Today I'm sharing my basic cookie recipe, it's a simple recipe with just a few ingredients and can be used to make cookies with different flavors. And if you use different decorations, fillings and toppings you will have a wide variety of cookies made from the same recipe.
The tin on the left has seventeen different types of cookies, made from two basic recipes divided into two flavors each. With a single recipe I made four doughs with different flavors from which I made seventeen varieties of coockies.
Please note that I'm not a pastry chef and this is my way, which may be different from what you are used to, in which case feel free to change the recipe and make it to your liking. The end result may be different but it will at least be to your liking and that is the most important thing.
Basic Recipe
1 egg
200 g white sugar (can replace with another type of sugar)
200 g margarine (can be replaced with butter or another type of solid fat)
500 g unleavened wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
A flavour of your choice
The dough can be flavoured with different ingredients, this is what makes it versatile, for example:
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract;
- 2 tablespoon cinnamon;
- 2 tablespoon ground fennel;
- 4 tablespoon cocoa powder dissolved in 3 to 4 tbsp. hot water;
- lemon juice and zest (requires the addition of more flour);
- espresso coffee (requires the addition of more flour);
– 100 g of grated coconut;
- 100 to 200 g of ground or grated almonds or other dried nut.
For the last two ingredients, reduce the amount of flour in proportion to the added aroma. Add the flour little by little, checking the consistency of the dough and adjusting the amount of flour if necessary, as these ingredients release oils that will affect the consistency of the dough.
How to make
Beat the butter with the sugar until creamy, add the egg and liquid flavourings and beat.
Mix the sifted flour with the baking powder and flavouring powder.
Gradually add to the butter cream until well incorporated, avoid over-mixing, otherwise the cookies may become hard.
If necessary, adjust the amount of flour, there are several factors that can affect the consistency of the dough, such as the size of the egg, the added flavour, the time of year and the level of humidity in the air, as a rule in winter or in humid climates it will require more flour.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface (or between two sheets of baking paper) until it is about 5mm thick.
Transfer the dough to an oven tray and place in the fridge (at least 45 minutes). The colder the dough is, the easier it is to make and transfer the cookies to the tray without them losing their shape. I usually let the dough rest for about 2 hours before making the cookies.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut cookies using a cookie cutter, a knife, a glass or any other utensil that has a shape you like.
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| My box of cookies. |
Store the cookies in the refrigerator until ready to place them in the preheated oven at 180 ºC. The baking time varies between 10 to 15 minutes depending on the oven and your taste, in my oven they take 15 minutes, sometimes even longer because I don't like pale cookies.
Once cool, store in an airtight box to keep them crunchy for a long time, they last several weeks if you can resist them, in my house they last around five weeks, until they run out.
Splitting the base recipe
You can use the base recipe to make different flavours. Reserve 100 g of flour and make the base dough according to the recipe, you will get around 850 g of dough. Divide the dough and reserved flour by the number of flavours you are going to make, for example:
2 flavours: 425 g of dough + 50 g of reserved flour
3 flavours: 280 g of dough + 35 g of reserved flour
4 flavours: 210 g of dough + 25 g of reserved flour
Don't worry about being very exact, if necessary round the weights, more grams less grams does not affect the final result.
Add a flavour to each of the reserved doughs, checking the consistency of the dough and if necessary add more flour, you want to obtain a firm dough that does not stick to your hands.
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2 base recipes divided in 2 flavours each |
I suggest you start with the “cleanest” dough, this way you can reuse the mixer bowl. For example vanilla, lemon, cinnamon, chocolate or coconut, almond, chocolate chips, chocolate.
I suggest you take note of the flavours and formats, because if not, in the end you may have to sacrifice yourself trying all the formats to know what each one tastes like.
To increase the number of varieties, use different fillings, toppings and decorations. For example, a vanilla base dough recipe can produce eight different varieties of cookies.
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Cookies made from 4 flavours |
- cut into a heart shape to make vanilla cookies,
- cut circles to make cookies filled with chocolate cream,
- to fill with jam, make a circle for the base and a circle with a flower hole in the middle to place on top,
- make hearts and dip them in melted chocolate,
- make flowers and decorate with royal icing,
- make moons and sprinkle them with chopped nuts,
- make squares and decorate with colourful mini pearls,
- make triangles and decorate with caramel threads.
And if you still want more variety, dip them in chocolate and decorate some with mini pearls, others with chopped almonds, others with grated coconut, use your imagination and make combinations to create as many types of cookies as you can.
Suggestions for those who want to offer or sell
Place the cookies in a tin or cardboard box lined with parchment paper.
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Reused chocolate tin |
Make a card listing the ingredients and the date of manufacture and approximate expiration date, so that whoever receives them knows if they can eat them if they have allergies. You can also list the type of cookie, for example vanilla hearts, chocolate sandwiches, cinnamon moons, coconut flowers, so people know what flavors the box contains. Use your imagination to come up with funny names for your cookies.
If you want to go further, you can reuse a can and paint or cover the outside, in this post I show some reused cans.
Another option is to add a message asking that if they don't want to keep the tin when it is empty, they can return it instead of throwing it away. I do this, I offer a full box and when it is empty they give me the tin back, so I can offer it again, the same tin comes and goes many times.
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