Why did 624 bloggers bake 22,000 cookies? For the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap of course! Julie and Lindsay, the genius girls behind The Little Kitchen and Love and Olive Oil came up with the idea of the swap. The concept was simple. Each blogger bakes three dozen cookies and ships one dozen each to three other bloggers. In the end, each blogger would end up with a variety of delicious cookies and make some great new connections. Naturally, I didn't hesitate to sign up for such an fun event.
I received cookies from three awesome ladies. Beth from eat. drink. smile. made chocolate gob cookies, Lauren from Keep it Sweet made peppermint mocha frappucino cookies and Leslie from My Kitchen is Open sent dark chocolate cafenela cookies. All the cookies were chocolatey and all were delicious!
So what did I make? I wanted a cookie that would hold up well in the mail (because we all know marking a package with the word FRAGILE means absolutely nothing these days). So that meant soft baked cookies were out. Instead I chose a simple chocolate crackle cookie from Food Network Magazine. Packaged in a cute little box and padded with tissue paper and bubble wrap, the cookies safely made it to their destinations in one piece.
My cookies went to Emily from Back to the Cutting Board, Tanvi from The Hathi Cooks and Deanna from Silly Goose Farm.
I can't wait to sign up for the cookie swap again next year!
Double Chocolate Crackles
from Food Network Magazine
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup powdered sugar
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the melted butter and eggs until combined. Stir in the white chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough until firm, about one hour.
Preheat the oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Put the powdered sugar in a shallow bowl. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop the dough and roll each scoop into a ball. Roll the balls in the powdered sugar until well coated. Place the dough balls 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.
Bake until the cookies are puffed and the tops are cracked, about 10 minutes. When pulling the cookies out of the oven, immediately flatten the cookies using the bottom of a glass or a spatula. Let cool 2 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
