Ultimate Cookie Day: All the Tools Necessary for the Best Baking Extravaganza
One of my favorite parts of the holidays is baking all of the Christmas Cookies! I love baking any time of year; but there’s just something special about making all of the classic and traditional bakes to share with family and friends. For as long as I can remember, cookie baking was a huge part of the holidays in our household - a tradition I’ve carried with me since moving out of my family home and into my first apartment in NYC!
I have to admit, my first cookie day on my own was a bit of a wake up call - I was in an apartment with a much smaller kitchen, and without all of my mom’s amazing gadgets. And just like that, cookie day became a little more stressful. While I absolutely love baking, the pressure of a whole cookie day - making multiple different kinds, trying to please everyone, ensuring each batch tastes and looks amazing - can be a bit much! In the years since, I’ve learned which things are a must-have, and what you can do without.
So, I’ve rounded up the top things needed in order to have a fun, relaxing, and successful Cookie Day for y’all!
I love my KitchenAid Mixer. She’s Tiffany Blue, her name is Audrey, and she is the absolute star of any baking day I have.
Growing up, I’d never known a life without a stand mixer. My mom’s had one since before I was born, and every baking day involved using the stand mixer to cream the butter and sugar, knead dough, whip egg whites… you get it. So when I moved into an apartment and didn’t have access to this glorious gadget, I felt a little bit like the socialite who gets cut-off from her parents. “You mean… I have to mix this… by hand?!” Obviously, I made do - but I’m not joking when I say Audrey has been life changing.
I won’t lie, making a ton of cookies in one day can be a little bit stressful! But the KitchenAid Stand Mixer is more than worth is for the amount of stress and time saved by using it. Need to whip up a meringue? Pop it in with the whisk attachment and let it go (no need to stand over it for what feels like forever). Need to cream butter and sugar for the next dough while taking the previous batch out of the oven? Done, no stress!
Truly, I cannot stress enough that if you love baking, you’ll seriously love having an Audrey in your home.Flour and butter and sugar, oh my! Anyone who’s even looked at powdered sugar knows baking can be a messy task. That’s why I love a good apron! My favorite is one gifted to me - it’s a cross back pinafore style that I’m wearing above. I love that you don’t have to fuss around with ties, and that it doesn’t mess up hair or makeup while putting on!
A spoonful of sugar can only make the medicine go down if you correctly measure it! Baking is first and foremost a science - if you want your cookies to turn out; you have to follow the recipe. I love my measuring cups because they’re durable, accurate, and the key ring attaching them all means I’m never going to lose a size!
My favorite part about these storage containers is the amount of mess they reduce! Keeping sugar and flour in those paper bags they come in is a sure fire way to end up with a bunch of it on your counter. I love keeping these stapes in the containers because they’re air tight (keeping any possible pest or contaminant out), they make it so much easier to measure out ingredients, and, they make it a breeze to store! Piling odd shaped bags on top of each other works, but these uniformly sized pop storage containers save space (and look a lot less cluttered!).
What is Christmas without classic cut out cookies? These cookie cutters are amazing - they’re durable, and contain all the best shapes: christmas tree, candy cane, gingerbread people and so much more!
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What are your favorite holiday goodies to bake each year? Let me know in the comments below!
And join along with all of my baking adventures (the Kowalchuk cookie day is Christmas Eve!) by following me on instagram @sarah.kowalchuk.
xx, Sarah
