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Post Christmas Cookie Swap + Baking Giveaway

Hello my dear internet! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and/or start to Hanukkah and/or that you Made It Through. (I have been thinking about those of my friends who have lost spouses or parents this year, those who may be struggling with complicated family or health issues, and those who are still grieving many-years-ago losses, and how grief at the holidays feels particularly bleak and awful. I know you are making it through the best way you can and I hope there are brighter days ahead.)

Drastic tone switch.

I am just stuffed-enough full of holiday food that I think it’s the perfect timing for my much-delayed Cookie Swap post. I am able to admire and appreciate all the cookies, and bookmark all the posts and recipes, without feeling the need to IMMEDIATELY LEAP TO THE KITCHEN. Although I do still have a significant amount of butter leftover… Hmm….

Thank you to everyone who sent me scrumptious photos. Let me know if I have misattributed anything or linked to something incorrectly and I will fix it tout de suite.

Cookie Plates

For a variety of Reasons, I ended up making my cookie plates in the wee hours of the morning this past Monday. Carla and I delivered them later that afternoon. Five cookie varieties made it onto the plates:

Here is my assessment of the final products:

  • Chai Sugar Cookies with Eggnog Glaze: I have made these before and the cookies are wonderfully soft and pleasingly spiced. In years past, the eggnog glaze has been more like an eggnog clump, so I added more eggnog this year until it was truly glazy. But, in True Glaze Form, it then leaked off the cookies, so it’s not a cookie you can glaze at the last minute; you need ample time for the glaze to dry/harden. Delicious, though.
  • Chocolate Snickerdoodles: This is an old favorite, and Carla requests these often. I love them, too. But my husband thinks they are kind of a niche cookie. He took a big plate of assorted cookies to work and the chocolate snickerdoodles were the last cookies standing. I think they are chewy and delicious, with a wonderful mix of chocolate and that little bitter bite of cream of tartar that makes snickerdoodles so surprising and different.
  • Basque Cheesecake Bars: This was a new-to-me recipe, and the bars turned out to be delicious. You should know right away that I used gingersnaps as the base instead of graham crackers. (Actually, I didn’t have enough gingersnaps, so I added in a sleeve of graham crackers, too – about a 2-to-1 gingersnap-to-graham cracker ratio, which was delicious.) This recipe was simple but also a little scary to execute, because you have to let the cheesecake develop this richly caramelized top and it looks (and smells) burnt. The end product was so yummy. The recipe produced a staggering amount of cheesecake; we have so much left. (FYI, a cheesecake bar or two makes for a very festive breakfast.)
  • Cranberry Lemon Bars: This was a new-to-me recipe and I would like to try it again, but it wasn’t my favorite. I loved the twin bright flavors of lemon and cranberry, and I loved how easy it was to “make” the lemon “curd.” But the cookie layer seemed a little greasy to me and I felt like it was too tender and not cookie-y enough. These are also difficult to cut in a way that makes them look nice on a cookie plate. EDITED TO ADD: After a couple of days in the fridge, these are much better than I originally thought.
  • Mint Swirl Sugar Cookies: This was a new-to-me recipe and it worked, I think, but was also VERY LABOR INTENSIVE. Rolling all the little balls and shaping the cookies was very time consuming and I don’t know that they were pretty and swirly enough to make it worth the effort. Nice peppermint flavor, though. I didn’t have any red food coloring so I used green. I also found that the cookies as directed were much too large for my cookie plates, so I halved all the little balls. This means I have approximately ten thousand remaining cookie balls, un-swirled, that I will probably end up tossing.

Cookie Problems

The main issue I had this year (besides too much time making cookies that wouldn’t ever make it on the cookie plates) was that my cookies were all so flat. They tasted good, but I like a thick cookie. I did some googling and think that maybe my problem was overcreaming the butter and sugar. For some reason, I thought the more creaming the better… but apparently there’s a point at which you deplete the butter/sugar mixture of air and this can result in flat cookies.

