It’s not as complicated as you are making it OP. Baking cookies can mean anything. Your want it to: from scratch, from a mix, slice and bake tubes. It’s your preference. No one is going to barge into your house and investigate.

Y ouu can buy boxed mixes and also premade dough in the refrigerator section of your grocery store.

But if you have a mixer ( either a hand mixer or a stand mixer), I’d start with a drop cookie from scratch like chocolate chip cookies.

Just buy boxed sugar cookie mix and get some festive cookie cutters. Or even easier, slice and bake cookies that the kids decorate (which is most of the fun anyway).

Anonymous wrote:I have never heard of that phrase. To me that means not raw or "no bake" and can include store bought cookies.

q: what'd you do this weekend
A: baked cookies.

At the holidays, this means baking cookies from scratch, preferably from a family recipe.

Anonymous wrote:To me, baked cookies means you made some level of effort at home.

You didn't buy bakery cookies. You didn't buy Oreos, crush them up with cream cheese, roll them into balls, and call them truffles. Call me a snob, but I don't want that stuff at a cookie exchange. I want homemade cookies. I want stories about how you still make that so-so cookie because it was your grammy's favorite. I want to hear about the gigantic mess your kids made when trying to help. I want a little messy, a little flat, a little underbaked. I want real connection with real people, not an Instagram post.

This isn't a thread about cookie exchanges.

OP- kids really like the decorating part, so if you want to start the tradition, buy undecorated sugar cookies and decorate them.

As they get older they may want to try actual recipes and baking but the tradition will be there.

My tween surprised me years ago by getting a recipe off youtube (!!). I would never get a recipe off youtube but there you go. New generation.

To me, baked cookies means you made some level of effort at home.

You didn't buy bakery cookies. You didn't buy Oreos, crush them up with cream cheese, roll them into balls, and call them truffles. Call me a snob, but I don't want that stuff at a cookie exchange. I want homemade cookies. I want stories about how you still make that so-so cookie because it was your grammy's favorite. I want to hear about the gigantic mess your kids made when trying to help. I want a little messy, a little flat, a little underbaked. I want real connection with real people, not an Instagram post.

We use mixed and pre made dough all year long except at Xmas.

Xmas is the one time we actually make from scratch (eg with flour and sugar and no pre-mix). It’s a ton of work but makes it special.

I bake cookies from scratch but definitely not every weekend. Most recipes make at least a couple dozen cookies so it's just too much to have around the house all the time. I tend to do it more for parties or events.

As for.what to bake, if you want to try it as an activity, you can start off with a mix and go from there. Some cookies generally use a mixer or beater so if you don't bake and don't have those things it will actually be much more of a hassle to do from scratch.

My one tip for even slice and bake cookies: get parchment paper. It makes the whole thing work better and cleaning much easier.

If you do want to try something from scratch, genuinely, the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips is a great place to start.

Baking cookies can be a fun activity for many kids. Bringing kids into the kitchen under the guise of “helping” is an opportunity to educate (from knife skills, measuring, math skills, reading a recipe and ownership of an end product). If you don’t eat cookies, make a meatloaf 😀

If you want to bake with your kids, start with a boxed mix and see what you think. Then try the from-scratch recipe on the back of the chocolate morsels bag. Then branch out to other recipes.

I don't know anybody who routinely bakes cookies every weekend, but a lot of people bake this time of year for holiday parties, gifts to neighbors, etc. I grew up in a "bake for giving away" house and honestly it can be exhausting, so try to keep it sane.

I have never heard of that phrase. To me that means not raw or "no bake" and can include store bought cookies.

It's whatever you want it to be. A couple times a year my mom would invite me to bake cookies with her and I legit thought taking a roll of Pillsbury raw cookie dough and slicing it, then cutting each slice in thirds and tossing them in the oven was baking.

Once a year she would bake from flour and ... whatever else to make cookies, and she would do that while we were in school. I have only ever baked from a box.

Do whatever works best for you.

I hear of "baked cookies" over the holiday weekend so many time from other families all the time. Please excuse me because I don't bake. Baked cookies meaning 1) make from scratch with flour 2) make from cookie box/cookie kit 3) make from those cookie dough, all you need is cut them & bake it.

I want to do it with my kids, but I don't know how to start the tradition of " baked cookies".