This year, there was no Christmas Cookie Exchange for my friends and I (well, they might have had one, who knows!? . . . I wasn’t part of it if they did). G and I decided that it just wasn’t going to fit into the jam packed season . . . disappointing, yes, as I love to hang out with the girls and sip on bevies, but I had bigger plans.
This year, I baked the equivalency of an entire exchange all by myself.
Why would someone do this? Just to see if I could! I had christmas platter orders to fill and I thought that choosing cookies that I would like to receive would be the ones that would be best to give! After two days straight baking cookie after cookie, I was exhausted, but so happy with the results.
In my humble opinion . . . these are the favourite cookies that have been from the plate to my mouth in a while. My criteria for defining these cookies as my creme de le creme?
They must be:
A. Delicious. If you’re going to eat the calories, it better be worth it!
and B. Simple! I didn’t want to have to spend hours upon hours messing with dough and multiple steps!
So here they are . . . enjoy!
1. Sugar Cookies
These cookies are my all time favourite to have during the holidays!
I make mine with Almond Extract, as well as Vanilla Extract, and it totally makes the cookie the greatness that it is!
2. Peppermint Chocolate Crinkles
These cookies are easy to make, but turn out like you really knew what you were doing! Hahaha! I love the effect that the “crinkle” adds to the cookie. I found this recipe on Bakers Royale, and knew that it would be delicious. If you love the combination of mint and chocolate, you must try these cookies out!
3. Cherry Almond White Chocolate Shortbread
When I first saw these cookies posted on The Girl Who Ate Everything way back at the beginning of December, I was immediately drawn to them by how beautiful they looked. So pretty and delicate. Also . . . I had about 3 jars of maraschino cherries that I had to use up! I f0llowed Christy’s recipe (as they are always great), but instead of white chocolate chunks, I used chips. They turned out very unique, and a colourful addition to my holiday platters.
4. Oreo Cheesecake Truffles (I know, not technically a cookie . . . but bite sized!)
I make these truffles every year! They’re as Christmasy as Sugar Cookies for me . . and DEAD easy! This year, I (Paul) finally broke down and bought (me) a food processor. I was tired of crushing Oreos with a rolling pin. I’m super glad I (Paul . . . you get it) did because the cookies were crushed in mere moments!
Side note: don’t try making bacon crumbs in your food processor!! It leaves bacon grease on everything!! That is my free advice for you for today 🙂
All you need to make these truffles are Oreo cookies (one package), one brick of cream cheese and chocolate for melting! I have always just randomly thrown the ingredients together, but you can find my “recipe” on last years post A Tale of Two Truffles.
5. Peppermint Chocolate Kiss Cookies
These cookies came about due to a desperate need to use up the Peppermint Kisses that I decided I needed back in November when they first hit the shelves. I thought that I would use them on everything that I could, but then I soon realized that they never went with anything that I was making. Oops. I was super excited when I stumbled on this recipe from The Corner Kitchen! If you think this might give you peppermint overload, don’t be worried! The recipe doesn’t actually use peppermint, just vanilla, and the name comes from the type of Hershey’s Kiss that is on the top. You could change it to any Hershey’s Kiss that you wanted.
Here are some of the Holiday Platters that went out our doors this season!
What is YOUR favourite cookie for the holidays?
