Cooking & Baking

Holiday Baking and Cookie Exchange Prep

Meets Fridays · 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM · on Zoom Fall 2026 · registration open Free to audit

This class runs in the Fall 2026 session. Registration is open now; lessons, materials, and the class discussion board are posted before it begins.

This is a hands-on class for anyone getting ready for a holiday cookie exchange, or anyone who just wants a fuller cookie tin this December. We'll bake three cookies that hold up for gifting and swapping: a chewy molasses, a shortbread, and one dough you'll freeze ahead so you can bake fresh whenever. I feel like most cookie problems come down to impatience and cups instead of a scale, so we'll fix that early. You'll leave knowing how to weigh your ingredients, why chilling matters, how to adjust for our elevation, and how to freeze dough logs so a busy month gets easier. You'll go home with three recipes you can actually make again, not one you'll never repeat.

What you'll learn

Weigh ingredients on a scale instead of cups
Adjust recipes for high-altitude baking conditions
Mix, chill, and shape dough without overworking it
Freeze, slice, and bake dough straight from frozen
Diagnose spreading, dry, or flat cookie problems

Lessons

Before You Bake Anything
We set up the habits that make every cookie in this class turn out the same way twice.
The Chewy Molasses Cookie
The cookie that made me think I should teach this, built to travel and get finished.
Shortbread That Doesn't Taste Like a Tin
Three ingredients means the butter has to carry it, so we fuss over the butter.
The Freezer Dough
The single most useful thing you'll take from this class: dough logs you bake fresh whenever.
Packing and Presenting Without the Fuss
I'm not a decorator, so this is about tins and honesty, not piping and flooding.
Exchange Day and Fixing What Went Wrong
We troubleshoot the three cookies together and plan a batch you can actually pull off in December.

Class discussion

The class discussion board opens when the class begins this fall. Auditors and enrolled students ask questions and share work here once the session starts.