The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

This year, I joined The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and was given the names of three fellow food bloggers to send cookies to. In return, I would receive one dozen cookies from three other food bloggers.

There was a minimal donation to join, but I received my wonderful OXO spatula in exchange for my participation. Shortly after I joined, I was given the names of my cookie swappers. I sent cookies to Christy at My Invisible Crown, Jessica at Urban Sacred Garden, and Ruthie at My Tasty tRuth. 

I struggled for a bit as to finding just the right recipe to send. I attempted the Rudolph peanut butter cookies, but they were too delicate to ship. But then I remembered the "Grinch Cookie" (i.e. mint chocolate chip) recipe I found on Pinterest and tweaked it to add my own spin on the recipe. 

My mom and I have been baking cookies together since I can remember, and she did the same with her mom. I adapted a recipe found in the 1976 Betty Crocker's Cooky Book for Chocolate Chip Cookies. However, this recipe is found in the back of the book under the 1935-1940 Best of Cooky Chocolate Chip Cookies. Although the book is old and falling apart, I can't wait until the day it is truly mine. The recipes in this book bring back so many fond memories - spilt flour, good results (not so good results) and bonding time amongst my family. 

OXO spatula and my ingredients!

Grinch Cookies

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. creme de menthe liqueur

8 drops green food coloring

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 oz. mint chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix shortening, sugars, egg, vanilla and creme de menthe thoroughly. Mix flour, soda and salt together in a separate bowl and then add to the mixture. Mix until well blended.

Add food coloring and mix thoroughly. Mix in chips by hand. This was a bit of a workout, so I had to pause to take a sip or two from my beer :)

Color Time

Baking cookies and enjoying a beer!

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until just lightly browned. Let rest for 2 minutes on pan and then transfer to cooling racks. Makes 4 - 5 doz. cookies.

I almost didn't have enough to send to the bloggers as my parents kept sneaking them while they were cooling. They are pretty good if I do say so myself. And my family loves the mint chocolate combination, so I'll be making these a few more times this holiday season. 

 

I received my first package of cookies from Veronique at Food and Whine Chickie in this adorable moose jar. My first bite took me back to childhood as the flavor resembled Polish Krustiki's(?) - deep fried love knot cookies my grandma made every Christmas. After reading the recipe, the ingredients are similar, minus the sesame seeds. You can read about the cookies here.

My next cookies came from Sara at My Imperfect Kitchen. She even sent some cute snowflakes that I hung in my office cube to make work more merry! They are peppermint pink and white cookies with just the right hint of mint. A few broke in shipping, but I don't mind because I don't feel as bad grabbing a few pieces out of the cookie jar then to eat. (They are rather large rings - ok I'm just trying to justify the fact I LOVE cookies). These are almost gone too -- thanks to my parents picking up on the treats entering the house and raiding the cookie jar! You can get the recipe here.

My last cookies came from Lacy at NYCityEats.com. I was a little hesitant at first from the description - brown butter eggnog snickerdoodles stuffed with salted coffee caramels and sprinkled with chocolate. I'm not a huge coffee fan and I don't believe I have ever had eggnog (don't shoot me, but the name isn't appealing at all to me). They were still cold from sitting on the porch, so I nuked the cookie for 8 seconds before eating. You can get the recipe here.

It gently snapped in half and I saw the nice caramel in the middle. After my first bite, I knew I was in trouble. These were amazing. All those flavors went together so well. I was very surprised and want to hide these from the parents (seeing as they have eaten my other treats) but it's the holidays so I'll share. 

I can't wait to see these recipes from each person and hopefully attempt them myself. But I'm sure you can 

all attest that if someone else makes them, they are just that much yummier. Sure I will be satisfied with my results, but I'm not the world's best baker, but you aren't a success until you have failed a few times right???

I am so happy I joined the Cookie Swap this year and I can't wait until next year. If you want to join, follow my blog and also sign up to receive notifications from Cookie Swap and I'll provide updates. I'm already saving ideas on Pinterest to one-up myself for next year!