The holidays always inspire us to eat our weight in delicious foods, delicacies and dessert-bring on the dessert! The nearest holiday would be Valentine’s Day so we’ll take that theme, but keep in mind that a Cookie Exchange Party could be tailored to fit any holiday. You don’t necessarily need a significant other in order to celebrate Valeninte’s Day, so long as you celebrate your loved ones.
I love sending the little ones to school with cute decorated cupcakes or cookies that they can pass out to their classmates. It’s sweet, fun, and you know it’ll make at least two people’s day. We adults are not all still in school, but that doesn’t mean you can’t invite your friends over for a Cookie Exchange Party. Any excuse is a good excuse for gathering with friends for snacks and a glass of wine. About a month in advance, send out some quick invites to friends and ask them to bring a plate (2-3 dozen depending on the number of guests) of their favorite cookies and about 20 copies of the recipe on small note cards.
When the day arrives, make sure and have a good size table where you can create a beautiful spread of cookie desserts that everyone brought. You should probably have some themed Cookie Boxes where your guests can put their cookies. You can lightly decorate the room for the occasion to set the mood, but you may not need to go to crazy since the spread of cookies will do the trick just fine. The fun thing about this is everyone takes home about the same number of cookies, but now they have a tasty assortment and recipes if they want to recreate any of them at home on a different day. It’s a delicious yard sale, if you will.
My favorite recipe is for these Snickerdoodles:
You’ll Need
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
- Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.
This will make about 4 dozen. Mmm. Enjoy!
Happy Valentine’s Day, XOXO