the dough portions for more variety. The rest of the cookie variations are made based on the shape, fillings, and add-ons like melted chocolate and nuts.
In this holiday cookie box, we have:
- Sparkly sugar snowflake cookies
- Chocolate pistachio wreath cookies
- Cranberry jam sandwich cookies
- Chocolate biscoff sandwich cookies
- Matcha pistachio white chocolate-dipped cookies
- Vanilla & matcha inverse cutout cookies
- Vanilla & chocolate inverse cutout cookies
- Assorted chocolate drizzled cookies
These cookie variations give us a good variety of size, style, and flavour to fill up a cookie box to look aesthetically pleasing and also taste like they came from multiple different recipes.
Why you'll love this recipe
- You can make 10+ cookie variations with ONE dough recipe. This cookie dough recipe is simple and easy. If you know how many cookies you want to make, you only need to make the dough once instead of working with several different recipes.
- These butter cookies are crisp, buttery, and tender. Delicious!
- The cookie dough and cookies can be made ahead of time.
- The flavour and decoration options are endless. These simple cookies work with nearly any flavour and add-ons you want to use. Get creative!
- Butter cookie boxes are amazing homemade gifts.
Tools & equipment
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer - You'll need some kind of electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar together. I use my KitchenAid Hand Mixer or Kitchen Stand Mixer.
- Rolling pin - You'll need a rolling pin to roll out your cookie dough into flat sheets. Any simple rolling pin will do.
- Various cookie cutters - This is where you can get creative or use what you have on hand. Use a few round cookie cutters, mini shaped cutters for smaller cutouts, and some festive holiday cookie cutters for fun shapes. To make all the exact cookies I made here, you'll need the following cookie cutters:
- 4" round
- 3" round
- 2" scalloped round
- snowflake
- small tree
- small heart
- small star
- large star
- Boxes or tins - Putting your cookies in festive cookie tins or cookie boxes makes them such a beautiful gift! Cookie tins can be reused by the recipient and are great at keeping the cookies from drying out. Around the holidays, you'll usually be able to find lots of holiday tins at supermarkets or even dollar stores.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Unsalted butter - This needs to be softened to room temperature. I take my butter out of the fridge the night before to ensure it's very softened by the time I use it.
- Granulated sugar - This will be creamed with the butter to add air into the mixture for tender cookies.
- Egg - This should also be at room temperature so that the butter doesn't solidify when it comes in contact with a cold egg. If you forget to take it out of the fridge ahead of time, you can submerge it in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.
- Vanilla extract - This adds flavour to all the cookies but especially the plain one.
- Cocoa powder - This will be used to make the chocolate flavoured cookies. Use unsweetened dutch-processed cocoa powder (the most common kind you probably have).
- Matcha powder - This will be used to make the matcha flavoured cookies. You can use a high quality culinary grade or ceremonial grade matcha powder. I use my favourite ceremonial grade matcha powder for its vibrant green colour.
- Decorations - What you use to decorate your cookies is entirely up to you and it's where you can get creative! For mine, I used coarse sugar crystals, white chocolate, dark chocolate, pistachios, Biscoff spread, cranberry jam, and powdered sugar.
How to make a butter cookie box
Mix dry ingredients - In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter & sugar - In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer to beat softened butter on medium speed until very creamy. Add the sugar and cream together until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Mix together dough - Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just combined. The dough should be very crumbly but holds together when squeezed. Some dry flour patches are fine.
Make chocolate & matcha flavours - Divide the dough into three bowls, about 400g each. Set one bowl aside. Add cocoa powder to one bowl and matcha powder to the other. Use a gloved hand to knead the powders into the dough until just combined.
Roll dough and chill - Place each portion of dough in between two sheets of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until about ⅛" thick. Transfer all three rolled-out cookie sheets to the fridge to chill laying flat for at least 1-2 hours until solid.
Cut out cookies - Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Starting with your first sheet of dough, peel the parchment paper off of both sides of the dough but leave the dough sitting on the bottom sheet. Working quickly, use cookie cutters of your choice to cut out shapes from the dough and transfer the cutouts to your lined baking sheet, leaving about ½" between each cookie.
Re-roll scraps and chill again - Chill the entire baking sheet in the fridge while you preheat the oven to 350°F. Re-roll the scraps between the same parchment paper and chill again until solid while you repeat with another sheet of dough.
For sparkly sugar cookies - Sprinkle coarse sugar crystals on the cookies before baking, trying not to get too much excess on the surrounding parchment.
For inverse cutout cookies - Use the smaller cutouts from the sandwich cookies or cut out new ones from one flavour of cookie and press them into the same shaped cutout in a different flavour cookie.
Bake - Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes depending on size until slightly golden brown on the edges. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
Decorate cookies - To decorate your cookies, get creative! Dip your cookies in melted chocolate or drizzle it across the cookies in a piping bag with the tip snipped off. Sprinkle with add-ons of your choice like nuts, dried fruits, or sprinkles.
For wreath cookies - Use two sizes of round cookie cutters to cut out a smaller round in the middle of a larger round. Use the smaller round as one of the other cookies. Pipe a ring of chocolate on the cookies and sprinkle with crushed pistachios before the chocolate hardens.
For linzer-style sandwich cookies - Cut out two cookie rounds for each sandwich cookie. Cut out a smaller shape in the middle of half of the cookies. Add dollops of jam and melted nutella or biscoff spread on half the sandwich cookies. Sprinkle the top cookies with powdered sugar before pressing on top of the filling.