But THEN Jen (HI JEN!), who bore the brunt of all my cookie woes via text, noted that she had also suffered from Flat Cookie Syndrome this year, and suggested it was an issue with the butter itself. Apparently butter manufacturers are increasing the ratio of water in their butter and that can result in flat cookies. Argh!

Cookie-Related Giveaway

Y’all, I took part in three major cookie operations this year. The first was at my house, with Carla, her friend, and my friend. The second was an impromptu get together at the neighbors’ house where a friend and I rolled, cut, and baked approximately nine billion sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies for eleven children to decorate. The third was my private middle-of-the-night cookie session during which I baked until the wee hours in blissful, uninterrupted silence while everyone was sleeping.

The first two cookie events were centered around cookie decorating, and required rolling pins. The rolling pin I used was a hand-me-down from my husband’s late grandmother, the kind with a big cylindrical barrel in the center and two handles on the sides. It’s fine, but pretty utilitarian. I don’t think I’ve ever considered that there might be rolling pin variations, or that a rolling pin could be aesthetically pleasing in addition to being a useful baking tool.

But then, my friend arrived at my house for the first cookie venture with an unexpected and delightful gift for me: a new rolling pin!

I had never once considered wanting a rolling pin, and I was nonetheless DELIGHTED by the rolling pin she brought me!!! It was so beautiful! And French. Oooh la la! So now I have MY OWN ROLLING PIN in addition to the inherited one!

This is all to say that I want to spread the rolling pin joy.

If you are interested in having your very own French rolling pin, tell me in the comments and I will randomly draw someone’s name at… some point. (Let’s be honest, I am not great at Making Firm Commitments these days, so it might be a while.) And then I will send the winner their very own French rolling pin!

You do not have to have participated in this cookie swap to participate. Nor do you have to like cookies or bake cookies. Rolling pins are good for many other baking projects besides cookies and I do not judge.

AT LONG LAST, THE COOKIE SWAP!!!!

It was so delightful to get photos of delicious-looking baked goods in my email! Here is everyone who participated (and if I didn’t include you, it is PURELY USER ERROR and has nothing to do with you or your cookies, so please resend and I will add to this post) and a couple who I forcibly included. Once again, if I have messed anything up, please do not hesitate to email me at lifeofadoctorswife (at) gmail and I will happily make any updates you desire.

  • Elisabeth at The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist baked the following, and added some notes on her experience with each:
    • Peanut Brittle Bars. Relatively easy, so addictive!
    • Saltine Toffee – This was the one item my teenage daughter insisted I make this Christmas. You can make the recipe with or without the peanut butter! This year I made some with the peanut butter layer (my personal favourite) and added crushed Saltines on top to differentiate from the more traditional “Christmas Crack” that skips the peanut butter step.
    • Peanut Butter Balls. I never follow a recipe exactly – I just take tiny tastes along the way until it has the right texture. Mostly that’s because once I start eating the dough, I can’t stop. Instead of dunking them in chocolate, I flash freeze them for about half an hour and top with a little spoonful of melted chocolate. Much less work than dipping!
    • Brown Sugar Fudge. This is my 10-year-old’s favourite Christmas treat. It is SWEET, but very delicious and smooth, unlike some brown sugar fudge which tends to be grainy. This year, I spread the recipe into a 9×13 pan so it was relatively thin and cut the fudge into fun Christmas shapes before it had completely set. Any of the remaining scraps I rolled into little fudge balls since the fudge was still slightly warm and pliable.
    • Fall Chocolate Chip Spiced Cookie. These are the only actual “cookies” I have made this holiday season. I have frozen dough so I can pop a few in the oven on an as-needed basis. I think I’m going to be needing them a lot. Goodness, these are fast becoming my favourite cookies and it’s all thanks to you, Suzanne!
  • Ernie from No Small Feet produced Christmas Cookies and Rocky Road Fudge Bars.
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  • Gigi from Gigi Rambles whipped up some Peanut Butter Fudge, Almond Bark, Gingersnaps, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies for her cookie plate.
  • Steph from All for the Love of You, her wife Beth, and their culinarily talented younger child North filled cookie plates with Buckeyes, Pizzelles, Pinwheels, and Gingerbread. (North also made almond butter chocolate chip cookies and an apple crumb cheesecake!)
  • Jen texted me photos of the beautiful sugar cookies she decorated with her kids.  

