Yes! Food Blogger Cookie Swap time!! I look forward to this every year. I get some amazing cookies from some seriously good home bakers. Not to mention doing some good work. As always, in order to participate, you have to make a donation to Cookies for Kids Cancer which is matched by our brand partners. This year, we raised an over an astounding SEVEN THOUSAND dollars! Not bad for a bunch of folks making cookies. And since I'm such a sharing and giving person (I hear all my friends out there laughing at me ;-) ), my husband and best friend also look forward to cookie swap time. Because, let's be honest - no one can eat three dozen cookies, no matter how much you spread them out. The amazingly good cookies I got this year were:
Chocolate Chunk Peppermint Pudding Cookies from The Secret Ingredient [is Love] - the husband's favorite
Toasted Pecan Crackles from Southern Kissed - my favorite
White Chocolate-Cranberry Cookies from My Heavenly Recipes - the bestie's favorite
Usually, I have narrowed down my potential cookies to send within a matter of days but this time, nope. Not happenin'. It took me WEEKS to figure out what to bake! Which is so not like me. (I blame my crazy, self-employed life.) I finally settled on baking something from my childhood. They say scent is one of the strongest ties to memories that you can have. While I waiting for these babies to bake, I couldn't help but remember all the times I made these - well, "helped" make them. Really it was just watching my mom and licking all the dough batter off the beaters. And then eating the cookies. (It's quality control - the taste of the batter can determine how good the cookies will be and if the batter is bad, the cookie will be bad. So really I was like the "Quality Supervisor" for my mom's kitchen.)
I'm not quite sure why they are named "Party Cookies" but they taste so good that I don't ask questions. I'm pretty sure my mom got this recipe off the bag of M&Ms Baking Minis back in the 80s, when I was little. While my copy of the recipe is nicely printed in Times New Roman on a piece of printer paper, I distinctly remember seeing the original taped to a 3x5 card in my mom's green recipe box (that is older than I am).
I hope everyone enjoyed the cookies I sent them (Justina at Fail Sweetly, Melissa at Persnickety Plates - love the name, btw, and Mary at this tasty life) as much as I enjoyed making them! And to anyone else who wants to make them, I hope you can start a holiday tradition of cookie baking with your kids just like my mom did with me.
"Party" M&Ms Cookies
adapted slightly from a recipe my mom found somewhere.
1/2 c. Shortening
1/2 c. Butter, Unsalted
1 c. Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 c. Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs
2 1/4 c. All Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
1 c. M&Ms Baking Minis
Preheat oven to 375.
Spray cookie sheet with baking spray or line with parchment paper.
Blend shortening, butter, and sugars in a large bowl.
Beat in vanilla and eggs.
In another bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and salt together.
Add flour mixture to sugar-egg mixture and blend well.
Stir in M&Ms.
Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, drop onto a prepared cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
YES! The recipe is posted! I'm not even ashamed to say I ate like half of the cookies in 5 minutes. Thank you so much! They're delish. I gave the other half to my coworkers kids because I would have eaten all of them.
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