 Cookie Exchange! Posted by Suzanne Ferrell Nov 28 2012, 2:23 am
LOL! Okay, now I have the song from Fiddler On The Roof running through my head. However, for me, and I dare say some of you, tradition plays an important part of the holiday season. Thanksgiving at my house always has Turkey with oyster stuffing, Southern style green beans, corn casserole courtesy of Paula Dean, my mother’s cranberry relish, and pumpkin pie. For the past few years my daughters have added their touch to the meal with Alison’s crunchy pecan-topped sweet potato casserole and Lyndsey’s caramel apple pie. Both are now a tradition. As soon as Thanksgiving is over, I traditionally start my baking. First, and foremost, is the making of Buckeyes! (Peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar balls dipped in chocolate to resemble the Ohio State symbol, the Buckeye nut.) This has been a tradition with me since…I was a teenager. The recipe makes 9 dozen and between my kids, their friends, and my co-workers there isn’t a one of these left after Christmas! The next traditional cookie is Chocolate Mint cookies! (That’s them over there.) Here’s the recipe: CHOCOLATE MINT COOKIES I received this recipe while working at THE Ohio State University’s L&D unit. It became an instant hit with my family and a staple of every Christmas celebration from that time on. Ingredients: ¾ cup butter
1 ½ cups firmly packed Dark Brown Sugar 2 TBS. Water 1 package semi sweet chocolate chips 2 large eggs 2 ½ cups all purpose flour 1 ¼ tsp. Baking soda ½ tsp. Salt
1. Heat butter, sugar and water in a large heavy saucepan over low heat until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips, stirring until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue stirring until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large mixer bowl and let stand about 10 minutes until slightly cool. 2. With mister at medium speed, beat eggs in one at a time. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating just until blended. Refrigerate at least one hour. 3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with foil. Roll tsp of dough into balls, place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake 12-13 minutes. Cookies will appear soft. DO NOT COOK ANY LONGER. 4. Remove from oven and immediately place mint on each hot cookie. Let soften, then swirl mint over cookies to frost. (You can use the tip of a spoon or a toothpick.) Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Today we started our baking and I had two little helpers with me. They help measure and mix. Then one of their jobs, (you can see them concentrating as they work) is to unwrap the mints that go on last. Hopefully, this will become a tradition they’ll pass on to their kids, too! .
So, what is your favorite tradition for the holidays? Your favorite Christmas Cookie? Want to exchange recipes? Posted in Cookie Exchange, cookies, Holidays, Suzanne Ferrell, Traditions Comments37 thoughts on “Cookie Exchange!” |
  
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Hi Suzanne,
My favorite tradition is opening our presents at midnight. My brother and I used to do that. I like sugar cookies and it’s fun to decorate them with sprinkles.
Congrats on being first, Jane!
We always opened ours on Christmas morning. And we didn’t dare wake our parents before 7!!
I love sprinkles on those spritz shaped cookies. Maybe my helpers would like making those this year?
Hey Jane!!
Congrats on nabbing the Chook! :> I love sugar cookies too. Bet he does as well. Ha!
Grins.
I have so many favorite traditions. One of my favorites is coming back home after church on Christmas morning, changing into our comfy clothes, putting on the kettle and then all gathering around the Christmas tree.
The youngest person present would hand the gifts one by one to the oldest person present and they would hand out the gift. The oldest was always my Father & he would not hand out another until the previous gift had been unwrapped.
We needed the cup of tea, because this took ages & we just loved it.
That sounds fun, Mary!
We have one person hand out the gifts, but each person gets one and we open them one at a time. That way we can all see what they got. With eleven of us it takes a while too!
Suz
I love Christmas time and the traditions that have lasted forever and the new ones that start. I now make the Christmas cake and pudding and whoever is there when I am making them gets to stir it and make a wish the kids love it I have been doing that since I was a little girl with my grandmother, we also have always got together really early Christmas morning and open presents one person hands them out and we try really hard to wait till that person has opened their present before another one is handed out gets hard with the little ones LOL.
We don’t bake cookies here for Christmas but I do think it is a great idea.
Have Fun
Helen
Hey, Helen!
I love the making a wish tradition! How fun!
Cakes, huh?
I take cookies to work for my co- workers to enjoy, give some to friends, and save some back for Christmas desert. The rest are eaten by the kids.
My favorite combination is chocolate and peanut butter. Peanut butter cookies with a hershey kiss on top, once I have those my Christmas is complete.
My son and I don’t have a lot of traditions, actually, we don’t have any, I grew up with them myself but we lost my mother in 2002 and that put the traditions to an end more or less. He will do anything I tell him to as far as lets do this this way every time, he just don’t get why. I have to tell him when it is his birthday and if isn’t watching a lot of TV even Thanksgiving and Christmas sneaks up on him. Here lately he has asked me to make that stuff you do sometimes???????? Uh, what stuff son? Well it turns out the stuff is sausage balls which I used to make Thanksgiving and Christmas for work and of course no one can have anything from my kitchen unless my baby boy gets a share too. The problem is I have been without an oven for almost 6 months now, I have been making do with a toaster oven but I just can’t swing making sausage balls in that little thing. I usually use 6 lbs of sausage and that is a lot of sausage balls to try and make in a tiny pretend oven. I told him next year the “stuff” will be back in production. As will the peanut butter cookies.
