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HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Before our first session, get your kitchen stocked. I've split everything into budget and nice-to-have so you're not standing in the store wondering if you need the stand mixer with the pasta attachment. You don't.
The Non-Negotiables
These aren't optional, and I'll explain why in class, but the short version: cups lie, especially with flour, and cold dough is the difference between a cookie and a puddle.
- Kitchen scale — around $15. This is the one thing I'd tell you to buy if you bought nothing else. Weighing flour instead of scooping it fixes more problems than any technique I could teach you.
- Half sheet pans, at least two, so one can cool while the other bakes
- Parchment paper — a full roll, you'll go through more than you think
- Mixing bowls, a couple of different sizes
- Measuring spoons (still useful for salt, vanilla, leavening — small amounts don't need the scale)
- A hand mixer or stand mixer. Either works. I use a stand mixer because my wrists appreciate it, but I made cookies for years with a hand mixer and nobody could tell the difference.
- Cooling racks
- Plastic wrap or reusable wrap for chilling dough — this matters more than people think
Pantry Basics
- Butter, unsalted (buy more than you think you need — Costco's block butter is fine and it's usually the best per-pound price if you're doing more than one recipe)
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated and brown sugar
- Eggs
- Baking soda and baking powder — check the dates, these go flat faster than people expect, especially if they've been sitting in your cupboard since last Christmas
- Salt (kosher, if you have a choice)
- Vanilla extract, the real stuff if you can swing it. Imitation is fine for a school treat, not for something you're giving to your neighbors.
- Whatever mix-ins your recipes call for — chocolate chips, molasses, spices, nuts
A note on the dry air here: at our elevation, dough dries out faster and things set differently than what a recipe written at sea level expects. Don't panic if your dough looks a little different than the photo. I'll show you what to watch for.
Nice-to-Have, Not Required
If you want to invest a little more, these make the process smoother, but nobody needs to buy any of this before week one.
- Cookie scoops (the kind that look like ice cream scoops) — gets you even sizing without a lot of fuss
- Silicone baking mats — I like these better than parchment for even browning, but parchment works fine
- An oven thermometer. Honestly this might belong in the required list. Ovens lie about their own temperature more than you'd guess, especially older ones. Ten dollars, tells you the truth.
- Piping bags and tips, only if you're planning to decorate. I'll be straight with you: I'm not a decorator, and we're not doing much piping in this class. If that's your thing, bring your own kit and I'll point you toward good resources, but it's not where I'm strong.
- A second set of sheet pans, if you're planning to bake a lot at once for the exchange
Shopping Notes
Butter and sugar are the two things worth buying in bulk if you're making multiple batches for an exchange — a warehouse-style membership store makes sense here, or just watch for sales at your regular grocery store in the weeks before Christmas, since baking staples usually get marked down.
Buy your leavening (baking soda, baking powder) fresh if yours has been open for more than six months. This is a cheap fix for a common problem and I'd rather you spend two dollars now than end up with flat cookies in class.
Bring your ingredients to our first session already measured out at home if you can, or at least portioned by recipe, so we're not spending our time hunting through bags. I'll have a supply list posted for each specific cookie we're making, but this covers what you need across the board.
See you at the first class. Wear something you don't mind getting flour on.
HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques & Settings
Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques & Settings
Print this, stick it on the fridge, ignore the parts you don't need yet. This is everything I keep repeating in class, in one place so I stop repeating it.
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Weigh, don't scoop
Flour by cup is a guess. Flour by weight is a fact. If you take one thing home from this class, take the scale habit.
- All-purpose flour: 120 g per cup
- Butter: 227 g per cup (one standard stick is 113 g)
- Granulated sugar: 200 g per cup
- Brown sugar (packed): 220 g per cup
If a recipe only gives you cups, weigh the flour anyway using the numbers above. It's the ingredient most likely to wreck you.
Chill your dough
Most cookie problems are impatience, not skill.
- Standard chill: 30 minutes minimum, fridge, dough covered so it doesn't dry out or pick up fridge smells.
