The Great FB Cookie Swap: Peppermint Sugar Cookies

It's the most wonderful time of the year... COOKIE SWAP TIME!

I know that sounds a little exaggerated, but seriously, this tradition (now three years in the making) has become one of my favorite things about the holiday season.  Not only do I get to look for the best cookie recipe to add to my collection, and not only do we all get to connect with other food bloggers, but by working/baking/shipping together, we raise money for causes that are worth all that effort.

$13,778.40

That beautiful number right there (so pretty, isn't it?) is the amount that was raised for Cookies for Kids' Cancer, a non-profit that works to help fund research that can help children live a full, long, and healthy life.  

This year I chose a simple recipe, straight from Martha: Peppermint sugar cookies.  I must confess, the cookies in these pictures are the old, rejected ones. The weather was so gloomy and I kept saying I would take pictures later, later, later, and this is what I would up with.  But oh!  Oh oh oh.  (Not to be confused with ho ho ho ;) )  I could NOT stop eating these.  Peppermint cookie, peppermint glaze, topped with (you guessed it!) peppermint pieces! The recipe said it made two dozen so I doubled it: 1 dozen for each of my matches, 1 dozen for us... except it made about six dozen.

And I did not share.

Not very Christmassy of me, but if you make these you will understand why.  At least I did share with my cookie recipients.  In the baggies and boxes they went, off to Utah, Arkansas, and another part of California, while I received three batches of delicious cookies from across the map. That is what makes this fun -- bake, raise money, and connect with people you have never met before.  It's a triple win.

A big shout out to the companies that sponsored the cookie swap (by giving in addition to what we bloggers donated): OXO, Pure Cane Dixie Crystals, Gold Medal Flour, and Grandma's Molasses. Their contributions stretched our dollars -- and hopefully bring us one step closer to a cure for cancer!

If you would like to find out about the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap (and maybe participate next year!), click on their logo below.

PEPPERMINT SUGAR COOKIES

Recipe from Everyday Food, Dec. 2012

YIELDS 2 DOZEN  •  PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES

ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
• ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 3-5 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 candy canes, crushed, for decorating

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a large bowl, use mixer to beat butter, granulated sugar, and ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract on medium-high until pale and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  Beat in egg, then flour mixture on low.  Stir in chocolate chips if you are using them.
2. Roll dough into 1 ½-inch balls and place, 2 inches apart, on parchment-lined baking sheets.  Bake until edges are lightly golden, about 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer to racks and let cool completely.
3. Stir together confectioners’ sugar and enough cream to make a spreadable glaze (if you like a strong mint flavor, stir in up to ¼ teaspoon extract).  Spread a thin layer of glaze on top of each cookie and sprinkle with candies.  Let dry completely on racks.

Can be stored in an airtight container, three days.

COST: $4.79        COST PER COOKIE (24): 20 cents

Peppermint Crinkle Cookies {Cookie Swap Recipe}

My poor baking gadgets have been neglected.  There they sat, in the drawer, lonely and wondering what they did that was so bad to make me never take them out to see the light of day or feel the heat of the oven.

Poor babies.

Good thing the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap came to the rescue!

This was the second year I participated in this cookie swap, and both times I have had so much fun!  I mean, who doesn't like to have boxes of cookies -- freshly baked, I might add -- show up at their door?!  Yeah, that's what I thought.

Last year I sent off some cookies to Tennessee, and later met and became friends with the lady who received my box.  And, completely randomly, I received a box from someone who lives in the same little town in Illinois that my mother and grandmother grew up in.

Cookie swaps make the world just a little bit smaller...

How nice of OXO to send us all spatulas!  You can get one of these
bad boys for yourself HERE, and half of the proceeds go to fight
cancer in kids.  SWEET!

Of course, there is always the task of finding the perfect cookie recipe.  Since it can't be one that is on your blog yet (and if you are like me, you can only cook things that you put/have put on your blog), that means you need to find a new recipe.  One that you will like, one that strangers will like, one that ships well.

Luckily we live in the day and age of Pinterest.  Within five minutes I found it.

Cookies that taste like brownies???

Yes, please!

To celebrate my favorite flavor of Christmas, I added some peppermint extract.  Peppermint + chocolate = a merry Christmas, if you ask me.

