Cookie-Swap Girls Night

I've been doing this in early December for the past few years and really love getting together with these gals. We gab, we eat, we laugh our heads off, we sample each other's cookies, then we take home a variety of home baked holiday cookies to share and use as gifts for the holidays (...or not!). It's a win-win-win...but I think the girl-time is the best part.

My 'Bachan's Festive Rice Krispie Cookies' recipe is posted below.

Karen's Star sugar cookies recipe can be found on her website, http://www.karenscookies.net/, along with a whole schlack of cookie decorating and baking products you never-knew-you-needed-but-now-must-have. It's really fun. Check out the gallery.

Kristel...send me yours!




Katie's Mini-Chip Snowball Cookies

1 1/2 c butter or margarine, softened
3/4 c icing sugar *that's powdered sugar to you Americans*
1 T vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3 c flour
2 c mini chocolate chips (or reg chips whizzed in a processor)
1/2 c finely chopped nuts (can also use processor)
Icing sugar, for coating

Mix butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until creamy. Add flour to combine. Stir in nuts and chocolate. Shape into 1T balls and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle hot cookies with icing sugar and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove cookies to a rack and sprinkle with more icing sugar, if desired.
Yield: 5 dozen.

Kendra's Orange Snowball Butter Cookies

1 c butter, softened
3/4 c icing sugar
1 T orange zest
1 T orange juice
2 2/3 c flour
3/4 c sugar, superfine is optional (can whiz regular sugar in a processor or blender)
2 tsp orange zest

Cream butter and sugar well. Mix in Orange juice and 1 T zest. Mix in flour in batches until combined - this is thick and you may need to do it by hand towards the end. Roll into 1/2 '' balls. At this point you can roll in the combined remaining sugar and zest. Bake at 325 for about 12 minutes or until just turning golden on the bottoms. Don't overbake! Let cool slightly then shake in a bag with the remaining sugar-zest.

*Note: Kendra said these were a little tricky when she tried them to make the sugar-zest stick to the warm cookies. Perhaps rolling them in the sugar before baking will help. She ended up making a glaze by melting a little sugar, zest and water in the microwave and then rolling the warm cookies in that, then the sugar. The extra sugar at the end is optional, but gives the cookies a nice sparkle. No matter how you finish them...these are good and add a nice variety to a cookie plate.