Last year I participated in the first-ever Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, hosted by bloggers (and my Instagram and Twitter pals) Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen. More than 22,000 cookies were delivered to hungry stomachs all over the country — and my kakimochi chocolate chip sweetheart cookies went to three different food bloggers.
This year I didn’t make the cookie swap deadline — blame Brisbane! — but I did manage to send out my local-style version of thumbprint cookies to the following: Janet Kalandranis (@foodbeautyful, https://foodbeautyful.blogspot.com), Hannah Cordes (@bluekaleroad, www.bluekaleroad.com), Rachel Williams (https://williamskitchen.blogspot.com).
The difference this year, though, was that, as part of our participation in the virtual cookie swap, we each had to donate $4 to Cookies For Cancer, a kick-ass charity that raises money for cancer research through cookie sales. OXO matched the donation dollar for dollar — can you believe that? — and gave us all a free Be a Good Cookie Spatula. Total win-win.
So here’s the recipe for the cookies I swapped. And later — I’m in Hilo today — I’ll post about the cookies I received.
There’s nothing like cookies to put you in a Christmas mood!
Special shout-out to the bloggers who sent me deliciousness in the mail: Sarah from Seattle (https://cookcanread.wordpress.com), Stephanie from Salt Lake City (https://munchimunch.blogspot.com, @smunchimunch), and Joanie from Texas (www.zagleft.com, @zagleft). Loved the goodies! You really made my Christmas!
Ingredients
The key to the ingredients is making sure your butter and eggs are kept at room temperature. The butter should be soft to the touch, allowing more air to be beaten into your batter. Room-temperature eggs will combine more easily with other ingredients and whip to a greater volume. It's all good.
8 Comments
Hello Cat!
Tanks for the recipe. Looks like you are in the Christmas mood now. Have fun a the Big Island.
WOOT! Baking definitely put me in a Christmas mood!
CAT: Cuukies for Cancer…neat concept!
I like it, too. Thinking about how I can get my girlfriends to do something for this cause next year. It’s on my list of things to do in 2013!
Have you ever tried that with brown sugar? Think I will this weekend.
Sooooo… did you do it? Wondered how it turned out!
Oh, I love baking cookies. Every Christmas I bake cookies to give away. This year I made chocolate shortbread. Your cookies look yum. I make a version of thumbprint cookies where you melt some of the jam and incorporate it into the dough. The cookies take on the flavor of the jam you add and it has a slight hue of the color of the jam. It is a soft, chewy cookie with crispy edges. It is now one of my all time favorites.
It’s definitely one of my favorite things to do during the holidays.
Chocolate shortbread sounds AWESOME! You posting the recipe somewhere???