It was SO MUCH FUN to see what everyone made, and to have the extra little joy of thinking about my blog friends while I was baking. Thank you so much for “swapping” cookies with me! And don’t forget to enter the rolling pin giveaway if it suits your fancy.

40 thoughts on “Post Christmas Cookie Swap + Baking Giveaway”

  1. I blame the butter and I am going to add extra flour next year because the ones at the end of baking didn’t spread quite as much as the ones from the beginning of baking and I think that is because as I re-roll over and over again, they get more flour added.

    I want a little bite of all of these cookies immediately and I want plates of all of these cookies so that I can eat whole ones slowly as room allows.

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  2. Those all look amazing!!

    I would *love* to have my very own French rolling pin. I also am using an inherited utilitarian rolling pin and while I get a bit misty thinking of previous generations who have also used this utilitarian rolling pin (seriously, these things never die), I am ready for something new.

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  3. Also, I always thought that the cause of flat cookies was not allowing the dough to chill enough before baking. Could that possibly be one aspect of the issue as well as the butter?

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  4. I love my rolling pin–but it is ancient! The cookies are beautiful. I too prefer thicker cookies to thin and hadn’t heard anything about the watery butter. My older daughter made a new recipe, Maple pecan cookies, and they were AMAZING.

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  5. I was just thinking about a french rolling pin! And those cookies all look amazing.

    And thanks for holding space in your heart for us. Sadness at Christmas is a new one and so being seen in that is so supportive

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  6. I have been anxiously awaiting this post! So many yummy cookies – I will definitely be trying some of these for next year! Thanks for hosting the cookie swap, Suzanne.

    I would love a new rolling pin. I don’t often have a need for one; but maybe that’s because every time I use the one we have the dough sticks to it no matter how much flour I use.

    Regarding the flat cookies – could it be that your baking soda/powder is past it’s prime? I had that problem earlier this year – it went away when I bought new powder/soda.

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  8. I am opening this post and leaving it open as a window on my desktop, because I wanted to do more baking this year, and maybe I still will.


    I feel angry about the butter situation.


    Do not enter me for the rolling pin. I want one badly. But I never, ever, ever make rolled cookies, because I hate to, and so I SHOULD NOT own such a beautiful rolling pin, only to let it languish unused. It would be a crime against cookie nature.

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  9. I made the lemon shortbread and molasses cookies posted at Runners Fly, and they were really good. A nice change from my usual chocolate chip cookies.

    A French rolling pin sounds fun! If I were to win, I might make more cut out cookies. I usually do drop ones because I’m lazy.

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  10. Regarding the butter, WHAT THE EVEN HECK??? How would one know if their butter was like this? UPSETTING.

    These cookies all look amazing and delicious. SO GOOD.

    I have 2 rolling pins – one looks like your French one, and is a gift from my brother’s wife, who made it for me in a woodworking class. The other is the old traditional kind, and may (or may not) have been made for one of my ancestors by her new FIL as a wedding gift. When my Great Aunt gave it to me, she told me this story and I was so charmed by it. Then a year or two later, she gave my cousin another rolling pin, and she told us the same story about that one. So one of us has an heirloom and the other one has a rolling pin. Which is fine. Needless to say, please don’t enter me in your contest, I have plenty.

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    • !!!!! I love that story about your Great Aunt. I think I might love it even if she were buying rolling pins at, like, Target and handing them out with the family lore to everyone and anyone. And now I need a post on your rolling pins, because your SIL MADE YOU ONE?!? How cool is that?!

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  11. Thanks for hosting!

    Re: the butter. At least in Canada, there is also the problem with the feed for cows, if there is palm oil involved in their feed it makes it really hard to spread butter even at room temperature, and it can mess up the baking. I don’t know if it’s the same in the US but I’ve been buying only grass fed organic butter which is RIDICULOUS and over-the-top expensive for goddamn BUTTER but here we are. Just one more expensive grocery item! Aiiiiieeeee.