Oh, Diana,
I feel your pain over the oven. Mine was partially dead for 6 months,too. We just got it replaced this month.
I love those Hershey kiss cookies, too. We call them Peanut Blossoms.
It sounds like you’ve been so busy! Thanks for sharing. For me Christmases as a child didn’t include cookies, or as we call them in Australia, biscuits. It was all about the Christmas cake. Now though I make shortbread and German gingerbread and cinnamon stars. Yum.
Hey, Annie!
Cookies must be an American thing. Now I must know, what is a Cinnamon Star?
Yum! Cake! I love Christmas Cakes – spice cakes, gingerbread loafs, pumpkin bread. So yummy!
What a lovely festive post, Suz! Like Annie, cookies/biscuits aren’t the big thing over here for Christmas – though we love Walker’s Shortbread and their new festive shapes are very tempting!
For us, it’s all about the Christmas cake, the mince pies and the variety box of chocolates (Quality Streets were the traditional ones). Lovely hubby is the Christmas goodies chef and he makes the puddings, cakes and mice pies for the family, using his mum’s recipe.
Hey Anna!
See, I’m learning the traditions from all over the world today!
I love a man who can cook and bake. My hubby doesn’t bake, but he is willing to do whatever to make sure I can!
One year I had a bum right shoulder from taking care of a patient. The motion to stir anything wasn’t happening that year. So, worried the kids wouldn’t get their favorite treats for the holidays, he hustled out to the store and returned with an early Christmas present. A KitchenAide stand mixer. (He knew I’d always wanted one.) Of course, he asked if I’d make his Mexican Wedding Cakes first. hehehe
What fun, Suz!
We make those same minty cookies, except we use peppermint patties on the top.
One of my favorite traditions was that on Christmas Eve, before bed, we got to open one present, but it had to be from a sibling. We still carry on that tradition, and though the boys are big and sassy now, they love it!
Oooooooooooo Deb, I’ve never tried them with a peppermint patty on top. Maybe next year…or maybe not…these kids expect them to taste the traditional way!
Love having to open a present from a sibling. I should’ve thought of that! Our kids always opened a present from one of their grandparents on Christmas Eve.
We’ve cut way back on our cookie production here, Suz, but I’ll have to try the recipe you posted. Interesting that cookies aren’t quite the thing around the world that they are here.
Love your two helpers – what cuties!
We have a lot of Christmas traditions but thought I’d mention two different ones. I have a huge box of interesting napkin riing holders. Each Thanksgiving and Christmas we designate a different person to pick out a napkin ring holder for each guest. Lots of politicing ensues over who gets the favorite holders or some of the unique ones. It’s always a big hit and conversation starter.
Our other tradition is that there has to be a jello mold. While we’ve trimmed our regular menu a bit – this one item can not be dropped and I’m not sure why. There is always anticipation over whether the mold turned out (it generally does) and what’s in the ingredients each year.
I can not end this post without a shout out to the Ohio State Buckeyes who beat Michigan and went undefeated this season. Go Bucks!
I can not end this post without a shout out to the Ohio State Buckeyes who beat Michigan and went undefeated this season. Go Bucks!
We were cheering wildly, here, too!!
Oh, Donna!!
I love the sound of the napkin ring holder tradition! How fun is that? Is there one special one coveted by everyone? The least favorite?
You know, you could mentally choose one and have a “secret present” for who ever gets it. What a tradition that could be!
Love your two helpers – what cuties!
Thank you. They took a bag of cookies home with them.
Next week, if Grandma Suzie gets her act together and bakes the cookie cutter cookies, they’ll have a blast making a mess with decorating icing!! hehehe
Ooooh, Suz, Buckeyes! Love them!!! Love the traditions you have and you’re starting with your gorgeous grandchildren too.
We don’t open on Christmas Eve, but we do have the youngest passes out present tradition. :> Love that. We also always have my hubby’s coffee cake for breakfast, then have a BIG lunch and leftovers for dinner. Ha! We also usually have company for Christmas Eve dinner, and Yule as well.
Big fun!
Hey Jeanne!
Their mama was here helping and I think they had a fun time! This is the second year they’ve helped.
Last year, we had all the little ones take turns passing out presents. If we had the littlest doing it this year, who knows where he’d toddle off with them! hehehe
And another man who bakes! Yummo!!
What gorgeous helpers you have, Suz!
Love your traditions *g* We have quite a few but my personal favorite is one I started for my kids years ago. Each year they get a hardcover children’s Christmas book. I love shopping for new books and using them in our holiday decorating
And when they have kids of their own, those books can be handed down to them.
