Have you ever participated in a cookie exchange?  You know the kind where you bake umpteen cookies at home, by yourself and bring them to exchange with others that have done the same thing?  My former mother-in-law made our cookie exchange much more fun with time spent together making memories and we went home with 7 dozen different cookies in just under 3 hours.  Here's how and the recipes of the cookies we made.

 

It started out with a conversation of "we should make Christmas cookies together, like a cookie exchange".  Well, Judy took the idea and ran with it, the date, time and location was set.  I've done cookie exchanges before where we all brought our mixers, ingredients and pans to someones house and started from scratch.  There wasn't enough room and it took hours and hours to get all our baking done.  But not with this cookie exchange.  Here's how Judy made it different, I thought it ingenious.  She asked that everyone choose a cookie to make and bring the dough to her house.  Yup, no carrying the mixer or ingredients.  Instead, I brought my cookie pans, the dough and my cooling racks, oh and I thought ahead to bring a container to transport my seven dozen Christmas cookies home in.

We all arrived and started rolling, spritzing decorating and dipping while we were laughing, reminiscing and helping each other out when needed.  We had Christmas tunes in the background and did really well resisting the urge to eat cookie dough.

John Borash
John Borash
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My daughter Kylee and her cousin Mariah were dipping pretzels in white almond bark, drizzling with chocolate almond bark and adding a splash of color while they manned the two ovens.

We were surprised at how quickly the baking went and we weren't even covered in flour or cookie dough!

John Borash
John Borash
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It was a memorable day that I hope will become tradition!  I appreciate being included in the first.  Here's the cookies we made with our cherished recipes.  I've tried to provide you with a link to a recipe online when I could find one, so if you don't already have it, you can make it too.  Just click on the name of the cookie and happy baking!

 

  • 1

    Mexican Wedding Cakes

    These are one of my faves.  Don't confusion them with Pfeffernuesse though.  That's a German cookie with the flavoring of Anise (black licorice flavoring).  I did that once and was in for quite the surprise, ya should have seen my face!

  • 2

    Almond Bark Covered Pretzels

    There really isn't a said recipe for these.  You can use any shape pretzel (most common is the pretzel rod) and dip them in melted almond bark.  Kylee chose to drizzle her dipped pretzels with chocolate almond bark and add a splash of color with colored sugar.  The sweet and salty is a great contrast and decorates a cookie tray nicely.  They store easy too, just be sure it's in a cool area.

  • 3

    Spritz

    There are several ways to make spritz cookie dough.  Some use butter or rum flavoring but our family favorite is with almond.  I'm also not the best at making the shapes so I started rolling the dough in balls and pressing them with a glass before baking.  I call them Spritz Chips.

  • 4

    Snowflake Cookies

    Sorry, secret Borash Family recipe!   All I can say is this cookie is not in the shape of a snowflake.  It's dough is chilled, rolled into a log and cut into1/4 circles before baking, then decorated when they come out.  Oh, and there's yummy cream cheese in the mix too!

  • 5

    Peanut Blossoms

    This is one of my specialties, but at my house two batches are made.  Some with kisses on top and some are kiss-less (yes, then it's just a peanut butter cookie).  But, that seems to please all.

  • 6

    Pecan Sandies

    My mom use to buy the ones the Keebler Elves make.  It's pretty cool that you can get that same great taste, home made!

  • 7

    Holiday M&M Cookies

    This is a variation of what was made during the cookie exchange.  We also couldn't find the holiday M&M's, we were looking for the red and green ones, however the cookies make a cookie tray colorful.

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