My Flake Baby Pastry holiday cookie box didn't last until Christmas Eve

When I saw that Flake Baby Pastry‘s Monica Chatterton was dropping a box of holiday cookies for her customers, I pounced without any hesitation. If you don't pay attention to Flake Baby Pastry's Instagram or Facebook feeds, you can miss out on these variety box drops, and if you’re not quick enough to order, she's going to sell out.

Flake Baby Pastry

I believe the majority of my cookie memories take place in December. My mom bakes sugar cookies with red and green icing on Christmas Eve every year. Every holiday season I also find myself snacking on shortbread cookies, Royal Dansk butter cookies by the handful out of the blue tin can, chocolate peanut butter no bakes, chocolate chip, gingerbread, Oreo Cookies, cookies with milk and cookies half eaten by Santa Claus on Christmas morning.

Two of my favorite cookies of 2022 were from Flake Baby variety boxes: a hibiscus-glazed corn cookie and a s’mores oatmeal cream pie. But I’ve never had a Flake Baby holiday cookie, and after trudging up Chatterton's driveway several times in 2022 to partake in some of the most creative, fun baking in Central Arkansas, it seemed like a perfect note to the end the year on and a great indulgence while waiting out the freezing temperatures.

Everything in the box slaps. Time stopped for a second when I bit into the cherry bourbon mini Flake Baby, and I’m pretty sure a gale force winter wind started blowing through my hair. The grapefruit meltaway with negroni had an impressively fresh, completely non-artificial grapefruit flavor. I appreciated this cookie's inclusion even more because a family friend who lived in Florida used to send my family a box of grapefruits for Christmas every year. The speculoos sandwich biscuit cookie filled with white chocolate, black pepper and cherry was a bite of holiday cookie magic.

Rhett Brinkley

Rhett Brinkley

I wish I could order a box of these to take to my family on Christmas Day. The salted halvah and cranberry blondie bites had a unique, complex flavor and a great chew. The almond florentines had a wonderful nutty chocolate flavor and notes of candied orange peel that seemed to hit like an aftertaste somehow. It also had a smooth, wavy chocolate layer on the bottom. The palmiers were made up of buttery, flaky puff pastry layers and had a crispy caramelized bottom and a sweet cinnamon flavor. The colorful marbled shortbread looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope one might find in their stocking Christmas morning. It was encircled by a sweet and crunchy outer layer that took it to a different level.

I don't have any left to take to my family's house on Christmas Eve like I’d planned. I’ll have to make up for it in other ways. I’ll start by thanking my mom for all of the holiday cookie memories over the years.

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