3 GIANT Single-Serving Christmas Cookies - Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking Ep 103

Hi Bold Bakers! Christmas is in full swing around here so it’s a great time to share with you my three single-serving holiday cookies. And thanks to LG, I’m able to bring you this recipe from my new LG ProBake Convection oven. So let’s get baking. These single-serving cookies are the perfect recipe to make one giant cookie and they also work as great gifts for the holiday season. We are going to start out with the most quintessential holiday cookie, which is a gingerbread man. In a small bowl, add in room temperature butter and brown sugar. And then cream these both together well. Next we’re going to add in the egg. And for those of you who asked, I’m going to add in an egg substitute that you can use on biggerbolderbaking.com where all the recipes can be found. Next we’re going to add in our molasses and if you don’t have it, you can always use treacle or honey. Now just give these ingredients a quick mix-together. The molasses gives this a lovely caramel taste and color. To this we’re going to add in our dry ingredients. Flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and a pinch of salt. And then mix these ingredients together with a spatula. What I love about these single serving cookie recipes is that you just need a handful of ingredients, you can mix them in a small bowl, and you can have them ready in minutes. Lovely, so this is your gingerbread man batter. And you’ll notice that it is quite soft so you’re going to want to put it in the fridge to chill for around 30 minutes before you can roll it out and bake it. Our gingerbread cookie has chilled and now it’s nice and cold that we’re able to shape him. Now you can get creative with this dough and make any shape you want; round, Christmas trees. I’m actually going to make a gingerbread man but I don’t have a giant gingerbread cutter so I’m just going to do with my hands. Forgive me if I don’t do the best job. Get your cookie dough nice and thin and remember you’re doing this without a mold so any gingerbread shape is going to look pretty good I think. My new oven has convection bake, which gives you the best results for your baking. Also, it has double oven capacity, which is fantastic especially around the holidays when you want to bake off tons of cookies. We’re going to bake these off at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius until they’re nice and crisp. My kitchen smells lovely, warm, and spicy and I can see through here that he’s done so let’s take him out. This gingerbread is perfectly baked. It is the same lovely brown all over and he’s nice and firm, which means he’ll be lovely and crisp. When your gingerbread cookie has cooled, it’s time to ice it. So I’m just going to take some colored icing and then just decorate him any which way you want. Do some nice designs and also don’t forget about putting on his buttons. And there you have it, look at that. A big and bold gingerbread man. It almost looks too cute to eat. So I’m going to set this guy aside and we’re going to move on to our next cookie. Our next holiday cookie is one that is really popular in Ireland around the holidays and that is a lovely, buttery shortbread. In a small bowl, add in your soft, room temperature butter, white sugar, and then mix these two ingredients well until they’re nice and soft. For your cookie to work well, you want this mix to be nice and creamed. Now to this, we’re going to add in some vanilla extract, flour, and a pinch of salt. And then mix them all together. You’ll notice when you’re mixing it looks a little bit dry, but to bring it all together, go in there with your hands and push the dough together with your fingers and then it should all form together really nicely. Now, place your shortbread dough on your baking tray. Now you can leave it round if you want or make a different shape. I’m going to use this lovely big snowflake cutter I have because it is the holidays and I want to make these really festive. I’m just going to roll my dough out a little bit to fit my cookie cutter. Once you cut it out, if you have any leftover dough, you can always put it in on top of that cookie or you can bake another cookie. Look at that, I’m glad I used that cutter because it looks really pretty. And remember last week I made homemade cookie butters so if you have any cookie dough leftover from this week, you can always turn it into a homemade cookie butter. Another delicious cookie ready for the oven. We’re going to bake this off at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius for roughly 10-12 minutes. There is definitely the smell of butter in the air so I’m pretty sure my cookie is done. With the convection setting on my oven, you get this lovely, light, golden brown on your shortbread. You don’t want to overbake shortbread because you want it to be nice, soft, and buttery. This cookie smells amazing. It’s really buttery and the vanilla I just adore. This is one of my favorite Christmas cookies. This is delicious. It’s lovely and flaky. It’s vanilla and sweet and buttery. It’s absolutely gorgeous and it goes great with a cup of tea. I’m not going to finish this cookie because we’ve got another great one coming up next. Our next cookie is traditional, rich, and very chocolatey. It is a chocolate crinkle cookie. In a small bowl, add in flavorless oil, an egg, sugar, and vanilla extract. And then whisk them all well together. So I never had this cookie before I moved to the United States but it is really rich and moist inside. It’s kind of like a brownie. It is so good. Into our fluffy egg mix, we’re going to sieve in our dry ingredients. Flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. The reason that I sieve them is because cocoa powder can often have lumps and we don’t want any lumps in our cookie. And then with your spatula, just gently fold these together. You can kinda get the smell already of a brownie because of the cocoa powder and the vanilla extract. So when you mix your crinkle cookie batter it should look something like this. Just like a brownie. This guy is a little bit soft so I’m going to pop him in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. And remember that all of my cookie doughs can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days and even frozen. Once your crinkle cookie has chilled we’re going to put it onto our tray. Shape your dough into a round with your hand and then you want to pat it down to around 4.5-5 inches. It is a really big and bold cookie. You want to make sure that this cookie stays nice and thick so you get that lovely brownie texture in the middle. Now this next step really makes it a crinkle cookie. We’re going to take our dough and toss it into powdered sugar. Get it thick on both sides. Look at that. And you’re probably wondering why I’m doing this but when you see this baked, you’ll know why. And when it’s well-coated all over, just pop it back onto the tray. That’s my timer so let’s check on my cookie. I’ve been waiting to try this crinkle cookie. And I want to show you what it looks like on the inside. Look at all the fudgy goodness that I was telling you about. These cookies are definitely best eaten warm, straight out of the oven, the day that they’re made. Oh yummy yummy! This one might be a contender for one of my favorite Christmas cookies. If one of these cookies just isn’t enough for you, I’ve put full-batch recipes on biggerbolderbaking.com. Come back this Monday because I’ve got a very special bonus video for homemade chocolate croissants thanks to LG. Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you back here every week for more Bigger Bolder Baking.