I have said it so many times the last several weeks but I’ll say it again, Lindsay and are I are astounded at how many registered for the great food blogger cookie swap. The cookie swap had more than 620 participants…love that! That’s over 22,000 cookies that traveled around the U.S. AND around the world! I’m thinking we can call this a huge success! I have enjoyed seeing all of the tweets, facebook posts, instagrams and posts. It’s been an amazing experience. I love visiting most of the blogs (I’m still trying to get to all of them) and seeing everyone enjoying themselves. I love the power of twitter and I love the food blogging community!

If you participated, I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart. It’s always been about the cookies and when several people didn’t receive some of their cookies, some of you stepped up to be cookie angels. We’re so grateful to you and everyone that participated.

Be sure to like the Cookie Swap facebook fan page and share your posts and pictures from this year’s swap there too.

If you didn’t get to participate next year (and you’re a food blogger), be sure to sign up to get notified here. Remember, you need to confirm your subscription and this is not a registration. We can’t wait for next year…in true Lindsay & Julie fashion, we’re already planning next year’s and are already plotting to make it bigger and better.

Even if you’re not a food blogger, I hope you’ll enjoy seeing all of these cookie recipes and find an awesome recipe for your holiday baking.

Below are about roughly half of the links that were submitted to us, to see the other half, visit Lindsay at Love & Olive Oil.

Chocolate chip cookies have to be my favorite cookie. Okay, I love almost all cookies but if I had to pick an all time favorite, it would be the chocolate chip cookie.

I have been on a long quest to find the perfect recipe and when Lindsay and I  decided to do the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, I was trying to decide whether I would come up with a new recipe all together or try this recipe the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies, a recipe adapted from Jacques Torres, that I keep hearing about. I’m so glad I did! It has an amazing flavor, as others have said, toffee tones and the perfect chewy consistency on the inside.

The cookie swap went from one tweet by Lindsay to open for sign ups within about 24 hours. I don’t know how many I was hoping to register for the cookie swap, maybe 50, maybe 100? Once it kept growing, I don’t think Lindsay and I ever anticipated it would grow to over 620 registrations. We have spent a lot of time emailing, emailing and answering emails but it has been all completely worth it. For the love cookies, it was worth it. I received 4 dozen cookies…how did I get 4? I was only supposed to get 3.

Early on, I told Curtis I have this awesome idea, I’m going to send Lindsay cookies too! I really thought I was completely clever. Little did I know that Lindsay had the same plan! It’s too funny because we actually received each others’ cookies on the same day. I also received cookies from Diane, Melissa and Lenore. They all tasted amazing.

If you’re a food blogger and you missed out the cookie swap this year, there will be a cookie swap next year, as Lindsay says we’re 99% sure there will be another one. Sign up here for notifications, we’ll send you an email when details for next year come about.

I just love brown sugar, butter and egg together!

All ready to go in to the fridge for at least 24 hours. Yes it was really hard to wait that long!

Sprinkle sea salt on top before baking. I only bake one cookie sheet at a time. I do have multiple cookie sheets at the ready so that I always put cookie dough on a cooled cookie sheet and have the next one to go in when a cookie sheet comes out the oven.

I made two batches of this cookie recipe so I had some dough to freeze for later. When I’m ready, I just put the bag in the fridge to defrost and then pop them in the oven. I did date these bags before putting them in the freezer, it’s important to identify what’s in the bag and date them…we always seem to forget what we put in our freezer. Also, putting on instructions helps for when you want a quick dessert or snack.

My recipients received a dozen each and I have to comment on the box I chose for the cookie swap. It ended up being very similar to Lindsay’s choice in boxes because it had four separate dividers to keep the cookies neat and separated. I swear we think so much alike!

Milk. Cookies. Milk. Cookies. I’m really tempted to say let’s do another swap in February! It was really fun to receive boxes from other bloggers and EAT THEM! I was sad when my last box arrived.

But it was a lot of work and it wouldn’t be special if we did it many times a year.

This week, both Lindsay and I are posting ALL of the posts from the cookie swap. Tons of cookie recipes…it’s going to be epic.

Until next year…so tell me what’s your favorite cookie? If you have a link, share it with me! I want to see.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 14 min

Total Time: 25 hours (includes idle chill time)

This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever tried. The instructions state that you should let the dough chill for 24 hours and you must do this!

Ingredients:

2 cups minus 2 Tbsp (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds dark chocolate chips
Sea salt

Directions:

Using a sifter or strainer, sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium sized bowl. Put off to the side.

Using a stand mixer fitted (with paddle attachment) or a hand mixer, cream butter and sugars together. About 5 minutes or until light colored. Add eggs, mix well. Add vanilla and mix well.

Add dry ingredients in batches and mix until just combined, 10 to 20 seconds. Do not overmix. Add dark chocolate and mixing to incorporate, try not to break them and don't overmix.

Transfer dough to another bowl or cover stand mixer bowl with plastic. Be sure to put plastic directly on dough to seal. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before baking.

After the dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop 8-10 balls of dough using a 2 Tbsp cookie scoop and place onto a baking sheet. Be sure to leave at least 2 inches between each cookie dough scoop. Add sea salt lightly on top of each cookie and bake until golden brown, 13-15 minutes.

Place sheet on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then remove cookies and place on another cooling rack to allow the cookies to cool even more. Repeat with the other cookie sheet. If baking several batches, rotate cookie sheets so that cold dough is placed on a cool cookie sheet.

