Holiday Baking Cookie Hacks

As much as I love holiday baking, I’m also a realist and know that not everyone (myself included) has the time to make every holiday cookie recipe they’ve saved in the past month. In fact, it’s pretty easy to give store-bought sweets a merry makeover by dipping them in chocolate and sprinkling on fun toppings. The following tips, twists, and time-savers will leave you pretty skilled when it comes to the holiday baking cookie hack. Without actually baking.

5 Holiday Baking Cookie Hacks

1. Dip store-bought shortbread in dark chocolate and cover with a sprinkling of crushed candy cane. Drizzle the entire cookie with melted white chocolate for a professional finish.
2. Make personalized monogrammed cookies by printing letters onto cardstock and cutting them out with scissors, then laying them on top of a pre-made shortbread or sugar cookie and dusting the surface with powdered sugar. Carefully remove the cutout letter before plating the cookies.
3. Purchase frozen cookie dough and keep in the freezer until needed. Then bake the cookies just before serving. Not only will the treats be fresh and warm, but your house will smell amazing.
4. Dip any store-bought cookie in any melted chocolate and cover with sprinkles, chopped nuts, coconut, coloured sugar, etc.
5. Make brownie Christmas trees by using a tray of store bought brownies, a can of icing, green food colouring, assorted sprinkles, and candy canes. To make the trees, cut the tray of brownies (this works best if the tray is rectangular) into 3 rows, and then cut each row into 5 triangles. Colour the icing with the food colouring, spread it over the brownie and decorate the ‘tree’ with sprinkles. Insert a straight piece of candy cane into the bottom of the triangle for the tree trunk.

Now it’s your turn to confess: what’s your favourite holiday baking hack?