One traditional treat we must have (at least, according to my son) is white trash – a mix of Cheerios, Chex cereal, peanuts, pretzels and M&Ms covered in white chocolate!
Thank you, Beth. I think they’re pretty cute, myself!
Love the idea of the Christmas book tradition! How fun that will be for them when they have kids.
White Trash sounds yummy! Have you ever made Puppy Chow? First you coat chex cereal in peanut butter, then melted chocolate. Finally you pour it into a zip lock bag full of powdered sugar and shake until the whole thing is coated. WARNING! It’s addictive!
I got a KitchenAide stand mixer this year so I want to learn how to use it by doing some Christmas baking. My goal is to get the decorating & shopping done early so I can concentrate. My favorite cookie was what we called a ‘Sweetheart Cookie’ which is really the Thumbprint cookie & I love Raspberry Jam in mine (tho the recipe calls for Currant Jelly). My Mom always made it for me, but now I have to pick up the tradition.
Hey Diane!
You’re gonna LOVE your stand mixer. I do mine!
Have you tried blackberry jam in your cookie? That’s what I use in the Coconut Thumbprint cookie I make.
Oh, and congratulations on carrying on the tradition!!
Suz, I envy you your helpers! Of course, my own college-age helpers will be home when exams are over in mid-December. I suppose baking will wait until then!
A tradition for us when we were kids, then when my kids were little, was making cookie-cutter sugar cookies with sprinkles and frosting. Always a huge mess and a ton of fun!
My grandmother always made thumbprint jam cookies and my mother now makes one called Santa’s Whiskers that have become a new tradition. Around my house, the Wedding Cookies and Molasses Spice Cookies are the in-demand cookies of the season!
Caren, I know your kids will love being home to help bake this year. It’s one of the things my daughter said she missed last year. We made a special effort to connect a day to bake this year…or a couple of days as it’s turned out!
Okay…WHAT is Santa’s Whiskers?
We have one special thumb print cookie that my mom made for years and then I made them for years but now that my children are grown I have stopped and neither of them have picked up the desire to bake or cook. The one tradition that we have had for years is our tree trimming party and now my oldest daughter has one too!
Hey Catslady!
A tree trimming party sounds like great fun!
When I was a teenager I used to bake cookies every year. Then when I married and moved away, my parents didn’t have any cookies for years. One year I was home and made some, which my dad enjoyed…which convinced my mom to make a few every year, just for him. So, maybe a few years of not having them will revive the tradition with your kids!
So, what is your favorite tradition for the holidays?
I love sending out Christmas Cards and putting up my tree. Mind you, when I do get the tree out, I throw it into the carport – box and all – give it a good kick around. Living in the sub-tropics, a box that’s left alone for the whole year is just the spot for anything, from mice to spiders to cockroaches, to nest in. The very last thing I need is something jumping off that thing and running all over me while I’m either putting it together or plugging in the lights!
Your favorite Christmas Cookie? Want to exchange recipes?
My favourite cookie if the Florentine…. all year round, I love it. But, it has to be home made, otherwise it’s too sweet.
Aaahh, cookie recipes, I’m lousy at baking cookies, as I burn them, so I don’t know any good recipes for them.
Suz, what a fun baking tradition you have!
Our traditions start with opening one gift each on Christmas Eve, after the big holiday meal. On Christmas morning, we have coffee and check our stockings (a process that took much longer when one of us had toys in his), and then the dh makes Swedish pancakes like his mom’s for brunch.
We also bake fruit cake ahead of time. On our dining room table is a candle tower–you know, one of those that turns from the candles’ heat. We also have a Christmas tree skirt made for us by friends who helped decorate our tree until they moved to Arozona.
What a great post, Suz! As usual, I’m hungry.
The thing I love the most is so tacky I can hardly bear to admit it but…oh what the hell. I’m among friends. I like round pretzels filled with that nasty, waxy chocolate bark. With an M & M pressed into the top.
I know, right? Sometimes I have to arm wrestle the kindergartner for my favorite holiday treat. It’s embarrassing.
However, I also really really love hot chocolate with Baileys in it. And I don’t have to arm wrestle the 6 yo for that, thank goodness.
Oh back in the day…back in the day
I baked my Arse off at Christmas. Gingerbread, snowflake, bars of all types. Variations of THE FAMOUS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES substituting white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
But since the kitties are all too eager to help, I have to wait until I can ninja bake….Keep them away AND open the oven door!
Hee hee, “ninja bake”. I have a friend who sometimes makes what we call “ninjabread cookies”. They’re gingerbread cookies cut with 3 different ninja-shaped cookie cutters that she got as a gift awhile back.
Oooh, I’m so late!
Omigosh, I don’t usually like mint and chocolate flavours together unless it’s in a chocolate but those cookies sound tasty!
I’m not sure I have a favourite holiday tradition aside from watching holiday movies. As for a favourite Christmas cookie? As long as I’m not allergic to them, I love them. We’re talking about cookies here. What’s not to love?