christmas cookies 2025 - GF orange and passionfruit shortbread creams

christmas cookies 2025 - GF orange and passionfruit shortbread creams

22 Dec 2025

I wasn't planning to post again before Christmas but after delivering this year's cookie boxes, a clear favourite emerged and it felt mean not to share the recipe with you. 

I tried out a few new recipes for this year's cookie box and none were a success so I returned to old favourites like these thumbprint cookies, an assortment of amaretti and glazed gingerbread.

Some of my friends can't eat nuts, so chocolate crinkle cookies and brown pumpkin snickerdoodles made their way into their cookie box, whilst others are gluten intolerant. In the end each cookie box contained a different selection. I posted some of the boxes to my interstate friends and in general the cookies arrived unscathed.

Here's what I made - hazelnut baci sandwiched with dark chocolate, thumbprint biscuits, sour cherry and pistachio amaretti, rum glazed gingerbread and chocolate crinkle cookies. The standout however were the orange and passionfruit shortbread creams, a reworking of an old Stephanie Alexander recipe for passionfruit shortbread I've made in the past. The recipe has been updated and adapted by Natalie Paull. 

I made 3 batches of the recipe for Christmas. I used reduced lemon juice matched with lemon rind for one batch; I used reduced orange juice with orange rind for another batch and strained passionfruit juice with lemon rind for the third batch and all were delicious. The cookies do spread during baking and more so when I used GF flour, so make sure you allow for this.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 12 sandwich biscuits, although the batch is easily multiplied. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Orange and passionfruit shortbread creams - makes 12
Ingredients
90g unsalted butter, softened
50g icing sugar mixture
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
30mls orange juice, regular or reduced (see below)
90g GF or regular self-raising flour, sifted
50g cornflour/cornstarch, sifted
¼ tsp sea salt flakes

Filling
30g room temperature unsalted butter
Pinch salt
75g icing sugar mixture
The pulp of 1 medium passionfruit

Reduced orange juice

Squeeze the zested orange and place the juice into an oversized plastic container as the juice will froth and bubble as it cooks. Place the container in the microwave and microwave the strained fruit juice on High(100%) heat in bursts of 2–3 minutes until the target amount of 30g has been reached. Refrigerate the juice until needed.

Method
Place butter, sugar and zest in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 8 minutes, or until fluffy. Add the orange juice and beat until combined. Sift over flours and add the salt flakes. Reduce speed to low and mix until combined and dough looks like a soft, thick paste. Working quickly, transfer mixture to a piping bag with a 1cm star nozzle. Do not let dough stand, or piping will be difficult.

Grease a large baking tray and line with baking paper. Pipe 24 swirls allowing room around each swirl for spreading and puffing. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

While the biscuits are in the fridge, preheat oven to 170°C, conventional. Bake for 15 minutes on the centre rack of the preheated 170°C, conventional oven or until golden on edges. Cool on tray for 15 minutes before placing on a cooling rack.

Passionfruit filling
Place butter in a bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add the icing sugar mixture, then mix to combine. The mixture will be a bit thick. Add the passionfruit pulp and mix until well combined. If the filling is very soft return to the fridge for 10 minutes or so to firm.

Sandwiching
Match the shortbreads for size then place half the cooled swirls, bottom side up, on a clean tea towel and pipe (or spoon) a blob of the filling on each one. Sandwich with the top swirl and lightly press (with a little swirly wiggle) to bring the filling just flush with the biscuit edge. Swipe a finger around the edge to neaten any stray frosting. Chill for 15 minutes to set the filling before serving.

I'ts been quite a year for me, so l'll be taking a break from the blog for a few weeks. I'll see you all again some time in January.

I'd like to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers.

See you all again in 2026.

Bye for now,

Jillian 

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xmas 2022 - gluten free Roasted Almond and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

xmas 2022 - gluten free Roasted Almond and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

22 Dec 2022

Today's Christmas cookie box recipe is for these salt flecked gluten free roasted almond and chocolate chunk cookies, slightly adapted from an Aran Goyoaga recipe. If you've not read or heard about Aran, she is the queen of gluten free baking.

The cookies use buckwheat flour and almond meal instead of regular flour. The cookies can be made directly after mixing but I prefer to refrigerate my cookie dough overnight before baking.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes 15 cookies, adapted from an Aran Goyaga recipe. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C. 

