20 Recipes for the Christmas Cookie Exchange
The best way to get a bunch of cookies to snack on during the holiday season? Plan a Christmas Cookie Exchange. Invite some friends to gather. Each guest brings cookies to share. Party while you package up the cookies. Take cookies home with you.
Kind of the perfect girl’s day out, isn’t it? I can’t think of too many other ways to spend a day, that doesn’t involve shopping, at this time of year. Usually where I live the weather is yucky and nobody wants to go out in the cold. Cookies will tempt people out of their house!
Planning a Christmas cookie exchange is fairly easy. It just takes a few minutes a couple of times in the month prior to the event. Then the week before the exchange, an hour or two, depending on how many cookies you need to make.
About a month before you want to have your Christmas Cookie Exchange, make a list of people to invite, a list of decorations, and a list of possible locations. If you don’t need to reserve a hall for your party, you can get away with waiting a bit to solidify plans. If you’re inviting a smaller group of cookie bakers, you might be able to use your own (or a friends) house for the party.
Two weeks prior to the party, extend invitations to all your guests. You can email, mail, phone, create a Facebook event, or send out carrier pigeons. There really isn’t any right or wrong way to invite people to your Christmas Cookie Exchange. The only downfall might be if you use a method that your guests won’t receive your invitation.
This is also a good time to round up or purchase the decorations you plan to use. You’ll want something festive, but not too dramatic, because you want the cookies to be the star of the show. Think about how you can raise plates of cookies up from the table, so you can fit more plates on the space. Cake stands work well for this purpose. You can also use solid boxes under the table cloth to create height.
If you haven’t decided which cookies you’re making for the Christmas Cookie Exchange, then now’s the time to do that, too. Consider the time involved in making your contribution, the expense of the ingredients, and how well the cookies will travel. This isn’t the time, generally speaking, to make a cookie that requires 15 minutes per cookie to perfect. If you have to make 10 or 12 dozen cookies, then you’ll want to consider a recipe that uses standard ingredients and not difficult to find and expensive items. Knowing that people are going to at least package the cookies and carry them home, you’ll want a cookie that stands up to a little handling. Delicate, easily crumbled cookies are best saved for another occasion.
A recipe I like to make for cookie exchanges is Coconut White Chocolate Cranberry No Bake. This is a recipe that meets all the criteria I listed above.
The other simple recipe I like to make is the traditional Chocolate and Peanut Butter No Bake cookie.
Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies
Using simple pantry ingredients, and a quick stove top boil, these cookies biggest effort is the waiting for them to cool. We usually end up with a burnt tongue or two since we’re not patient enough to let them completely cool before digging in!
Ingredients
- 3 cups Oats
- 1/2 cup Cocoa
- 1/2 pound Butter
- 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
- 2 cups Sugar
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla
Instructions
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Place sugar, cocoa, butter and milk in heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil.
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Add vanilla, peanut butter and stir until mixed.
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Add oats and mix to coat.
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Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.
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Allow to cool.
Recipe Notes
Alternate to dropping by spoonfuls, spread in bottom of 9 inch baking dish. Cut into squares after cooled completely.Â
The last thing to remember is containers for taking cookies home! You can supply containers for your guests if you like. There are plenty adorable, holiday themed package options available. An alternative is simple plastic snap top containers in various sizes. These are reusable but also disposable. You might suggest to guests to bring their own containers for carry-out.
Pin It:
If you love this recipe and want to save it for later, pin it to your Pinterest account. Find an entire Pinterest board dedicated to Christmas Cookies, click here.
There are a few more collections on the blog, you’ll want to go look at Christmas Cookies Galore and Christmas Cookie Extravaganza.
Christmas Cookie Exchange Recipes
I was able to find 20 of the best Christmas Cookies from bloggers around the internet and have them listed below. For additional Christmas Cookie Exchange recipes, look at the collections in Christmas Cookie Extravaganza.
https://www.litosupply.co/rumchata-hot-chocolate-cookies/
http://www.flourandspiceblog.com/sweet-and-salty-peanut-butter-cookies/
http://www.theroadtohoney.com/chocolate-mint-buche-de-noel-cookies/
http://www.melaniecooks.com/oatmeal-raisin-cookies/12966/
https://daniscookings.com/2016/11/11/maple-cookies-peanut-butter-frosting/
White Chocolate Strawberry Cookies
https://strengthandsunshine.com/grain-free-amaretto-cookies-gluten-free-vegan-paleo/
Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Christmas Cookie Exchange Recipe Index
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