One of the highlights of my Christmas season is participating in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. There is everything to like about this cookie swap. It raises money for kids with cancer, has great sponsors like, Land O’Lakes, OXO and Dixie Crystals, and there are dozens of cookies involved! It’s always a challenge to decide on which cookie recipe to bake, a tried and true one or a new, untested one. This year I chose Spicy Orange Shortbread Cookies, a new recipe for me. These cookies have an array of flavors, sweet, spicy, citrusy and then those chocolate chunks. Oh man, I could eat my weight in these cookies. Turns out this is a simple recipe that I’ll definitely be keeping.
Here’s how the cookie swap works. ( If you’ve never participated in this event and are interested I’ll give you a link at the bottom of the post for info on how to join in next year.) The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is hosted by Julie of The Little Kitchen and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil. They miraculously and with much attention to detail pair each participating blogger with 3 others and we swap cookies. We each bake 3 dozen cookies, or if I were guessing more….and secretly send 1 dozen to each name we receive. We in turn receive 1 dozen cookies from 3 other bloggers. Can you imagine if the mail carriers, UPS and Fed Ex guys only knew what was in those boxes? There are literally thousands of delicious cookies trekking their way across America. And believe me when those boxes show up at my door step I could not smile any bigger!
This year I received shortbread with chocolate and toffee bits from Mallory @ ForkVsSpoon, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from Chris @ Shared Appetite and beautifully decorated Frosted Spice Cookies from Lena @ Lena’s Lunchbox. Each cookie delicious in it’s own way and all quick to disappear!
This year we raised over $7,000 for kids with cancer…impressive for a bunch of food bloggers! If you are interested in hooking up with all of us in 2016 here’s the link to do so: Cookie Swap
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
- 1 stick softened butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 Tablespoon whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon Barrier Reef Caribbean Style Seasoning (available at Savory Spice Shop.com)
- 1 Tablespoon coconut milk powder
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 oz. Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks
- Preheat oven to 350*F.
- In a stand mixer cream together butter and sugar.
- Add egg yolk, milk, orange and vanilla extracts, Barrier Reef and coconut milk powder.
- Stir to thoroughly combine, scraping bowl if needed.
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
- Add to butter mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.
- Stir in chocolate chunks.
- Roll into 1 inch balls and press down center slightly.
- Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly browned.
- Let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a rack to cool further.
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