To start, you’ll need at least some basic kitchen tools. (For the sake of your sanity do not attempt to make 10 dozen cookies with only one cookie sheet.) If you want to make different kinds of cookies (and who doesn’t) you’ll probably end up with a grocery list of expensive ingredients like almond extract, assorted nuts, peanut butter, and chocolate chips. And that’s assuming you already have the basic staples for baking. Once you’ve bought all that stuff, you’ll need to figure out a way to package your cookies.
If you’ve are determined to make an assortment of cookies from scratch and want to stay on budget, embrace one thing—coupons. Now, now, don’t get all snobby on me, coupons are making a comeback and many don’t even involve clipping.
A Quick Overview on Coupons
First, make sure you have the shopper card that every grocery store tries to shove down your throat—they are a necessary evil. Visit their online websites to load coupons directly onto your card. If you get the newspaper, there are great coupons in the Sunday paper. You can also print coupons online from a variety of websites like coupons.com and Target. Target has an awesome coupon policy that allows you to use 1 manufacturer coupon and 1 target coupon on the *same* item. Be sure to check their clearance section, as they often have baking items at extremely low prices (like a box of cake flour for under $2). If you shop at Target a lot, consider getting a Target credit card as it will save 5% on every purchase. Just budget accordingly and pay the balance off each month. Finance charges will quickly eat away at any savings you’ve made. Target also has a debit card option for those credit-shy folks.
A couple rules to keep in mind:
- Make sure your coupons are up to date and that it’s for the same size/type item.
- Match up coupons to sale items by checking your store’s circular.
(Often available online). - Store policy trumps anything written on the coupons.
Some grocery stores will double coupons regardless of what they say on the front.Take a couple minutes to read up on your store’s policy. - Plan your list in advance.
Write out your grocery list and separate the coupons you plan to use on that visit in an envelope. - Remember to bring your coupons with you!
A little organization and pre-planning will make your grocery trip easier and cheaper.You can get little plastic coupon organizers for a couple dollars.Invest in one and keep a tote bag stocked with reusable bags, your organized coupons, store card, pens, and a mini calculator.Add a Carabiner to the end of your tote.When you are ready to shop, grab your grocery tote and head out.The carabiner will allow the tote to easily clip to your cart while you shop.At most stores, reusable bags will get you a few cents back on your purchase.
When shopping for baking ingredients also keep in mind what you need to splurge on and what can be low budget. It’s tempting to reach for imitation extract when you see the cost of an itty bitty bottle of real extract, but don’t do it. You can get some high end extracts at Marshalls/Homegoods/TJ Maxx for a reasonable price. Save the pricier purchases for the *star* of your cookies so good chocolate for chocolate chip cookies or fancy jam for sandwich style and so on.
Organizing Your Recipes & Packaging Tips
Now there are tons of cookie recipes online so no need to buy a cookbook. Rather than shuffle through a stack of random recipes, start off with a bit of organization.
Get a cheap 3 ring binder and some plastic sheet protectors. Slide the recipes into the plastic protectors and arrange in alphabetical order. You’ll be grateful you did this when you are struggling to find the amazing peanut butter cookie recipe you made last year after your google search ended up with a million hits. Now you have a holiday recipe cookbook with your top picks. If you want to include other kinds of recipes, just pick up a pack of divider pages and organize by type (main, appetizer, etc.). You’ll find the plastic sheet covers incredibly useful since you can smudge them with flour, butter—even blood (whoops those knives are sharp!) and wipe them clean. Leave some blank sheet protectors in the back of your book so you can add recipes to it as you find them. This way when you find a great oatmeal raisin cookie recipe in March just pop it in your binder it will be ready and waiting for that cookie swap in December.
For packaging up these gifts, it’s best to keep your eye out for inexpensive tins, cookie boxes, or cookie bags. You can also get the red or green tinted saran wrap. Both AC Moore and Bed Bath and Beyond have a ton of coupons and lots of packaging options. I recommend hoarding the Bed Bath & Beyond 20% coupons - they never expire and you can use 5 at a time. If you’re going with cookie bags or saran wrap pick up some twine or fabric ribbon. The latter can easily be found on sale at a variety of stores. I can typically find a spool of nice, thin fabric ribbon for a dollar or two.
Baking for Underachievers
Now if you want to bake cookies and do not want to buy a ton of ingredients or be tied to the oven all day, I have an easy option for you. Find yourself a copy of the book 101 Things to Do With Cake Mix by Stephanie Ashcraft (the Kindle edition will only set you back $3.82). You’ll have to trust me here. The book is worth it for the chewy lemon bar recipe alone. This book gives you easy ways to make baked items using cake mix. There are a ton of cookie, brownie and bar type recipes included. This will cut down on your need to buy as many ingredients. Cake mixes are one of the top items for both coupons and sales so they are incredibly budget friendly. If you can get past the snobbery of not making *everything* from scratch you’ll have some amazing, tasty, and inexpensive baked goods.