- Laminated or roll-out doughs: 1 hour minimum, longer is fine.
- If your dough is warm from mixing and you skip this step, you will get a flat puddle instead of a cookie. I've watched it happen a hundred times.
Oven temps I actually use
- Drop cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal, molasses): 350°F
- Shortbread and slice-and-bake: 325°F, slower and gentler
- Meringue or delicate piped cookies: 300°F, patience required
I'd rather run 10 degrees cool and add a minute than run hot and burn the bottoms. Your oven may run hotter or cooler than the dial says — an oven thermometer is eight dollars and worth it.
Elevation adjustment (we're around 4,600 feet)
Dry air and lower pressure change how dough sets and how quickly moisture leaves. Standard adjustments that work for most cookie recipes here:
- Add 1–2 tablespoons extra flour per batch if dough seems slack
- Bake times often run 1–2 minutes shorter than a sea-level recipe says
- Reduce sugar slightly (a tablespoon or so) if cookies are spreading thin and going crisp when you want chewy
Don't fight this quietly and assume you did something wrong. It's the elevation. Adjust and move on.
Doneness — pull it early
I underbake on purpose. Edges set, middle still looks slightly underdone and a little shiny. That's the pull point.
- Cookies keep cooking on the hot pan for another minute or two after they come out. If you wait until the middle looks done in the oven, it's done-plus by the time it cools.
- I'd rather pull thirty seconds early than a minute late. This is a hill I'll stand on.
Freeze dough, not baked cookies
Baked cookies go stale and weird in the freezer, no matter how well you wrap them. Dough freezes clean.
- Roll dough into a log, wrap tight in plastic, then foil.
- Label it. I mean this. I have thawed gingersnap dough thinking it was sugar cookie more than once. Dinner became gingersnaps that night — nobody complained, but it wasn't the plan.
- Slice and bake straight from frozen, add a minute or two to bake time.
On royal icing and decorating
I don't teach flooding or piping in this class and I won't pretend I love the look. It's pretty, it's a lot of work, and half the time it tastes like nothing. If you want that, there are whole classes just for icing technique. This class is about dough you'll actually make again.
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That's the sheet. Everything else we cover in class is really just variations on these six things.
WorksheetHandout 3: Your Cookie Exchange Plan
Handout 3: Your Cookie Exchange Plan
This is the one I actually want you to take home and keep, so fill it out while it's fresh. Not pretty, just useful.
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Step 1: Pick Your Cookie
Circle the one you're bringing to the exchange. If you can't decide, pick the one you could make again next week without looking anything up.
- Chewy molasses
- Brown butter chocolate chip
- Shortbread
- Other (write it in): ______________________
Why this one, not the other one:
_______________________________________________
Step 2: Know Your Numbers
Write these down now, while I'm still in the room to ask.
Your answer Flour weight (grams, not cups) Butter temp when you start Chill time before baking Oven temp (remember our elevation note) Bake time, minimum Bake time, if you like them darker I like mine pulled at the low end of the range. That's a preference, not a rule, but write down what yours actually is so December-you isn't guessing.
Step 3: Dough Math for the Exchange
How many cookies do you need total?
_______
How many per batch does your recipe make?
_______
Batches needed (round up):
_______
Now decide: are you baking it all fresh, or freezing dough logs and baking closer to the day? Circle one.
Bake fresh — do this if you've got an open afternoon. Freeze dough now, bake later — do this if December is going to eat your schedule, which it will.
If you're freezing: write today's date and what's in the log, on the log, on tape, right now. Not "I'll remember." I never remember.
Date: _______ Contents: _______________________
Step 4: The Reality Check
Answer honestly. No wrong answers, just useful ones.
- Do you tend to overmix? Yes / No
- Do you tend to skip the chill because you're impatient? Yes / No
- Have you actually weighed your flour before, or always scooped? Weighed / Scooped
- Are you the type to open the oven three times to check? Yes / No
If you circled yes on more than one of these, that's fine, that's most people. Just know that's probably where your last batch went sideways, not the recipe.
