The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012

Posted by on Dec 12, 2012 in Dessert, Featured, Recipes | 3 Comments
The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012

I love me some cookies. When I heard about The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap I couldn’t join fast enough. I’ve been on a diet  weight reduction and lifestyle change plan for the past 5 weeks so I’ve been dreaming about chocolate chip cookies and sour cream and onion potato chips. You may call it self sabotage,  I prefer to look at it as baking for a good cause. The $4 fee for joining the swap was donated to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer which supports research for pediatric cancer research. Win, Win, Win.  Also Oxo gave all participants the coolest little cookie spatula I’ve seen. Thanks Oxo.

How It Works

Once you sign up, you’re matched with other participants. You receive 3 names and you’re responsible for sending your 3 bloggers a dozen cookies each. 3 bloggers get your name and you get 3 dozen cookies in the mail which was pretty fun. I was matched with 3 awesome bloggers that sent me some wonderful treats. Thank you Morgan at Peaches Please, Adrienne at Food, Family, and Vino, and Sommer at A Spicy Perspective. Everything was wonderful. Hubby and I have been munching for weeks.  

My Cookie Swap Recipe

This cookie swap gave me an excuse for trying a recipe I’ve been wanting to do for a while. These cookies are called Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares and the recipe is in Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich. It’s a butter cookie recipe with dried fruit, lemon zest, and a crunchy sugar topping.  They were delicious and really simple to make. Next time I make these, I’m going to try a cranberries and ginger combination. The number of cookies you get out of one batch depends on how thin you roll out your dough. I got between 20 and 25 cookies per batch.

 
 

Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares

Ingredients

  • 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 8 tbls unsalted butter (1 stick)
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp lemon extract
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • ½ cup golden raisins
  • ½ cup cranberries
  • ¼ cup turbinado

Instructions

  1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
  2. In a mixer,  mix butter and sugar until smooth but not fluffy. Add egg, lemon extract, and lemon zest.
  3. Add flour mixture and beat until everything is well combined.
  4. Divide dough into two balls, wrap them in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
  5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  6. Let dough sit for 15 minutes so it will be easier to roll out.
  7. Place dough on a piece of parchment paper, form into a rectangle, and roll out to about 14 inches on the long side.
  8. Sprinkle ½ cup of dried fruit on half of the dough. Pull the dough over the raisins and press it down with your hands. It will look like a big dough quesadilla.  Sprinkle with sugar and cut into squares.
  9. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes . Remove from oven and move cookies to cooling rack

 

 

3 Comments

  1. The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012: Denver « catsandcommas
    December 12, 2012

    […] Second, I received Fruit Squares from Janet at A Cook At Heart. These. Were. Incredible. Janet’s cookies had unbelievable texture – soft and crumbly and smooth. I am genuinely pissed at myself because I managed to delete my photo instead of uploading it – and they are (of course) gone. They were beautiful, though, and you can see Janet’s post here. […]

    Reply
  2. Sharon
    December 14, 2012

    I made these for my swap cookies, too! Didn’t you love them?

    Reply
    • jfoster
      December 25, 2012

      I loved these cookies. I’m going to play with the recipe and see what else I can come up with – so much potential.

      Reply

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