My Baking Project
Every year I bake gifts for my coworkers. I find baked goods to be a great choice in this context. I need to give a group of different ages and genders the same gift. The item needs to be something small but thoughtful that won’t make people feel obligated to reciprocate. Baking is perfect in this scenario. There are only four people in my department, so I opted out of making a ton of cookies and came up with another baking idea.
I found these individual ceramic mini loaf pans at AC Moore for $1.00 each. They will be perfect for giving individual cakes and include a reusable gift along with the edible gift. If you want to make large sized loaves you can get cardboard pans that you can bake directly into and then wrap up. If your budget allows for more per gift, you can stop by TJ Maxx/Marshalls/Homegoods and wander through the kitchen section. I found small Le Creuset bakers for $7.99 each and large ceramic loaf pans for as low as $5. A home-baked item in a ceramic dish makes a great hostess gift that can be made for less than $12.
Now onto my recipe of choice- I received a free digital Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Cookbook . (To download it yourself, click here.) I decided to go with the “All in One Holiday Bundt Cake” recipe by Dorie Greenspan. Partially because it sounded unusual, but mostly because I had all the ingredients including some cranberries and fresh ginger that needed to be used up. My one change was to substitute walnuts for the pecans. If you don’t have the ingredients for this recipe it would end up pricey, so remember to pick recipes that make sense for your pantry and your budget. Chocolate cake is always a hit and there are tons of great recipes that don’t require too many ingredients.
This is my first time with this recipe and every time I bake, I learn something new. What I learned this time is that halving or “coarsely chopping” fresh cranberries is ridiculous. I can’t even get them out of the bag without spilling them everywhere. If you want to play a joke on someone, ask one of your culinary inexperienced friends to chop some up. Then put it on youtube.
Now the recipe I chose yields a lot more than what I need for gifts so I’m going to reserve the excess batter until my first batch is done, this way if disaster strikes I can try again. Rule #1 in baking is that if you’re making something that is important, and have no extra ingredients or time to start over—something will go horrendously wrong. (Easter bunny cake that ended up looking like a poodle with a glandular problem, I’m talking about you.) Even if it’s just keeping aside a box of cake mix or having enough ingredients to start over—always, always have a backup plan.
The loaves came out great, so I just baked the leftover for me and my boyfriend. This also let me taste test the recipe before giving it out and it was quite delicious. It’s got a cozy, autumn, cinnamon taste. When the loaves cooled, I added the maple syrup glaze and it was time to move on to packaging.
Bed, Bath & Beyond has a great set of 50 assorted Christmas bags that sell for $9.99 (With your 20% off coupon this comes out to $7.99). I buy one of these each year and within those 50 bags are a set of cellophane treat bags. I have some left over from last year and I’m using those to package up the loaves.
Now they need a gift tag. I have an assortment of plain gift tags from Target that I’ll be using, but it’s actually very inexpensive to make your own and something I do regularly. You’ll need to invest in a hole punch. You can get them for a dollar or two at AC Moore or any craft store. If you want to be uber fancy pick up a set of scrapbooking scissors with a fancy edge. These are quite cheap – usually around $2 or $3 for one. (A pack of 6 assorted is $6.34 on Amazon). Then find some cardstock. You can use pieces left from packaging you might have received, a pack of unruled index cards—any cardstock will work. A one hole punch, scrapbook scissors, a spool of your choice of ribbon/twine/raffia and one pack of index cards will yield you tons of gift tags. The best part is they won’t be Christmas themed so you can make tags all year long for all kinds of gifts. You’ll find the scissors and hole punch to be a great investment for other future crafts and decorating.
To make the tags, just cut your desired shape out of the cardstock with the scrapbook scissors. Write your message, punch a hole in the corner and run your twine/ribbon through. Voila, the easiest, quickest craft you’ll probably ever do.
If you want to make labels, you can find all kinds of templates online to download that correspond with the sticky labels you buy. Print them out at home and stick those on top of your baked loaves with the recipient’s name or use them to list ingredients or the kind of food that’s being given.
My finished gifts:
I could’ve gotten fussy and tied curling ribbon at the end but I prefer the simple look. I was going for a fun, casual vibe with these. I’ll be giving these with some cards from a boxed set I bought on sale for half off. Don’t forget to stock up on Holiday cards and packaging right after Christmas. Pack them up with your holiday décor and you’ll be ready for your 2012 gift giving.
Happy Baking!
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