Step 5: Packaging
Circle what you're using and note how many cookies fit without stacking weight on the bottom layer.
- Tin
- Cellophane bag with ribbon
- Plate with wrap
- Other: ______________________
Cookies per container without crushing: _______
Step 6: One Thing to Try Next Time
Write down one adjustment you want to test after today. Maybe it's less bake time, maybe it's finally weighing your butter, maybe it's giving up on the almond frosting like I mostly have.
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
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Last thing. Take a photo of this sheet before you leave, or stick it on the fridge. I write everything on index cards and then lose the index cards, so I'm not going to pretend a piece of paper is a foolproof system. It's just better than nothing, which is what most of us are working with in December.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Most cookie problems aren't recipe problems, they're patience problems or measuring problems. Here's what shows up most in class, in the order I see it.
1. Cookies spread into one flat sheet
Almost always a chilling problem. Your butter got too warm, or you skipped the chill entirely. Dough needs at least 30 minutes in the fridge before it hits a hot pan. If your kitchen runs warm, give it an hour. I know it's tempting to skip this when you're trying to get through six dozen for an exchange. Don't.
2. Cookies are dense or tough instead of tender
This is usually overmixing once the flour goes in, or measuring flour by scooping the cup straight into the bag. Scooping packs it in and you end up with way more flour than the recipe wants. Weigh your flour if you can. A scale is fifteen dollars and it's the difference between a recipe that works every time and one you're gambling on.
3. Cookies are dry and crumbly
Usually overbaking. I pull mine when the edges are set and the middle still looks a little underdone, because the pan keeps cooking the cookie for another minute or two after it's out of the oven. I'd rather pull thirty seconds early than one minute late. This is a hill I'll stand on.
4. Dough is too sticky to handle
Could be humidity, could just be a wet dough, but the fix is the same either way: chill it longer, and flour your hands lightly instead of adding more flour to the bowl. Adding flour at this stage throws off your whole ratio.
5. Cookies taste flat or a little off
Check your leavening isn't expired, first. After that, it's usually salt — most people under-salt cookie dough because it feels wrong to salt something sweet. A pinch more than you think you need is usually right.
6. Bottoms are burning before the tops are done
Your pan's too dark, or too close to the bottom element, or you're not rotating halfway through. Also — up here around 4,600 feet, ovens run a little different than what a recipe box tells you. Dry air, lower pressure. I usually knock my bake time down slightly and keep a closer eye than the recipe says to. Don't trust the timer completely your first year baking at elevation. Trust your eyes.
7. Frosting won't set, stays tacky
Honestly, I still don't have this fully solved for the almond buttercream style. I've gotten it good. I haven't gotten it reliable. If yours is sliding around, try less liquid and more time uncovered on the counter before you stack anything.
8. Dough logs are a mystery in the freezer
Label them. I don't, and I've thawed what I thought was sugar cookie dough and gotten gingersnap instead. We had gingersnaps that night. Nobody complained, but label yours anyway.
9. Cookies stick to the pan or spread weird along the edges
Parchment paper, every time. Don't grease the pan directly if the recipe calls for parchment — that's usually what causes the lacy, thin edges people don't want.
10. Cookies look fine but taste like nothing, especially with a lot of decoration
This one's a preference more than a fix, but I'll say it anyway: the fussier the cookie, the more likely it tastes like the effort went into looks instead of flavor. If you're choosing between one more piped detail and letting the dough rest longer, rest the dough.
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If something's going wrong and it's not on this list, flag me down in class. I'd rather look at your actual dough than guess from a description.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so you're saying the tins. It always comes back to the tins.
MELISSA: It does. I feel like every ward exchange has the same three grocery-store cookies dressed up in a different tin, and I'm not mad about it, I just think people can do a little better without it becoming a whole production.
JESS: This is Melissa Allred, everybody, and this is episode one of Holiday Baking and Cookie Exchange Prep. Melissa, for people who don't know you yet—
MELISSA: I teach preschool during the day, I do bread and cookies at home, and a woman in my ward named Beverly basically shamed me into teaching this class.
