Cookies = Joy. Period.

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011

Never wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty.  ~Lora Brody 

I can’t think of many things that bring people more joy than a fresh-baked cookie.

Don’t believe me? Think about how quickly goodies disappear after the “cookies in the break room” e-mail goes out, or the little girl with the ear-to-ear smile and a chocolate chip stained face in front of the Mrs. Fields counter, or the joy that washes over you when you open the oven to peek at the gooey, melty dough.

Cookies = joy. Period.

A big thank you to Julie from The Little Kitchen and Lindsey from Love & Olive Oil for spreading the cookie joy so far and wide. My husband and I waited in anticipation to receive cookies from all around the country and connect with the people who made them. Thanks to the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap I have enjoyed delicious, homemade cookies, added new recipes to my box and found some wonderful new blogs to follow.

So, with that, here’s what I made!

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

I honestly had a million different ideas for my cookie swap recipe. Some from other blogs, some I’d created on my own, some unique, some classic, but in the end, as it probably should be, I went back to Martha. I chose to make a modified version of her Double Chocolate Coconut Cookie recipe that I had baked twice before for very special people. If it was good enough for my boss of five years who exclaimed after eating one that they were the “best cookies ever,” then they I knew that had to be swap-worthy.

I modified Martha’s recipe slightly:

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1-2 cups white-chocolate chunks
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 3/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Beat butter and sugars until creamy, mix in eggs and vanilla extract

3. In a new bowl, thoroughly combine dry ingredients then incorporate into the butter mixture

4. Stir in chocolate chips and coconut

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes

6. Enjoy!

I typed the recipes on notecards with my old-fashioned typewriter. It was a good idea in theory, however I did end up with quite the pile of botched attempts before I got three perfect (or close enough!) sets.

So, that’s what I sent, but what did I receive?

I received a dozen awesome cookies from the following:

1. Jeweled Fruitcake Biscotti from The Princess Aioli - I never bake biscotti myself, so these were really a treat to get.

2. Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies from Eat. Swim. Shop. – I had chocolate and mint on the brain all week and these sure satisfied the craving!

3. Oatmeal Yummies from Nutmegger - A childhood favorite of hers that I also really enjoyed

About the Cookie Swap

The premise is this: sign up. Receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. Send each of them one dozen delicious homemade cookies. Receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Eat them all yourself (or, you know, share. If you want. No judgement either way.) Post your cookie recipe on your blog. See everyone else’s cookie recipes. Salivate. Get lots of great ideas for next years’ cookie swap. Rinse and repeat.

The 2011 swap is complete, but sign up to receive info about next year! Read more here.