I recently took part in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap:
Image courtesy of Loveandoliveoil.com
You are randomly paired up with three bloggers, and then you send them each 1 dozen homemade holiday cookies.
Fun, right?
I was paired up with:
I decided to go with an old family favorite to avoid kitchen disasters. Unfortunately for me, the recipe was written down wrong, and I had to make some last-minute adjustments anyway. Woops!
This recipe is a bit labor intensive, but I definitely want to try it again next year. They are crunchy, soft, and oh-so-tasty when done right!
You will need:
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
8 oz melted dark chocolate
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
Dash of salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup each of white sugar and powdered sugar for rolling
Mix oil, sugar, and chocolate together.
Beat eggs separately. Add to chocolate mixture with vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add to the chocolate mixture until combined.
Chill dough overnight.
Roll dough into small balls. Roll in white sugar. Roll in powdered sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
*The original recipe called for only 4 ounces of chocolate. This was SO not enough. The cookies came out very bland. It was too late to add melted chocolate, so I tossed a bunch of chocolate chips in at the last-minute. If you want to go crazy, use the 8 ounces of chocolate AND the chocolate chips.*
This is a fun project, but I don’t think I’ll do it again next year 😦 I know myself, and I know that I am not on top of my shit enough to bake, cutely package, and ship out cookies in a timely manner. Obviously, I was frantically whipping these together the morning before 2 big presentations and 2 papers were due. Do. Not. Want.
What holiday cookies are you making this season?
Stay tuned, next week is #COOKIEWEEK!!! (very similar to #PIEWEEK)
-Mads
p.s. If you are taking part of a cookie exchange or bake sale this year, register your cookies here. Each cookie baked will raise 10 cents for kid’s cancer research. Just say you are hosting the cookie exchange and shoot them an email telling them how many cookies were made. Win win win!
La Petite Pancake 
I tried Lemon-Lime Christmas Trees (mine are snowmen because I don’t have a christmas tree cookie cutter)… They were a finalist in the StarTribune Christmas cookie contest and they were/are DELICIOUS! Jason is not as big a fan of the cookies as I am but I think they are amazing and limit myself to 3-4 a day, although I really want to eat 10…
Wait, you entered a Strib contest?? Congrats!
Mmmmm…these look good. I have 3 different cookie recipes I’m baking this year for the holidays: Chocolate PB Cake Cookies, Orange Dreamsicle cookies, and Smores cookies. =) I see myself 10 pounds heavier in 2012.
Mmmm I think 10 pounds of cookie weight is sort of like water weight…it goes away after a good night’s sleep and a poo. No?
Here, I had just narrowed this weekend’s baking down to either a dark chocolate cookie recipe or a dark chocolate fudge recipe I found recently on A Southern Fairytale (plus gingerbread cookies for my husband) and then I had to go and read this. Now I’m in a quandary. On an entirely unrelated note, I just read your post about your engagement (belated congrats) and I love your ring. Gorgeous!
Dark chocolate fudge! That sounds incredible. Seriously, what is it about fudge that melts my heart and makes my taste buds sing?
Ooh, I love the sound of cookie week!
This recipe is really similar to one I make, and it uses chocolate chips too. I think it adds a ton to the flavor.
Definitely! I wondered why the original recipe didn’t include them in the first place. Chocolate chips should be added to everything.
Those cookies look insane! I have really been overdosing on baked goods lately (like that’s a problem) and I would still be all over these.
Oh me too. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so many cookies in one holiday season. We’ve probably plowed through 4 dozen cookies already at our house. Woof!
These were super tasty! Thank you so much for sending them my way! I really enjoyed them!!
I’m glad you liked them! Next year I’m making them even chocolatey-er (yup, that’s a new word).
I LOVE Chocolate Crinkles! For some strange reason, I always ruin them, so I depend on the kindness of my mom to bake them for me at Christmas. Thanks to Cookie Week, my holiday baking list keeps getting longer, and longer, and longer…
Seriously, who invented the crinkles? Probably Mrs. Claus. What a genius lady.
i have this recipe too and I call them Earthquake cookies: http://www.myjudythefoodie.com/2011/06/judys-earthquake-cookies-theyll-make-you-tremble/
I loved being a part of the Cookie Swap. I thought it was really amazing to bake 3 dozen cookies and then receive 3 dozen cookies! glad I stopped by.