JESS: Shamed is a strong word.
MELISSA: I told her I didn't feel qualified. She said the tins spoke for themselves. That was the whole conversation. She wasn't wrong.
JESS: Okay, so, session one is coming up. What are people actually walking into?
MELISSA: We start with dough. Not decorating, not frosting, dough. Because I feel like most people's cookie problems aren't flavor problems, they're dough problems, and nobody ever taught them that.
JESS: Give me an example.
MELISSA: Chilling. Everybody skips it. They mix the dough, they're excited, they throw it right on the pan, and then they call me confused about why everything spread into one flat sheet that connects at the edges. It's not a mystery. The dough was too warm and too soft and it just ran.
JESS: So chill it.
MELISSA: Thirty minutes minimum, I like an hour if you've got it. In the fridge, not on the counter, people try that too. It's basic and it fixes probably sixty percent of what people write me. That's the tip anybody can use tonight without ever setting foot in my class.
JESS: I'm writing that down. Chill the dough, thirty to sixty minutes, fridge not counter.
MELISSA: And weigh your flour if you have a scale. Cups lie. Especially flour, especially in dry air, which is most of what we've got up here. A scale's fifteen bucks and it's the difference between cookies that turn out the same way twice and just kind of gambling every time you bake.
JESS: You gamble on other things though. Tell them about the run.
MELISSA: Oh, no, this is embarrassing.
JESS: That's why I'm asking.
MELISSA: I run when the weather lets me, and some of my best recipe thinking happens down by the point of the mountain, just on that stretch where you can see the whole valley open up. I'll be four miles in working out some ingredient swap in my head, feeling very clever about it—
JESS: Uh huh.
MELISSA: And by the time I get home I've forgotten every single detail. Every time. I've solved the same molasses cookie problem probably four separate times on that road and never once written it down before I lost it.
JESS: Do you keep a phone with you?
MELISSA: I do. I don't use it. That's the gap, not the tool.
JESS: Fair. Okay, so session one, dough fundamentals, chilling, weighing—what else are people bringing home that first night?
MELISSA: A basic dough they can freeze in logs. That's honestly the most useful thing I teach all December. Freeze the dough, not the baked cookie. Baked cookies go stale and weird in the freezer, they pick up flavors, they're sad by New Year's. But a dough log freezes clean. You slice off what you need, whenever you need it, and you've got fresh cookies with basically no effort on a random Tuesday in December when you didn't plan for company.
JESS: Do you actually do that yourself?
MELISSA: Constantly, and I constantly forget what's in there. I thawed a log a few weeks back thinking it was sugar cookie dough, and it turned out to be gingersnap. So dinner became gingersnaps that night. Nobody in my house complained, for the record.
JESS: That's a good problem to have.
MELISSA: It really is.
JESS: Alright, quick plug before we let people go—what's session two?
MELISSA: We move into the exchange-specific stuff. What actually holds up in a tin for three days, what travels well, what doesn't. And I'll say now, because I'll say it again in class, I'm not big on the fussy iced sugar cookies people bring to these things.
JESS: Controversial.
MELISSA: A little. They're pretty, they photograph fine, but they're a lot of work for something that usually tastes like not much. I'd rather bring one cookie that people actually eat all of instead of one they admire and leave on the plate.
JESS: So session two is about picking your cookie.
MELISSA: Picking your cookie, and how to bake it slightly underdone on purpose, because it keeps cooking on the hot pan after it comes out. That's a hill I'll stand on the whole session.
JESS: I believe you. Alright, that's episode one. Chill your dough, weigh your flour, freeze the logs not the cookies, and know what's actually in your freezer before you thaw it.
MELISSA: Or don't, and just have gingersnaps for dinner. It works out.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —wait, so you threw the whole batch out, right in front of the class?
MELISSA: I did. I mean, I gave people the option to try one first. But that dough had been over-chilled and then over-baked and it was just sad. I feel like there's no point pretending a cookie is fine when it's not fine.