And so, Peppermint Crinkle Cookies were born.  They lived a good life, for about five minutes, until my husband gobbled them all up, leaving me with one.

He apparently forgot that sharing was caring.

How nice of him to leave me one... ;)

In the end, these cookies traveled from my home in California to New York, Maryland, and another city not too far away from me, hopefully to arrive in tact and still fresh.  You never know with the busy holiday mail season!

And the best part?  I got cookies, too!  Thank you Natalie at The Sweets Life and Taylor at Greens & Chocolate.  You ladies had me at the peppermint...  As for Beka, your coconutty cookies were a perfect treat for this half-Brazilian home.  You brought a little bit of Natal our way.  Thank you!

Cookies from Taylor @ Green&Chocolate

Another holiday season, another cookie swap in the bag.  Merry Christmas!

Recipe adapted from the Magnolia Bakery in Los Angeles

MAKES 24-30 cookies
INGREDIENTS:  

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups White sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt
½ cup powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking powder and ½ tsp. salt. Set aside.
2. In a medium size stainless steel bowl whisk together 1 cup cocoa, 2 cups white sugar and ½ cup vegetable oil.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking slightly after each.
4. Stir in the vanilla just until mixed.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture.
6. Cover dough and chill for at least 30 minutes
7. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
8. Using a scoop, roll dough into a one inch balls.
9. Roll the balls in powdered sugar coating generously.
10. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and bake  cookies for 10-12 minutes just until set. Watch these cookies carefully. They are like a brownie and are better when the center is just barely set. The cookies will “crack” on top exposing the soft chocolate center.

COST: $3.16    COST PER DOZEN (about 3): $1.06

Cookie Swap 2011: Peppermint Spritz

I went out on a limb and tried something new this year: I participated in a cookie swap.

Deciding to do it was easy.  Getting three packages of cookies at my door sounded like something I definitely wanted.  So I headed on over to the sign-up page, dropped my information off, and went on my merry way.  October finished up and Thanksgiving came and I was sent my matches for who I would be making cookies for.  Curious, of course, I headed off to visit their blogs -- their beautiful blogs.  Blogs full of great cooking and tons of followers.  These were the people who were going to eat my cookies?  I could imagine them in their nice little aprons, shuffling around the kitchen, whipping up cookies for their recipients, singing "Silver Bells" as they went.  Quite different than what my process would look like. 

I am no baker.  Shoot -- I had never even made Christmas cookies before.  And all of the Christmas cookies I knew of contained fancy frosting.  Unfortunately, frosting and I rarely get along.

Suddenly it didn't seem like a good idea anymore, more like an overwhelming idea.

But I had signed up for it, so I had to do it.  I reached up into my cupboard, pulled down good ol' Better Homes and Gardens, and flipped through the pages.  I finally found one that sounded both do-able and delicious (and only required ingredients that I had or knew where I could find them).  Peppermint Spritz. 

All I would need was a cookie press.  

However, I had no idea what that actually was. Thank goodness for Google, which can be a handy tool in times like that, and Crate & Barrel, who so kindly stocks all of your baking needs.  After a quick internet search, a little shopping trip, and careful direction reading, I was set.  It was time to put my nose to the grindstone and make some Christmas cookies.

You know what?  I can now say I am a Christmas cookie maker.  And according to at least two of my recipients, they were delicious.  Score!

Another good thing about this was, of course, coming home and have packages on my doorstep.  I have received two of them so far, one from Kansas and another from Illinois.  Actually, the second was from the same little town my mother/grandmother/grandfather/great-grandparents/etc. grew up in!  What are the odds?  That brought smile to my face. 

Thank you, Erin at Naturally Ella for your scrumptious, healthy-yet-tasty cookies. (Click either picture to be taken to the respective recipes.)

And Carly at CarlyKlock, my husband ate almost all the cookies, but the two I got to try were delicious as well.

Looking forward to having a third package dropped on  my door soon :)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract 
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and peppermint extract until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.

2. Force unchilled dough through a cookie press onto an ungreased cookie sheet. If desired, sprinkle cookies with colored sugar. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm but not brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

3. Makes about 84 cookies.