This article, entitled How to Store Holiday Cookies comes from Dawn Wells at partner site slopswap.com.

The yearly holiday cookie party hosted by a neighbor near my childhood home was always an exciting occasion. It was adults only, so I had no choice but to sit at home waiting for my parents to return with the loot and letting my young imagination run riot with images of tables so laden with cookies that sagged in the middle.

The idea was for each person to bring a dozen cookies and trade these for a dozen made up of a mix of whatever treats other guests had brought. This way a hum-drum box of chocolate chippers magically transformed into a luscious package overflowing with snickerdoodles, almost delights, and mint brownies.

The cookies were gone so fast we never had time to store them, but if we had, we would have faced an important question: What’s the best way or how to store holiday cookies?

Here are some helpful hints:

• Store them in a dry, cool place.


• Store soft cookies and crisp cookies separately


• Store chewy, soft, or moist cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread to maintain their moisture.


• Store crisp or hard cookies in an airtight container with no bread.


• Separate layers of cookies with wax paper.


• Refrigerate those with frosting or fillings containing dairy products or eggs (e.g., buttercream, whipped cream, cream cheese, custard).


• To freeze unfrosted cookies, wrap them in tin foil or plastic wrap and place them in a freezer bag or airtight container.


• To freeze frosted cookies, place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet to freeze, then transfer them to a freezer bag or airtight container, separating layers with wax paper.

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, crisp cookies soften and soft cookies get hard. Both of these problems can be remedied by sticking them in a 300° oven for five minutes. This will re-crispen your once-crisp delicacies and loosen up the now-hard softies.

Of course, as ever, your best bet is really just to eat them all before you need to store them.

Do you have favorite holiday cookie recipes? How do you handle storing them?

Read more great articles from Dawn at slopswap.com.