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RECIPE ROUNDUP
Cookie Swap
By Shannon Oelrich
Laughter, margaritas, appetizers and Christmas décor met us as we walked into Trudi Dossey’s house in Northwest Austin. It was like a bachelorette party for Mrs. Claus. There were hugs and kisses as friends greeted each other, including Katherine Bevins, a Pedernales Electric Cooperative member and wife of Texas Co-op Power’s sales director, Martin Bevins. “The cookie swap gathering started with a book-club group, but others have joined along the way. We all have kids who go to school together and have (Girl Scout) Brownies together,” Bevins said.
This cookie swap isn’t just about baking delicious cookies. It’s also about presentation. These competitive moms go all-out to put their cookies in the most attractive packaging for others to take home, including decorated tins, holiday gift bags and even a tiny Christmas village that Bevins put together (see photo below).
After eating, drinking and catching up with one another, the friends tried the cookies. Karen Downs won the cookie swap prize with a recipe for Rolo Cookies (see recipe at right). Her advice was, “Don’t eat more than three!”
A cookie swap is a fun way to see your friends in the middle of the busy holiday season. It can be a festive party or a low-key potluck; either way, each participant will come away with a great variety of cookies to serve holiday guests or send to far-away loved ones. Follow these simple rules for a super swap:
1. Send out invitations a month before the party as calendars fill up quickly during the holidays.
2. Everyone should bring the same number of cookies so each person goes home with an assortment, but the same number he or she arrived with. Popular amounts are four or six dozen. Equal amounts can either be packaged before arrival (as with the cookie swap mentioned above), or platters can be set out and attendees can go around the table putting cookies into their own tins or plates to carry home.
3. Ask invitees to bake their cookies two to three days before the swap. Cookies that have dried out and firmed up a bit are less likely to crumble. Undesirable cookies for cookie swaps (because of stickiness or crumbling) are no-bake cookies, bar cookies and meringue cookies.
4. Guests should bring enough copies of their recipes for everyone. As an icebreaker before the actual swap, ask each person to share the story of his or her cookies.
5. Above all, relax and be merry.
ROLO COOKIES
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
48 Rolo candies, unwrapped
Powdered sugar
In mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugars; beat well. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and cocoa. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating to combine. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough into four parts. (Use one part at a time, leaving others in refrigerator.) Divide one part dough into 12 pieces. Flatten each piece between your hands. Place one Rolo into middle of dough and wrap dough around Rolo. Gently roll in your hands to make a ball. Make sure all of candy is covered with dough. Place on baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for
8 minutes. Let cool 1 minute, then remove to rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining three parts of dough. When all are cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes 4 dozen.
Serving size: 1 cookie. Per serving: 114 calories, 1.3 g protein, 4.7 g fat, 16.6 g carbohydrates, 38 mg sodium, 19 mg cholesterol
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HOME COOKING
Recipe Contest Winner: Patsy Hilburn, United Cooperative Services
Prize-winning recipe: Raspberry-Almond Shortbread Thumbprints
These rich, easy-to-make cookies are sure to be a favorite at your cookie swap. The jam filling is a tart counterpoint to the sweet shortbread cookie, which melts in your mouth. And they’re attractive, to boot. “I bake dozens of these each year as gifts,” Patsy Hilburn says. These cookies also can be made with other flavors of jam.
RASPBERRY-ALMOND SHORTBREAD THUMBPRINTS
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup raspberry jam
Almond Glaze
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large mixing bowl, combine sugar, butter and almond extract. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (2-3 minutes). Reduce speed to low; add flour. Beat, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (2-3 minutes).
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. With thumb, make indentation in center of each cookie (edges may crack slightly). Fill each indentation with about a quarter teaspoon of jam. Bake 14-18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Drizzle with Almond Glaze, then allow to cool completely. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.
Almond Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1-3 teaspoons water
In small bowl stir together sugar, extract and enough water for glazing consistency.
Serving size: 1 cookie. Per serving: 95 calories, 0.6 g protein, 4.2 g fat, 13.2 g carbohydrates, 0.2 g fiber, 1 mg sodium, 11 mg cholesterol
ANNA’S MORSELS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 teaspoon water
1 cup chopped pecans
1 package (8 ounces) toffee bits
1 package (8 ounces) milk chocolate chips
1 package (8 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Beat butter with mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add brown sugar and vanilla; mix well.
Whisk eggs and water. Add to butter mixture; beat well. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans, toffee and chips. Chill 1 hour or until dough is firm. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake about 10 minutes, until lightly browned on edges only. Cool on wire racks. Makes 5 dozen cookies.
Serving size: 1 cookie. Per serving: 139 calories, 1.3 g protein, 7.6 g fat, 16.9 g carbohydrates, 0.8 g fiber, 33 mg sodium, 19 mg cholesterol
Anna V. Thane
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative and Mid-South Synergy
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BONUS WEB-ONLY RECIPES
KAREN’S OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD APPLE BUTTER COOKIE BARS
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
1 1/2 cups apple butter
Heat oven to 315 degrees. Mix dry ingredients well. Add melted butter and blend until mixture is crumbly. Divide mixture; pat half of it evenly into a lightly greased 9-by-13-inch pan. Spread apple butter evenly over bottom crust. Sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture over the apple butter. Bake on top rack about 55 minutes or until top crust is golden. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars and serving. Makes about 16-20 bars.
Serving size (based on 20 bars): 1 bar. Per serving: 285 calories, 4.3 g protein, 9.8 g fat, 44.7 g carbohydrates, 2.3 g fiber, 68 mg sodium, 24 mg cholesterol
Margaret Stroud
Pedernales Electric Cooperative
THICK AND CHEWY COOKIES
1/2 cup margarine (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups peanut butter
4 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 package (12 ounces) chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat margarine and sugars together until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. By hand in another bowl, mix oatmeal with soda, then add peanut butter, chocolate chips and nuts, then add first mixture to this bowl. Roll into 2 inch balls, place 3 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets, flatten slightly. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheets. Makes about 60-70 cookies.
Serving size (based on 60-cookie yield): 1 cookie. Per serving: 186 calories, 4.9 g protein, 10 g fat, 20.4 g carbohydrates, 2.4 g fiber, 99 mg sodium, 10 mg cholesterol
Jo Ann Carney
Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative
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RECIPE CONTEST
March’s recipe contest topic was suggested by Kasha Perkins of United Cooperative Services: FOODS YOU’VE GROWN TO LOVE. “Recipes could be submitted for things that we typically didn’t like as children such as broccoli, asparagus and spinach,” she wrote. The deadline is NOVEMBER 10.
Send recipes to Home Cooking, 2550 S. IH-35, Austin, TX 78704. You may also fax them to (512) 486-6254, e-mail them to recipes@texas-ec.org, or submit online at www.texascooppower.com. Please include your name, address and phone number, as well as the name of your electric co-op. The top winner will receive a copy of 60 Years of Home Cooking and a Texas-shaped trivet. Runners-up will also receive a prize.
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