Roasted Almond and Chocolate Chunk Cookies – makes 15 cookies 

Ingredients

Scant ½ cup (120g) almond butter

55g unsalted butter or dairy-free butter, room temperature

Scant ½ cup (100g) caster sugar 

¼ cup (55g) light brown sugar 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

1 large egg 

¾ cup (105g) light buckwheat flour 

1½ tbs (12g) almond meal 

½ tsp sea salt flakes 

½ tsp bicarb soda 

90g 70% dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, divided 

90g roasted and salted almonds, coarsely chopped, divided

Flaky sea salt (optional) 

Method

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the almond butter, butter, caster sugar and brown sugar. Beat on medium speed until creamy and light, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and the egg then beat until combined. 

In a small bowl, stir together both flours, the salt and bicarb soda. Add to the mixer and beat until it nearly comes together. Add about three quarters of the chopped almonds and chocolate and continue beating until combined. The dough will be sticky and spread a bit. The cookies can be baked right after mixing however I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap then refrigerated the dough overnight. 

The following day preheat oven to 190°C, conventional. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Portion out 40g of dough per cookie (about 1½ tbs of mixture). You should be able to make 15 cookies. Place 6 cookies onto a tray, as the cookies will spread. Dot the tops of the cookies with some of the remaining chopped almonds and chocolate chunks. Sprinkle a small pinch of sea salt on top.

Bake the cookies until the edges are golden brown but the centre still appears soft, 9 to 12 minutes. The tops will puff up slightly. I like to bake one tray of cookies at a time and I rotate the tray mid bake to ensure even browning. Cool the cookies on the baking tray until you can lift them without falling apart, at least 10 minutes. Repeat with the second tray then bake the remaining 3 cookies on the now cool first baking tray. Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days. 

I found the flavour of the buckwheat flour a little intense and next time I'd swap some of it for GF plain flour. Otherwise the cookies were easy to make, baked up well and were very tasty and best of all, my friends loved them.

See you all again tomorrow with my last Christmas cookie recipe.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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xmas 2022 - chocolate peppermint cookies

xmas 2022 - chocolate peppermint cookies

21 Dec 2022

Growing up, my favourite biscuits were chocolate biscuits with a baked on white peppermint flavoured topping. With that in mind, I decided I needed to make some chocolate peppermint cookies to place in my cookie box. I adapted an Erin Jean McDowell recipe, which you can find here, and used my own filling recipe. 

The recipe made loads of cookies so I made some small star shaped biscuits and some filled cookies. Best of all, the cookies last for ages in an airtight container.

Here's the recipe for you which makes either 24 2 inch cookies or 40 small star sandwich cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate Peppermint cookies – makes 24 2 inch cookies or 40 small star cookies

Cookies
113g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup (100g) caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
175g plain flour
⅓ cup (35g) cocoa 
¼ tsp bicarb soda
¼ tsp fine sea salt

Filling
45g unsalted butter, at room temperature
45g cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups (150g) icing sugar, sifted
pinch salt
¾ tsp vanilla extract
⅓ tsp natural peppermint extract
2 tsp milk
2 tbs very finely chopped candy cane (if making the 2 inch cookies)

Method
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla; mix to combine.

Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb soda and salt into a medium bowl. Transfer to the bowl of the mixer and mix until the dough comes together. Form into a 1-inch-thick disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180⁰C, conventional. Line a tray with baking paper and set to one side.

Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper until the dough is ½ cm thick. Use a 2 inch round or a small star shaped cookie cutter to cut the dough into shapes and then transfer the cookies to the prepared baking tray. (You can place the cookies close together; they won’t spread much.)

Repeat until all the dough is used, rerolling the dough several times if needed. Press the tips of a fork into the centre of each cookie to keep them from puffing up too much while baking.

Bake the cookies until they appear set, 6 to 9 minutes. Cool a little before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Turn half of the cookies over so the fork marks are facing down.

Icing
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the salt, the vanilla and peppermint extract to taste and the milk; mix until well combined. 

Pipe the icing into a mound in the middle of each turned-over cookie using a ¼ inch piping tip or a teaspoon. If making the circle cookies, sprinkle a little candy cane dust over the top of the icing, then top with another cookie and gently press together. If making the star shaped cookies, skip the candy cane dust. Let the cookies sit for about 1 hour to allow the icing to set before serving.