JESS: I love that you just named it. Okay, for people just tuning in, this is week two, so if you missed episode one, go back, but we're picking up mid-conversation because that's how Melissa and I talk anyway.
MELISSA: We do. You called me at eight in the morning last week.
JESS: I did, and you were already elbow-deep in dough.
MELISSA: I was testing the molasses cookie again. I make it every year and I still tweak it every year.
JESS: Tell people the story about how you even got into teaching this. Because I don't think you set out to be "the cookie lady."
MELISSA: No, not at all. Beverly from my ward talked me into it, honestly. I'd said something like, I feel like I'm not really qualified to teach a class, and she just looked at me and said, the grocery-store tins speak for themselves.
JESS: That's it? That's the whole pitch?
MELISSA: That was the whole conversation. She wasn't wrong, though. Every cookie exchange I'd ever been to had the same three recipes off the same three boxes, and I'd been dialing in cookies at home for fun for years at that point. It didn't feel like a huge leap, once she said it that bluntly.
JESS: I feel like that's very on-brand for you. Somebody states a fact at you and suddenly you're teaching a class.
MELISSA: Pretty much. I don't do a lot of talking myself into things. Somebody else usually has to.
JESS: Okay, so today's session is dough behavior, right? Chilling, spreading, all that.
MELISSA: Right. And I want to give people one thing right now, on the podcast, that they can use whether or not they ever set foot in my kitchen. Chill your dough. That's it. That's the tip.
JESS: That feels too simple.
MELISSA: It is simple, and almost nobody does it long enough. Most of what people call a "recipe problem" is actually an impatience problem. You mix the dough, it's room temperature, the butter's soft, and you just start scooping it onto the pan because you're excited or you're in a hurry. Then it hits the oven and spreads into one flat sheet before it's even had a chance to set its shape.
JESS: So how long are we talking.
MELISSA: Minimum thirty minutes in the fridge, and honestly I'll go a couple hours if I have the time. Overnight is even better for a lot of doughs, the flavor actually develops more that way too. But thirty minutes will fix probably eighty percent of the spreading complaints I hear.
JESS: That's such a good place to start, because people can literally do that tonight with whatever cookie recipe they already have.
MELISSA: They can. I'd rather give people one thing they'll actually use than ten things they'll forget.
JESS: Okay, tell me the freezer thing too, because I think that's the one that changes people's December.
MELISSA: Freeze the dough, not the baked cookie. Baked cookies go weird and stale in the freezer, they pick up freezer smell, they get that texture that's not quite right. But dough logs freeze clean. Wrap it, label it, and you can slice off exactly what you need and bake it fresh whenever.
JESS: Do you actually label yours.
MELISSA: I mean to. In practice I pull something out thinking it's sugar cookie dough and it turns out to be gingersnap. Happened again this fall, actually. I'd planned a totally different dinner, and instead we had gingersnaps with dinner because that's what was thawed. Nobody complained. Mark didn't even ask questions, he just ate them.
JESS: That's so you though. You tell people to label things and you don't label your own stuff.
MELISSA: I feel like that's fair to point out. I'm better with a scale than with a Sharpie.
JESS: Speaking of the scale, are we doing the whole weighing-flour conversation next time?
MELISSA: That's next session, yeah. We're doing the actual dough-mixing lab, hands in the bowl, and I'm bringing my kitchen scale so people can see the difference between a cup of flour packed one way versus scooped another way. It's a bigger gap than people think, especially up here with how dry our flour already runs.
JESS: I feel like that's going to be the session people talk about afterward.
MELISSA: I hope so. I'd rather send everybody home with three cookies they can actually repeat than one showpiece they'll never make again.
JESS: Okay, last thing before we wrap. Anything people should bring next time?
MELISSA: Just an apron and patience for chilling dough while we talk. And maybe don't eat lunch right before, because there will be tasting.
