There should be no elaborate rules to a holiday cookie swap. While you may take baking very seriously, an affair that is themed around a sugary spread of everyone’s favorite cookies should never be a tense event.
So, if you’re a cookie party virgin, do not skip taking the initiative to host your own sweet treat event. Whether you’re an experienced kitchen crusader or you briefly dabble in dessert-making, an evening spent tasting your way through your friends and family’s cookie contributions may be one of the best ways for you to savor the season. Better yet, cookie swaps are the ultimate way for you to simplify your holiday baking as each guest leaves with a diverse sampling of the party’s featured bites.
Here are several simplified tips to assist you in hosting the best cookie exchange of the season:
- Schedule your event in enough time that each guest can select and announce what cookie they will be contributing to the party. This step will allow for no duplicate contributions.
- Request that each guest bring two dozen cookies, to allow for cookie sampling at the party and for enough cookies for each guest to take some home.
- Suggest that your guests bring a spare container to the party. This way, attendees can easily build their take-home cookies without having to shuffle around the dishes that they brought their cookies on.
- Recommend that in addition to the cookies and the empty container, that cookie lovers bring copies of the recipe of their cookie. This way, guests will leave with not only their cookies, but also a brand-new recipe pack.
- Best step of them all – come hungry! Christmas is the season for indulging one’s self. You don’t need to wait until you’re home to sample each and every one’s cookies. Have some bites on-site at the party! Enjoy yourself.
For my own cookie party this year, I opted to whip up two brand-new recipes for my guests’ pleasure. Sometimes, I have lofty baking ideas, and with slim time to actually concoct fine jewels of desserts, they typically end in disasters. But, I promise you, the following two recipes are crowd-pleasers, perfect to take to any cookie share—even one of those that all bakers spend entire afternoons prepping for, designing their cookies and their plates, stressing over if their hard-worked contributions will be a raging success.
Cookie One: Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe adapted from Dec. 2010 issue of Southern Living
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine peanut butter with the next four ingredients until well-blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop dough on parchment-lined baking sheets.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 12–14 minutes, until light-brown. Let cool on baking sheets before removing onto cooling racks.
Cookie Two: Bacon Chocolate Chunk Biscotti
adapted from Serious Eats
- 5 strips bacon, fried and chopped into bits
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- Fry bacon until browned and crispy. Transfer to paper towel-lined dish for cooling, and to drain. Chop up room temperature bacon to small pieces. Use a food processor and pulse if you prefer small pieces versus large bacon chunks. Note: Great addition to this part is squirting maple syrup in the processor when blending.
- Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In larger bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, two or three minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat to combine. Add flour mixture and beat until well blended. Stir in bacon bits and chocolate chips. Gather dough in ball and divide in half. Wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate until firm, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. On a floured tabletop, roll each ball of dough into a 12 to 14-inch log. Transfer logs onto baking sheet, spaced about 4 inches apart. Bake until light golden and firm on top, about 30 minutes.
- Remove baked logs from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Allow logs to cool for 10–15 minutes. With a serrated knife, slice each log into 1/2-inch thick slices. Return slices to baking sheet, each not touching the other, and bake until dry and golden, 20–30 minutes.
- Let cool completely and store in an air-tight container. Biscotti will keep up to two weeks, if stored properly.
Do you host a cookie swap? What’s your ultimate cookie contribution? Care to share a recipe?
One Comment