The third week of December can only mean one thing at my house . . . it's Cookie Swap time! All of my grown-up life I have dreamt of hosting a cookie swap and so, finally, last year my dear friend Angela (of the famousAngela's Chili and Magic Mix recipes) and I decided to co-host one at my house. I will always treasure the memory of that inaugural event and how warm and filled with laughter my house felt. Not only do we swap cookies and recipes, but we also swap the stories behind the cookies and if you have learned nothing else about me from this blog, you certainly must know that I love to share the origins of recipes!
Angela and I can always be easily identified by our semi-matching aprons that we don especially for this occasion! These were created by our dear friend Carla who is an amazingly talented seamstress. She has such an eye for beautiful fabric designs and pairs them together perfectly. You can find her Fresh Cut Creations on Facebook. Angela commissioned Carla to sew mine several years ago and I immediately fell in love with it. I get so excited when the December baking season begins because this means I can break out my treasured apron. Carla presented Angela with her very own as a hostess gift for Angela's annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party so now there is no question about what to wear to the cookie swap!
Earlier this week, we gathered again to share our cookies and to just simply enjoy being with one another during this busy time of the year. We greatly missed our friends who could not join us for various reasons, but we fully embrace loving the ones we are with. I have a decent sized island in my kitchen which inevitably ends up being the gathering place. We always serve a punch or two, and in fact this year we added a delightful old-fashioned Percolator Punch that I will be sharing with you in another post, along with coffee, and, because we are good Southern girls, sweet tea! It usually takes us a good half an hour or more of enjoying our drinks in the kitchen and making new friends to find our way into the dining room where we fill up our plates with sample cookies. Eventually we end up in the living room for serious catching up!
While I usually love to bake and share family recipes, this year I decided to go outside my comfort zone and create some new recipes. As a precautionary measure, I had Peanut Butter Blossom ingredients in the pantry ready to go in case I failed in my endeavor! Luckily, I can just save those for later because my cookies worked!
Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to receive a box of fabulous extracts, spices, food coloring, and decorating supplies from McCormick who helped spsonsor the 2013 Mixed Conference. The box was full of all kinds of goodies to use for baking so I decided to experiment with these for my cookie swap cookies this year.
I started with a fairly basic thumprint recipe and then added some of the McCormick Pure Almond Extract along with a few finely chopped, toasted almonds. Since I love and adore chocolate and raspberry together, I also used the McCormick Raspberry Extract. I can't wait to find more uses for this one! For color I turned to these really fun McCormick Neon Food Colors and was so pleased with how they looked.
Since I also love and adore chocolate and orange flavor, I decided for my second batch that I would try the McCormick Pure Orange Extract along with chopped, toasted hazelnuts. I used the traditional McCormick Assorted Food Colors. These turned out just as pretty and tasty as the raspberry ones did.
Instead of the traditional preserves I usually use for thumbprint cookies, I used a chocolate filling that I found on The Brown Eyed Baker's recipe for Chocolate Thumbprints. This proved to be the perfect choice!
If you still have a last minute cookie swap to attend, consider trying these little gems.
Chocolate Filled Raspberry Almond Thumbprints (click on title for a printable version)
1 C. salted butter, softened
1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. McCormick Pure Almond extract
1/2 t. McCormick Raspberry extract
2 C. all-purpose flour (as usual, I always use White Lily for my cookies)
1/4 t. salt
1/4 C. toasted slivered almonds, chopped finely
pink and blue McCormick Neon food coloring (2 drops of blue and 12 drops of pink)
Chocolate Filling:
4 T. butter
1/2 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips (Hershey's are my favorite)
1 1/2 t. light corn syrup
Orange Hazelnut version:
Replace the almond and raspberry extracts with 1 t. McCormick Pure Orange Extract. Replace the almonds with 1/4 C. toasted hazelnuts (skins removed by rubbing with paper towel after toasting), chopped finely. Replace the Neon food colors with yellow and red McCormick food color.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cream butter and powdered sugar together until well mixed. Add vanilla and flavorings. Slowly add flour and salt until incorporated. Fold in nuts. Add food coloring.
Roll one tablespoon of dough at a time and place on baking sheets 1" apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and using your thumb, a spoon, or the back of a melon baller (my choice), press an indentation into each cookie. Return to oven and bake for 7 minutes more. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
Prepare filling by placing ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stopping to stir each time, until completely melted. Fill each cookie with about one teaspoon of filling. Allow cookies to set before storing.
******Disclaimer: I was supplied with these McCormick products as part of the 2013 Mixed Conference; however, all recipes, thoughts, and opinions are my own.*********
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