    Anyhoo, I am supposed to be on blog break but I love you and your cookie swap too much to stay away *backs Homer-like into hedge*

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  12. I love this SO MUCH!!! Thanks for hosting our cookie swap! I love to see what everyone makes. I have another round of cookie baking coming up, and I want to make all of these. I think what I’m going to do though is take requests from my family.

    Since I won the Kamala coloring book (ouch, too soon, want to cry again) and I already own a rolling pin, I’ll abstain from this giveaway. I mean, I own a regular rolling pin but it works just fine, and I would feel too guilty if I won AGAIN.

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  13. this is so fun. Jen’s sugar cookies look professional. Your inherited rolling pin story reminds me of the rolling pin I inherited from my grandma . . . That lad’s dog then chewed. Ugh. We did use that damaged rolling pin this time. The chewed part was at one end. So, I would appreciate a French rolling pin.

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  14. That’s so fun that so many people contributed to your cookie challenge! I often have issues with flat cookies.and usually it is due to the butter being too warm/melted. You can put the batter in the fridge before taking it back out and shaping the cookies and that often helps!

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  15. I really enjoyed the mouth-watering photos! Making cookies for Christmas is such a great tradition, especially when the kids get to decorate them. We have a sponge cake called cozonac for Christmas, made with various fillings–also delicious but doesn’t allow for all that creativity. Which is why, inspired by your post, I’ll make cookies for the next big holidays! (These days we buy the sponge cake, as it’s time-consuming to make–though making is also tempting.) Happy Holidays! 🙂

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  17. Thanks for doing this cookie swap post, Suzanne. Everything looks amazing! I think I may have gained a few pounds just reading this post 😉

    I LOVE holiday treats.

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  18. Thank you for hosting such a fun cookie swap, Suzanne. I like it very much to see how other’s cookie plates look like!

    Though I believe I must have been in a pre-holiday daze as I read your announcement and thought you were sending packages of cookies by mail instead of posting about them…

    This year was the first year I baked with my small children and it was enjoyable for all of us. We loved our sugar cookies and Liebesgrübchen so much that we ate them all ourselves (there weren’t that many either). As I felt bad not having any left for our big family gathering I made two new batches on the second day of Christmas: Black and white cookies (the white with gingerbread spice) and smitten kitchen’s rugelach.

    I have no photos to add and am happy with my rolling pin.

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  19. Oooooh! Look at all these cookies!! I am now reminded that I didn’t make or receive one single cookie during the Christmas season and I’m sad! Well, not too sad, as I did have homemade caramels and fudge! But no cookies – how did that happen?

    If I had a French rolling pin, I’m sure I would bake some cookies! ❤️

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  20. THANK YOU for shamelessly linking to my post, I was sad that I missed emailing. I still have a couple of batches of dough in the fridge to bake up for our New Year’s Eve party.

    I was wondering about the water content in my butter a couple of times too, although mostly it wasn’t a problem. I was wondering if the cheap no-name butter had more water in it, but wasn’t able to confirm one way or another. In one batch I think I just didn’t mix the dough quite enough so the cookies were wildly disparate in spreading or holding their shape. We just ate the gnarly ones and put out the pretty ones.

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  22. I accidentally added 3 stick of butter to a recipe calling for 3/4 cup. Those cookies melted to a thin layer! I managed to rescue the rest of the dough by adding a bit more of everything, but still not my best effort. The original effort was like extremely buttery molasses cookie bark. I was thinking about saving it to put over ice cream, but then I got my cholesterol results.

    I love making cookies with the kids, but we haven’t done cutouts in many years. A new rolling pin sounds like fun!

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  23. Oh my Gish so many amazing recipes. Am I lucky to see them now after Christmas. You bet. Otherwise I would have run to the stores for the ingredients.

    I think I need to save this and come back to it next year. I am intrigued with the saltine toffees as I never had these and I might like them. Also the lemon sugar cookies look so good.

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