Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2015

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is back again this year. I always have such a great time researching, planning, and making my treat for this exchange. I always find a million recipes and have a hard time slimming it down to the perfect one to send out. Here's what I did last year, the year before and even the year before that!

This year I decided on S'mores Cookies from the Chocolate Moosey blog. I did alter the recipe slightly because after the first batch of dipping the cookies in chocolate, I realized they wouldn't be ideal to ship that way. So I modified and put the chocolate on the inside. 

I gathered all the ingredients and my mom's spritz cookie press. I have never used the press on my 

own, so this was going to be a fun experience. 

The dough came together really easily and luckily I had my food processor to make graham cracker crumbs. (Two sheets of graham cracker = 1/2 cup of crumbs almost exact!)

I then found the perfect tip to use for the Spritz and filled up the press with dough.

I then needed to do some testing to find out how much dough to press out to make the perfect sized cookies. My first batches ended up a little large and clunky, so I used less dough on the subsequent batches.

After letting the cookies cool completely, it was time to pair them up and get them ready for the fillings. You want to make sure you pair up cookies of almost the exact same size so when they sandwich together, everything is even.

And these silicone liners worked wonderfully for the cookies. Not a single thing stuck to the pan!

I filled one pan with cookies and topped them with one mini marshmallow each. Those went under the broiler and were watched closely for the toasting to happen. This was about 2 minutes max.

The other tray of cookies were spread with a thin layer of melted chocolate. Once the marshmallow is toasted, immediately sandwich the cookies so the fillings don't get too cooled. You want the marshmallow to smoosh and ooze and stick to the chocolate.

Don't mind the quality of the pans in this picture - this was just used for broiling. But watch the gooey, toasted marshmallow smoosh out when the top cookie is pressed in place.

And the voila, they are complete. I wrapped them up in groups of six per bag and tied them off with fun holiday ribbon.

Then it was time to wrap up the cookies securely with lots of tissue and newspaper for padding and send them to my fellow bloggers.

Of course you have to have a taste tester and my guy was a very willing participant. He loved them. The graham cracker cookie was delicious and he didn't want me to ship them all out!

In return for my cookies, I received treats from three bloggers - salted caramel cashew cookies that were divine from Stetted.

Ginger and Lime cookies from Hot Dinner, Happy Home that were the most unique cookie my guy and I have even eaten. I would have never thought that flavor would have worked and it really did.

Hall Nesting sent me Peanut & Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip cookies that were very large, thick cookie - made perfect for sharing. I could definitely taste the cookie butter.

I love this exchange and look forward to it every year! Here's how it works - you need to be an active blogger that writes about food throughout the year. You sign up and a few weeks later are given the names, addresses, and websites of three fellow bloggers. In return, your name, address, and website is provided to three other bloggers. Then you bake your treats, package them, and ship them out. The hardest part is waiting patiently for your three treats to come in the mail and find out what they are. 

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014

This is my third year participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and I'm so excited to share my recipe. I received some excellent treats as well. Here is 2013 and 2012 posts for your reading enjoyment.

Ok first things first, what did I send out? 

I have made these cookies in the past and they are my favorite. I made my Mint Chocolate Chip "Grinch" Cookies, but I changed the recipe up slightly this year. I didn't have any creme de menthe liquor to add, but I did have some Vanilla Cinnamon Bailey's Irish Cream. I figured it was a fair substitute. The other change I made was that I added more of the mint chocolate chips to really bring the mint flavor through. 

They are really simple to make. Check out my videos that I recorded to see what I did.

I am very happy with the turnout and the flavor this year.

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap comes right before the holidays as does the #MKEFoodies Bake Sale, so I made a few other cookies for that event but I packaged them all up the same. 

I sent these Grinch cookies to: 
Bali Cravings
Sensibly Sara (Love her name by the way!)
Mrs. Happy Homemaker

And I received treats from:
Lady Behind the Curtain

Loaded Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

Honey and Birch

Chocolate Sea Salt cookies

The Baked Equation

Cranberry Shortbreads

The cookies I received were delicious and I look forward to reading their blogs this week and seeing their recipes.

Grinch Cookies

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. Vanilla Cinnamon Bailey's (have used Creme de Menthe in the past. Rumchata would work too!)

5 drops green food coloring (Last time I used 8 and that was pretty intense of a green)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini work best but I only had regular size)

4 oz. mini mint chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix shortening, sugars, egg, vanilla and Bailey's 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.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. (I prefer my cookies smaller so I do teasponfuls, but you could to larger ones and just adjust the cooking time slightly.)

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

Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

This is the second year that I am participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and because it benefits the Cookies for Kids' Cancer organization, it was a no-brainer to join again.

I received the name of my three bloggers that I would send to and then had to sit down and think of a recipe. We have a lot of family favorites but I finally slimmed it down to my grandma's 100 Good Cookies recipe. I know the name doesn't tell you what is in them, but due to the richness of the recipe, you better bet you will get 100 cookies from it. I guess another name could be Coconut Crispies to give it a little more description.

The recipe is pretty simple and goes together quickly but you will be baking for a while because the batch makes so many.

And the OXO spatula came in really handy when stirring this sticky dough. Big shoutout to OXO for the surprise gift!

100 Good Cookies

1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. margarine
1 c. oil
1 egg
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. crispy rice cereal
1 c. oatmeal
1 c. coconut
3 1/2 c. flour

Mix sugars, margarine, oil, egg, salt, baking soda, vanilla and cream of tartar until well blended. Slowly add flour until a dough forms.

By hand, mix in cereal, coconut and oatmeal. Refrigerate for an hour if you want to roll into balls.

Or drop by small spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8 - 10 mins. or until lightly browned.

**I added in a cup on butterscotch chips to half the recipe for an added treat to the cookies.

And here is a little sneak peak of the awesomeness that I received! I even got Wisconsin Cheese pins - how awesome is that!?

Each cookie was heavenly and I can't wait to share them with my friends this weekend at our holiday party!

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!