The cookies were so tasty - delicate intensely chocolate cookies paired with a creamy peppermint filing. Yum!

I'll be back tomorrow with another cookie recipe from the cookie box, so see you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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xmas 2022 - not quite bonnie's rugelach

xmas 2022 - not quite bonnie's rugelach

20 Dec 2022

Last year in the lead up to Christmas, I saw lots of cookie boxes on Instagram. As I was in lockdown with nowhere to go, I decided to give one a try. My cookie selection included a gluten free cookie, a chocolate cookie, a nut based cookie and a jam filled cookie. I got a little ahead of myself though and I've already shared my recipe for pistachio rose shortbreads, the nut based cookie, so I had to quickly come up with another cookie recipe to share with you.

I thought I'd make some rugelach as part of the selection. I have a confession to make though. Until I'd made these rugelach I'd never eaten one before. I made the rugelach from a recipe in Sweet by Ottolenghi and Helen Goh. I used 2 different fillings, a pecan and raspberry jam filling and a filling made with chopped pistachios and coarsely chopped dried sour cherries. Each filling recipe is sufficient to make 24-36 rugelach. The recipe in Sweet was adapted from Bonnie's Stern's original recipe. I didn't have any quince paste in my cupboard so I used raspberry jam just like Bonnie did.

 

Here's the recipe for you which makes 24 - 32 rugelach. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup, a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C.

Not Quite Bonnie’s Rugelach from Sweet

Pastry

160g plain flour

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp finely grated lemon rind

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

125g unsalted butter, fridge-cold, cut roughly into 3-cm cubes

125g cream cheese, fridge-cold 

 

Pecan Filling 

40g pecan halves

100g light brown sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

175g raspberry jam 

1 tsp lemon juice

Pistachio Filling 

50g unsalted butter at room temperature 

100g light brown sugar 

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp vanilla paste

40g dried sour cherries, coarsely chopped 

40g chopped pistachios

 

Topping

1 large egg, lightly beaten

½ tbsp raw sugar 

 

Method

To make the pastry, place the flour, salt, baking powder, lemon zest and vanilla bean paste in a food processor and pulse for about 15 seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse for a few seconds more, until the mixture has the texture of fresh breadcrumbs. Add the cream cheese and process just until the dough comes together in a ball around the blade; be careful not to over process or the pastry will be tough. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for a few seconds, just to bring it together. Divide the pastry in two; cover each half loosely in plastic wrap, then press to flatten into discs. Transfer to the fridge for 1 hour. While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling. 

 

Pecan Filling

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Line two baking trays with baking paper and set aside. Spread the pecans on a separate tray and roast for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, set aside to cool, then chop finely and place in a small bowl with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix together and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the jam and lemon juice to form a smooth paste. 

 

Pistachio Filling

Mix the butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a small bowl until well combined. 

 

Assembly

Take one of the pieces of dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured work surface to form a 24-cm circle, about 3 mm thick. Use a small spatula or the back of a spoon to spread the jam evenly over the surface and then sprinkle with the sugar-nut mixture. Using a sharp knife or a pizza wheel, if you have one, cut the dough as though you are slicing a cake into twelve or 16 equal triangles. 

  

One at a time, roll each wedge quite tightly, starting from the wide outside edge and working toward the point of the triangle, so that the filling is enclosed. Place them on the lined baking sheets, seam side down, spaced about 3 cm apart. Repeat the rolling and filling process with the second disc of dough.

 

If you're making the pistachio filling, spread the butter evenly over the surface of the dough then sprinkle the cherries and pistachios over the butter. Slice into 12 or 16 and roll as above. Repeat the process with the second disc. Once rolled, chill the rugelachs in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. Increase the oven temperature to 200°C, conventional. Just before baking lightly brush the tops of the rugelachs with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Bake for 20–25 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until golden brown all over. Don’t worry if some of the filling oozes out; this will add a lovely toffee taste to the edges of the cookies. Remove from the oven and rest on the sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

 

Storage

These will keep for up to 4 days in an open container, separated by pieces of baking paper, and the whole thing wrapped loosely in aluminum foil. Don’t keep in an airtight container; the sugar will weep if you do and turn the rugelach soft and sticky. 

 

 

See you all again tomorrow with some more cookie recipes.

Bye for now,

Jillian

 

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