JESS: Noted. Alright, that's episode two, we'll see everyone Thursday.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so she takes six of them. Just walks up and takes six.
MELISSA: I counted. It wasn't a guess.
JESS: Okay, for people just joining us mid-thought, we're talking about the ward cookie exchange story again.
MELISSA: The molasses cookie one. Yeah. This woman I barely knew, I think I'd said maybe four sentences to her total, and she comes back to the table three separate times. I remember thinking, huh, maybe I should stop keeping this in my kitchen.
JESS: And here we are.
MELISSA: Here we are.
JESS: This is episode three of the podcast for Holiday Baking and Cookie Exchange Prep, I'm Jess, I produce these, and Melissa is teaching the class. We're getting close to session three now, so I wanted to talk about actual exchange logistics. Like, the stuff people mess up when they're bringing cookies somewhere other than their own kitchen table.
MELISSA: The biggest one is people bake everything the morning of and then wonder why they're frazzled and the cookies are mediocre. I feel like that's backwards. You should be baking days ahead and freezing.
JESS: Freezing the baked cookies?
MELISSA: No. Freezing the dough. That's the tip, that's the one thing I want people to leave with even if they never take a single class from me. Freeze dough in logs, not finished cookies. Baked cookies go weird and stale in the freezer no matter how you wrap them. Dough freezes clean. You slice off what you need, bake it fresh the day of, and it tastes like you just made it, because you did.
JESS: How far ahead can people do that?
MELISSA: Month, easily. I've got logs in my freezer right now I genuinely don't remember the contents of.
JESS: This feels like it's heading toward a story.
MELISSA: It's the gingersnap one. I thawed what I was sure was sugar cookie dough, had it out on the counter, went to shape it, and it's gingersnap. Completely different dough, I'd just mislabeled the log or not labeled it at all, hard to say. So dinner that night was gingersnaps. Nobody in my house complained, but it did teach me to write on the bag now. Contents and date. It sounds obvious. I didn't do it for years.
JESS: Label the dough.
MELISSA: Label the dough. Sharpie on the freezer bag, thirty seconds, saves you a surprise.
JESS: Okay so that's the practical tip anybody listening can use tonight, freeze your dough in logs, label the bag. What else, exchange-specific.
MELISSA: Pick one cookie and do it well instead of three cookies you're stressed about. I see people show up to exchanges with an ambitious tray, three different kinds, and none of them are quite right because they ran out of time on all three. I'd rather bring one good chewy cookie that people actually eat than a tray that photographs nice and gets left in the tin.
JESS: You've said before you're not big on the fancy iced sugar cookies for this reason.
MELISSA: They're pretty. I'm not saying don't make them if you love making them. But they're brittle, they're a lot of work, and half the time they don't taste like much once you've got that much frosting on there. For an exchange, where the whole point is that people are actually going to eat what's in the tin, I'd rather bring something with real flavor that holds up in a bag for four days.
JESS: What's your go-to right now.
MELISSA: Still the molasses one, honestly. Same recipe from the story. I know the formula now, I don't lose that index card anymore, mostly because I finally just wrote it in my phone instead of on paper.
JESS: Progress.
MELISSA: Small progress. I still lose regular notes constantly. This was a deliberate workaround, not growth.
JESS: I'll take it. Okay, last thing — what's coming in the next session, because I know people are wondering if we're finally doing the almond frosting.
MELISSA: We are, and I want to say up front, I still don't have it fully figured out. I've gotten it good. I have never gotten it reliably perfect, batch after batch, no thinking about it. So next session is real-time troubleshooting, we're going to make it together and if it goes a little sideways in the room, I'll just tell you why and we'll fix it live. That's actually the useful part, watching what goes wrong.
JESS: No pretending it's foolproof.
MELISSA: Never. I'd rather you leave able to make three cookies again on your own than one cookie you're scared to touch without me standing there.
JESS: That's it for episode three. Bring a sharpie to session three, apparently.
MELISSA: Bring a sharpie. And maybe don't eat breakfast, we're going to be tasting a lot of frosting.
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