Slightly adapted from The New York Times, originally adapted from Jacques Torres.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

I’m a member of a cake club called CAGO and was recently voted in as Vice President of the club. Ummm, I wasn’t running for the position. LOL! My husband wasn’t too happy that I volunteered for yet another thing but I kept telling me I didn’t run for the position. (If you’re a sugar artist or cake decorator in the Orlando/Central Florida area, for more information about CAGO, click here.)

The Ronald McDonald House of Orlando recently asked our club to make themed cookies for their Valentine’s Day events. All together, our club made 18 dozen cookies. When this donation opportunity came up, I found it a perfect time to try royal icing on these tasty cookies. I did make extras and I sent some to my friend Wendi and I also shared with my Bunko group.

These cookies are fun to make but a little time consuming and the ever present perfectionist in me comes out. Once you get into a rhythm, it does go by quicker. I made the cookie dough one night, baked them the next night and decorated over a couple of nights. In between, I made a second cookie dough batch and baked them as well.

No Fail Sugar Cookies (NFSC)

Ingredients:

Sugar Cookies

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups unsalted butter
2 cups sugar (white granulated)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Wilton Royal Icing Recipe (this is their recipe doubled)
6 tablespoons Meringue Powder
8 cups (about 2 lbs.) confectioners' sugar
12 tablespoons warm water

Directions:

Sugar Cookies

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.
2. Portion out dough and pat into flat disk or rectangular shape and place between two sheets of parchment paper. Using rolling pin, roll dough out, keeping dough in between parchment paper sheets. Roll out to desired thickness.
3. Chill for 1 to 2 hours.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all of the dough is rolled out.
5. Preheat oven at 350 degrees for at least a half an hour.
6. After chilling, take out sheets one at a time. Remove top sheet of parchment and place on a cookie sheet.
7. Leaving dough on other sheet of parchment, cut out desired shapes using cookie cutters dipped in flour with the excess shaken off. Dough should be cold enough to transfer to cookie sheet without losing shape. You may have to roll away the dough surrounding the shapes.
8. Place into oven and bake 6-9 minutes. Place cookie sheet on cooling rack for several minutes and then remove from cookie sheet, taking sheet of parchment paper and place on cooling rack. Decorate cookies after they are completely cooled.
9. Take excess dough from cut-outs and re-roll between sheets of parchment paper and refrigerate again before cutting shapes out.

Tips:

• I usually use 3 different cookie sheets so by the time I get to use a cookie sheet again, it's completely cool.
• Be patient, do not put more than one cookie sheet in the oven. If you use the top or bottom racks, your cookies will overbake.
• Be sure to turn on your oven timer, my oven bakes these cookies in 6 minutes so I have to watch them carefully.
• The original recipe calls for chilling the dough for 1-2 hours and then rolling them out, it also offers the hint to roll between parchment paper sheets and then chilling. I have incorporated this into the instructions because I have done it the other way. This recipe has a lot more butter than other sugar cookie recipes and the dough hardens in the refrigerator. Rolling the cold dough out is very hard and when you're finally able to roll it out, the cookie dough is warm. When I would go to transfer the cookie shapes to the cookie sheet, the cut out cookie would lose its shape or stretch. As the original recipe states, no need to add excess flour to your cookies and you don't dirty your rolling pin!

Wilton Royal Icing

1. Mix meringue powder and confectioner's sugar together in stand mixer. Gradually add warm water as mixer is on.
2. Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).
3. Add more warm water while mixing if you need thinner icing, especially for flooding.

To decorate the cookies, you'll need

• decorator bags
• couplers
• #2, #3, #4 tips
• royal icing dyed with desired colors
• damp towels
• paper towels
• I also use a cookie flooding tool (you'll see pictured below)

Color your icing. Depending on what you're doing, you may need to have two of the same color, a stiffer consistency for outlining the cookie and a thinner one for flooding the cookie.

No Fail Sugar Cookies from CakeCentral.com

I bought these Wilton tip covers and they never really worked for me (when using buttercream because they don’t stay on) but I found a use for them now. I use them with the bags that are filled with the flooding icing since it’s thinner and flows straight through the tip without even having to squeeze in the bag. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a messy affair but this helps a little bit.

I fill the bag with thin royal icing inside a coffee mug (I have used medium height cups too). Since I need to pour the icing in, I need it stay put and using the cup works. The tip cover is still on.

You want to keep your royal icing bags covered in a damp cloth. The stiffer consistencies tend to dry out faster. Warning: it does and will get messy. After taking this picture and going to grab something. There was icing on the table from the red icing in the coffee mug.

I use an assembly line process. Outline a few cookies, and then go back and fill and flood them all. The yellow tool is what I use to move the icing to the edge. I received this tool at an ICES Day of Sharing (DOS) event in a goody bag and never knew what to use it for and soon found out when I decorated my first cookies in 2008.

Depending on the details you’re putting on the cookie, you may have to wait for the royal icing to completely dry before putting on the next details. In the case of the tulips, the petal details are the same color red so I only had to wait a few minutes before applying them using the stiff consistency. I didn’t wait for any drying time to do the green stems.

Red and pink tulips.

Some heart cookies. I love this green. I learned about this color combination from Nic Lodge. It’s Americolor mint green and electric green, mixed together in a 1 to 1 ratio.

Of course had to make some red hearts too.

I bought this ribbon cookie cutter a couple of years ago and have never tried them out. I just had to with this batch of cookies. I just love how they turned out. I think I will be making a lot of pink ribbon cookies!

Valentine’s Themed Cookies! © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.