For the maple glaze, you might want to make some extra. I tend to run out with a few cookies left (just as well since grandkids don’t like the icing 
). It’s soooo delicious.
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I like a good peanut butter cookie with a Hershey Kiss on top but honestly they are a pretty basic baked item. A decent PB cookie recipe and bagged kisses. A layered bar can easily be more complicated/special.
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I am “famous” for my M & M cookies Betty Crocker cookbook and substitute shortening and margarine instead of butter.
*Butter,
we learned from a Chef in my Mom’s group, causes a very crispy cookie and is susceptible to burns if the cookies are left in too long.
-
Shortening and margarine,
result in a softer cookie when used with a solid aluminum cookie sheet-available at Walmart. -
aluminum
distributes the heat evenly in your oven. Not so much with stainless steel.
My cookies are now Tres Bien with the kids.
I also make a soft gingerbread cookie that was modified by a retiring kindergarten teacher, who passed it down to a younger kinder teacher, who passed it down to her teacher team. It’s about 80 years old now. I’ve had it for about 30 years when I was recruited to bake cookies for The Gingerbread Man book week for the 8 kinder classes, at one of my assignments. I now have a regular list of yearly requests from family and friends who want these as their gifts. I’ve given them the recipe, but they still request them.
Guess what I’m going to be making this week?
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These have been our favorites for more than 30 years.
In general, any recipe from Southern Living is delicious. These have the asset of being cheap to make in bulk for cookie exchanges.
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The story is that the children did not like the molasses-laden gingerbread that is on the back of the Gingerbread Man Book. (Jim Aylesworth version).
The teacher modified the recipe to make it palatable for young children by reducing the amount of molasses to 2 tbsps.
She also added “sour milk” to create buttermilk and changed the dark brown sugar to light brown.
Then she changed the butter to shortening and increased the amount.
I tried to add the recipe card but it has my name and the teacher’s name all over the recipe. I’ll try to find a non-name version.
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Yes, I can see molasses or spice being too strong for the littles.
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I’ve made those and can vouch for their deliciousness!
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Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies. They don’t look super festive, but they are so rich and delicious!
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I have to say that I feel the same way. The last cookie exchange that we did, my D and I spent hours and hours baking and decorating and the cookies in the exchange were everything from store bought (which totally defeats the purpose) to really simple things. I’ve bowed out since.
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I used to spend hours making sugar cookie cutouts for a cookie sale that was a large fundraiser for a local women’s group Mom was a member of. I stopped when the chair asked Mom if I could make 12 dozen for the sale - when other contributors were bringing in things like Oreos. I thought everyone was making special cookies!
I love candy cane cookies - there’s a recipe in Martha Stewart’s Christmas that is much easier to make than the Betty Crocker recipe I used previously. I love spritz cookies - a butter cookie that comes out of a press in various shapes like an ornament, Christmas tree - you get the idea. The sugar cookies are popular - the recipe I use originated from Betty Crocker, I think - uses confectioner’s sugar. I am really looking forward to baking this year.
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I completely get where you’re coming from.
It takes a long time to individually decorate and come up with creative designs on each of the cookies.
If I wanted store-bought cookies, I would get them myself. What idiot goes to a cookie exchange and brings chips ahoy and Oreos?
Defeats the purpose of spending hours in the kitchen to share your treats with your friends and introduce them to a new cookie recipe. We used to have to bring a stack of 3 x 5 cards with the recipe of the cookies we made. Unless, it was a family secret, we exchanged the cards as well.
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I need to find this easier recipe. The hard part is not mixing the ingredients. The had part is twisting the red and white dough to make the candy cane!
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I will post the recipe when I get home to my cookbook.
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Chocolate Crinkle cookies!
I would love to get these in a cookie exchange since they are my least favorite to make. Such a mess…I haven’t even made them the last couple years.
I make those every year!!
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I used to take my “famous” chocolate chip cookies with sea salt for cookie exchanges, but the last time I went to one the cookies I came home with were terrible. I remember that one of the cookies someone made was from a recipe their grandmother had used many years ago and the cookies were not edible!
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I’ve never participated in a cookie exchange (at least, not outside the family). It’s just not a thing where I live. I had no idea that the ease or complexity of making the cookies was a reflection of how likely others wanted to participate. I will say, though, that if one was going to go the store-bought route, it had better be from a real bakery and not Oreos or Chips Ahoy.
And @Illinoisparent12, those cookies sound absolutely delicious! (Spoken as a true chocaholic.)
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They’re awesome.
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I don’t know if my candy cane cookie recipe was originally from Betty Crocker, but I never found them particularly hard to make.
When I was growing up, the neighbors didn’t do a typical exchange where everyone brings several kinds of cookies to a central place, but rather would just make up plates of their own offerings and then deliver door to door. My next door neighbor always had the best plate - she was a very talented baker and I couldn’t wait for her plate to arrive. My favorite was these cut out shortbread cookie sandwiches with a creme filling. The cookies were so flaky, buttery and delicious! She also made those frosted mint brownies (a recipe that I have since discovered circulating from the 70s but one key ingredient is no longer sold).
When my kids were little, I wanted to continue the tradition of making cookie plates and gave them out to neighbors, teachers, friends. Alas, it seemed, while always graciously received, people, myself included, were bombarded with treats at the holidays so I stopped, unsure if people really wanted all that extra sugar during the holidays. My youngest recently expressed disappointment that we no longer made the various treats - I guess this year we will make a few batches of whichever ones she wants. One thing I make every year, not something “homemade” but a treat that’s easy and my kids love - waffle pretzels with a softened hershey kiss pressed on top with an M&M. I keep a big jar of them on the counter.
Some things that I used to make:
candy cane cookies
Frosted Gingerbread and sugar cookie cut outs
Rocky road fudge
Creme de menthe frosted brownies
Frosted ricotta cookies
Pecan balls
Brown butter Toffee cookies
Omg. That’s horrible. And surely they knew? Bc who doesn’t sample a couple cookies as they make them?!
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