Cooking With Christie: Customizable Cookies!

Inspiration: Customizable Slice-and-Bake Butter Cookies

If you’re looking for an easy make-ahead cookie dough that will wow the masses, this is the one for you! I’ve a similar cookie in my repertoire already, but it turns out you can do way more with the dough than I’d ever dreamed.

Initially, I found this recipe in a magazine, but it turns out America’s Test Kitchen made a YouTube video about these cookies, which is below.

The version I made was Raspberry-Cinnamon. After making the dough, you blitz down freeze-dried raspberries to the size of atoms, strain the seeds out, and sprinkle the powder on the cookies directly after they exit the oven.

Hilariously, the group sampling my efforts was a bit unsure about the powdery topping. But trusting I wouldn’t send along something awful, they nibbled…and nibbled…and nibbled them. After four or five cookies, they decided the mouthfeel was just a tad grainy. Then, they proceeded to hoover up all forty cookies over the next couple of hours.

So, this was not a make-or-break feature, and, in fairness, I did get a bit heavy-handed when sprinkling the powder.

Christie: I can see Tuppence making these cookies for one bake sale or another, especially since this style of slice-and-bake butter cookie can be whipped up one day and baked the next. An outstanding feature in a homemade cookie, as it doesn’t require a huge time sink on either day!

Cooking With Christie: Toffee!

Inspiration: Walking through a local bookshop dedicated to cookbooks, I discovered America’s Test Kitchen’s book Food Gifts. Amongst the many intriguing recipes was one for Chocolate Matzo Toffee.

Whilst I’d never heard of this sweet treat before, it is apparently a well-established dainty! Even better? It’s easily customizable!

The only slightly specialized equipment needed is a candy or electronic thermometer.

Feeling relatively comfortable with this recipe, I switched it up slightly despite not having made the sweet before. Rather than creating a sea salt-flecked treat, I blitzed a half-cup of raw pumpkin seeds and mixed them with the chocolate before pouring it over the toffee. Figuring the slightly bitter taste of the pumpkin seeds would help balance the overall sweetness of the toffee and chocolate. (As well as adding an extra layer of texture.) Then, I speckled some holiday-themed sprinkles onto the chocolate to help relieve the overall monochrome-ish-ness of the treat.

It was a huge hit!

Christie: I can easily see Inspector Japp or Capt. Arthur Hasting enjoying a box of these buttery sweets!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025