Molasses Cookies, The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap...

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! It sounds like a huge event where all of us food bloggers meet up and pass cookies of to each other. Actually that's not far from the truth only we don't meet which is a huge bummer because that would be a whole lot of fun. The cookie swap was the idea of Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil, and Julie from The Little Kitchen. For every blogger who signed up to participate their mission was to make three dozen cookies and mail a dozen to three other designated bloggers. Nobody knew where they would come from or exactly when their cookies would arrive and we all know how cool it is to get boxes on your doorstep at Christmas time, right?

My three bloggers who would be receiving these cookies were, Milisa from Miss in The Kitchen, Beth Anne from Cats In The Kitchen and Stephanie from Live Cook Love. All three should have been snacking on some chewy molasses cookies hopefully still in one piece form shipping! In the meantime I was watching for my cookies to be delivered from my secret cookie makers. It didn't actually take long for the boxes to start arriving and a huge thanks to Kelly from Just a Taste, Molly from Hungry Hungry Runner and Terra from Cafe Terra. Thanks ladies they were all excellent!

The cookie swap was a lot fun and I met some new bloggers which is always great. If anyone is interested in taking part next year click on this link to sign up. It might seem like a long time away but you and I know just how fast time goes by! Thanks again to Lindsay and Julie for coming up with such a great idea and using their own time to coordinate it all.

I also would like to mention Meagan form Scarletta Bakes. I ended up making her some really good pecan snowball cookies. Check out her site for some amazing pictures and funny stories! I would have taken pictures of the snowballs but as soon as they cooled I was in the UPS store with them.
Here's the recipe courtesy of Simply Recipes:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/3 cup for rolling cookies

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsulphered molasses

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the first seven ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter until soft and add the sugars, mix until fluffy and well mixed. Add the egg, vanilla and molasses and blend well. Add the dry ingredients to this and mix on low for one minute.

Place the last 1/3 cup of sugar on a plate. Roll about 2 tbsp of dough into a ball and then roll in the sugar covering completely. Place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 11 minutes but this cookie should be soft and chewy so don't over bake! Let cool on a wire rack.