Virtual Cookie Swap: 24 Cookie Recipes from Our Friends Around the Web

Join our virtual cookie swap!Are you cookie crazy right now? I will admit to not having caught the holiday baking bug until last night. Suddenly, nothing seemed more appealing that hauling out the mixing bowl, adding fresh ginger, molasses, and eggs, and making a thick pan of spicy, warm gingerbread. I imagined wrapping up squares in brown paper, tying it up with red yarn, and handing them out as gifts. Easy peasy, and pretty sweet.

So now it's on, and I can't think of a better way to kick off the baking season (or keep it going strong) than being inspired by two dozen irresistible recipes from all our cookie-loving friends across the web.

I attended my first cookie swap when I was as tall as my mother's hip, and it still ranks as my favorite holiday party ever. Our dining room table was covered with a dizzying array of sweet treats (heaven for a six-year-old--or really any age, right?). I swooned particularly hard at the taste of my first rosette, covered in a thick blanket of powdered sugar.

Rosettes require a special rosette iron, which you may not have unless your Swedish or Norwegian grandmother gave you hers (I'm always on the lookout for one at flea markets and junk stores). But no matter if you're not into the specialty equipment: there are twenty-three other recipes on the table to tantalize you:


Zester Daily: Orange-Cream Cheese Spiral Cookies
All You Magazine: Pecan and Honey Diamonds
Oprah.com: Sugar Cookies
Gilt Taste: Momofuku Milk Bar's Holidy Cookie Recipes
Liquor.com: Drink in the Holidays
Cooking Light: Iced Sugar Cookies
MyRecipes.com: Ultimate Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Food52: Ginger Spiced Molasses Sugar Cookies
Cooking Channel: The White House's Molasses Spice Cookies "Gingersnaps"
BlogHer: Triple Chocolate Almond Cookies
The Stir: Marvelous Mini Apple Crisp Cookies
The Daily Meal: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Food Republic: Gingerbread Cheesecake Cookies
EatingWell: 5 Tips for Perfect Gingerbread Cookies
Redbook Magazine: Candy Cane Cookies
Gourmet Live: Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies
AP/ J.M. Hirsch: Ginger Fig Crumb Bars
Fox News: White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Epicurious: Italian Almond Cookies
Big Girls Small Kitchen: Cowboy Cookies
FN Dish: Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Bacon Cookies
Yahoo! Shine: Nutmeg Rosettes
Food & Wine: Chocolate-Espresso Snowballs
YumSugar: Coconut Date Balls

Thanks to everyone for participating, and special thanks to FN Dish for organizing!
Nutmeg Rosettes
from Better Homes and Gardens

ingredients

• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cooking oil for deep-fat frying
• Powdered sugar or colored decorating sugar

directions

1. Combine eggs, flour, milk, granulated sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt in a mixing bowl; beat with a rotary beater until mixture is smooth.
2. Heat a rosette iron in deep, hot oil (375 degree F) for 30 seconds. Dip iron into batter. (Batter should come only three-fourths of the way up the sides of the iron.) Immediately dip the iron into hot oil for 30 to 45 seconds or until cookie is golden. Lift out iron and tip slightly to drain. With a fork, push rosette off iron onto paper towels placed over wire racks.
3. Repeat with remaining batter, reheating rosette iron in oil about 10 seconds each time before dipping it into the batter. Sift powdered sugar or sprinkle colored decorating sugar over rosettes. Makes about 42.