Assemble butter cookie boxes - Arrange a selection of cookies in your cookie tin or box starting with the larger cookies and filling in the gaps with smaller cookies.
Storage
These butter cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Freezing
This cookie dough can be frozen after rolling it out into a flat sheet. Lay the dough on a flat shelf of your freezer or keep it on top of a cutting board. Wrap it well in plastic wrap and/or aluminum foil and freeze it for up to 2 weeks. Thaw in the fridge before cutting out the cookies.
Baked cookies can be frozen by keeping them in an airtight container or freezer bag. Freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw completely before eating.
Tips & tricks
- Make a plan before you start. You should have a general idea of the kinds of cookies you want to make and how many boxes you need to make before you start. I found it extremely helpful to draw out exactly what cookies I was going to make, what cookie cutters I was going to use, and what fillings and decorations I was going to put on them. This makes it easier to know how many cookies to cut out with a particular cutter and so that you can anticipate if a cutout from one cookie is being added to another (like for the inverse cutout cookies).
- Use room temperature ingredients. Your butter should be softened and the egg should be at room temperature. This ensures they will cream together well.
- Chill the cookie dough often as needed. This dough is very buttery so it must be chilled and firm at all times otherwise you'll have a very hard time cutting out your cookies and handling them. You should chill your dough or cookies in the fridge at any point in the process whenever they feel too soft and again before baking. Working with the dough on top of a marble slab also helps keep it cooler for longer if you have one available.
Variations & alternatives
The great thing about this cookie recipe is that it's incredibly versatile and customizable. No two butter cookie boxes will ever look the same.
- Change the flavours - Instead of three flavours of cookies, you can just make one or two to keep it simple and use more different fillings and add-ons to create variety.
- Flavour ideas - Try adding ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or dried fruit powders to your cookie dough.
- Filling ideas - For fruity fillings, try different kinds of jam, marmalades, curds, or fruit butters. For rich and creamy fillings, try using Nutella hazelnut spread, peanut butter, cookie butter, or salted caramel.
- Cookie shape ideas - Try using themed cookie cutters that match the occasion or holiday like Christmas cookie cutters, Easter, Valentine's Day, or baby-themed cookie cutters. Keeping them all circular and simple can be a stunning and modern look as well!
- Decoration ideas - There are truly so many different ways you can decorate these butter cookies. Try dipping your cookies in melted chocolate or drizzling it on top. Try piping a frosting or royal icing on top for a more detailed design. Sprinkle the cookies with crushed nuts, dried fruit, sprinkles, or just simple powdered sugar.
Frequently asked questions
Line your cookie box with crumpled parchment paper and arrange the largest and heaviest cookies at the bottom first. Add smaller and lighter cookies on top and to fill in the gaps. Use small pieces of parchment paper or cupcakes liners to divide cookies that you want to separate from the other cookies (like cookies with a filling or delicate decorations that may rub off).
Line your cookie box with parchment paper, tissue paper, or even shredded paper. These will help provide some cushioning to keep them in place in the box.
Butter cookies should be crisp but with a tender and sandy crumb that almost melts in your mouth. If your butter cookies are hard, you may have overmixed them or re-rolled the dough too many times which causes more gluten to form in the dough. Only mix your dough until the components are just combined and only re-roll your dough scraps once.
More holiday cookie recipes to try
- Easy Gingerbread Cookies
- Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Ginger Cream Filling
- Hazelnut Linzer Cookies
- Biscoff Stuffed Cookies
- Salted Chocolate Sablé Cookies
Recipe
Butter Cookie Box
Ingredients
Cookie Dough Base
- 560 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 450 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 200 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Flavour
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Matcha Flavour
- 1 ½ teaspoons matcha powder
Decorations
- coarse sugar crystals
- white chocolate, melted
- dark chocolate, melted
- pistachios, roughly crushed
- Nutella or Biscoff spread, warmed until melty
- jam
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer to beat softened butter on medium speed until very creamy. Add the sugar and cream together until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just combined. The dough should be very crumbly but holds together when squeezed. Some dry flour patches are fine.
- Divide the dough into three bowls, about 400g each. Set one bowl aside. Add cocoa powder to one bowl and matcha powder to the other. Use a gloved hand to knead the powders into the dough until just combined.
- Place each portion of dough in between two sheets of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until about ⅛" thick. Transfer all three rolled out cookie doughs to the fridge to chill laying flat for at least 1-2 hours until solid.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Starting with your first sheet of dough, peel the parchment paper off of both sides of the dough but leave the dough sitting on the bottom sheet. Working quickly, use cookie cutters of your choice to cut out shapes from the dough and transfer the cutouts to your lined baking sheet, leaving about ½" between each cookie.
- Chill the entire baking sheet in the fridge while you preheat the oven to 350°F. Re-roll the scraps between the same parchment paper and chill again until solid while you repeat with another sheet of dough.
- Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes depending on size until slightly golden brown on the edges. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
- To decorate your cookies, dip your cookies in melted chocolate or drizzle it across the cookies in a piping bag with the tip snipped off. Sprinkle crushed nuts on top before the chocolate hardens.
- Add dollops of jam and melted nutella or biscoff spread on half the sandwich cookies. Sprinkle the top cookies with powdered sugar before pressing on top of the filling.
- Arrange a selection of cookies in your cookie tin or box starting with the large cookies and filling in the gaps with smaller cookies.
Taylor M
Lovely recipe! I used Parkay and some green tea powder and it worked just fine 🙂 I like that they weren't too sweet and that they held their flavour even after they were cooked. Thank you for this nicely done recipe.