Chocolate Chip Sugar Kiss Cookies

When I signed up for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012 back in October, I had no idea that by December we would be living in a new house, surrounded by unpacked boxes, buried in deadlines or that I’d be shuffling cookie dough (5 dozen cookies worth of cookie dough) back and forth to moms to bake cookies for the swap. (In case you’re just tuning in, our new house has no working oven… gasp!!, I know haha) Even though I was scrambling to finally get my cookies into the mail by the deadline, it was totally worth it because not only have I gotten some yummy cookies in the mail, I was able to bake and share cookie love with 3 wonderful people.

If you’ve never heard of The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap then you’re missing out. It’s a wonderful cookie swap between food bloggers that was started by Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen. I think there are about 500 and some food bloggers in this years cookie swap! Julie and Lindsay sorted all of the bloggers and gave each of us three names. We were to bake three dozen cookies and send each blogger on your list one dozen. In return for all of that, I got Three dozen cookies in the mail from three people that got my name 🙂 oooo so did anyone else realize that our posting date (today) is 12/12/12 haha, you know three dozen cookies, 1 dozen/ 1 dozen/1 dozen! woot woot. OK that was probably not done on purpose but I think that was kinda neat.

Before I get to all of those cookies that I got in the mail, let me share with you the cookies that I made for the cookie swap. These Chocolate Chip Sugar Kiss Cookies with Chocolate Cherry Kisses were inspired by the Hershey gift basket I won when I was at the Mixed conference. Before the conference I had actually tried two other cookies recipes (a brown butter caramel cookie and a brown butter chocolate chunk cookie) which neither came out good. (I don’t know what I did wrong, those cookies hated me though)

But when I came home with my huge basket of Hershey chocolate, these Cherry Kisses pretty much jumped out at me and asked to be made into cookies. So that’s what I did and they turned out so good. I was so excited. I ended up making about four dozen the night I made them and then ended up making like two dozen more for the family because they were so good. (the recipe for my cookies is below)

These are the cookies I received in the mail:

These cookies above are Salted Brown Butter M&M cookies from Keep It Sweet Desserts. Have you ever had Brown Butter cookies? Oh my word, if you haven’t you need too. It will change the way you view cookies! Sooo, soo good! Oh and Lauren ( Keep It Sweet Desserts) sells these amazing goodies!!! So be sure to head over to her site and check those out!
You can get the recipe from Lauren’s blog here : Salted Brown Butter M&M cookies on Lauren’s Blog!

The next cookies to show up at my door were these Rosemary Butter Shortbread cookies from BlogChickabowow. One of the first savory cookies I’ve had in a long time. They were so good! Perfect with sweet tea in my opinion! The perfect texture, a good flavor but not over-powering. Loved having these around as a little treat when I wasn’t in the mood for something super sweet.
Felice’s post for these Rosemary Butter Shortbread cookies are on her blog: Rosemary Butter Shortbread from BlogChickabowow

The last box of cookies to arrive on my door step where these Dark Chocolate Florentine cookies from Chocolate and Carrots! These have become my weakness and I’m forcing myself to pace the consumption of them haha. If I had it my way, I’d eat them all in one setting with my morning coffee. I am so making these soon! If you’re wanting to make these yummies, head on over to Caroline’s site and grab the recipe here: Dark Chocolate Florentine from Chocolate and Carrots Blog

(Printable Recipe Here)

Chocolate Chip Sugar Kiss Cookies

by Angie Barrett December-12-2012

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup Milk Chocolate Chips
½ cup White Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup sugar (for rolling)
24 Chocolate Cherry Kisses (or original)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter and 2 cups of sugar, mix until creamy.

Add in eggs and vanilla. Mix until combined.

Slowly add the flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until dough comes together. Mix in White and Milk Chocolate chips.

Using tablespoon, scoop out dough and roll into balls. Roll balls of cookie dough in the sugar.

Place on cookie sheet and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

As soon as cookies come out of oven, lightly press a chocolate kiss into the center of the cookie.

Cool on a wire rack.

Makes : 24 cookies

I am probably going to be making all of these cookies for Christmas this year haha! I can’t wait! What is your favorite cookies to bake this time of year? Do you do cookie swaps?

I sent my cookies to:

Michelle ( The Kid Can Cook)

Crystal (Eat*Drink*Cleveland)

Christine (Cook the Story)

I have been panicking big time since I mailed them on the deadline, I hope my ladies got their cookies! 🙁 ahhh If they’re not already to you (*fingers crossed that they are, it’s UPS’s fault lol*) I hope they are there soon!

This year The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap has partnered with OXO for COOKIES FOR KIDS’ CANCER! To be in this year’s The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap we all donated $4.00 to COOKIES FOR KIDS’ CANCER!

OXO will match our donations ,dollar for dollar, up to #100,000 dollars!! We also received a free “Be a Good Cookie” Cookie Spatula, courtesy of OXO