With the holiday season in full swing, it is time to think about Christmas baking. I know a lot of people have already started….but the problem I have with starting early, is that Jamie and I raid the freezer of our sweet treats, and we end up having to bake twice as much!

This year at work I organized a cookie exchange. I know that there are lots of sites and ‘rules’ surrounding cookie exchanges, but I wanted this one to be fun and inclusive.  So, with 18 people participating, we agreed on four cookies per participant.  It works out to having to bake 68 cookies, or a little less than 6 dozen.

What works entirely in our favour is that Jamie and I work together, and since he is also participating in the office cookie exchange, well, we get to walk away with a little under 12 dozen cookies – SCORE! 🙂

What I love about cookie exchanges is that it really brings everyone together to celebrate the season, and it allows you to create variety on your cookie platters over the holidays, without having to bake numerous different batches. It allows colleagues to share their favourite recipe with others.  All around it is just a lot of fun.

For our cookie exchange I wanted to make something easy and festive. I love the idea of sugar cookies, decorated  with Royal icing and edible sparkles, but the idea of making a cookie dough, chilling it, rolling it out, cutting out adorable Christmas shapes, baking and then decorating…well, it kind of sounds exhausting.  (Even typing that out took a lot of effort!)

As you all know, drop cookies are my staple. Whip up some cookie dough and drop them onto your baking sheet, into the oven and voilà – you are done.

So, as you can imagine, my dilemma was, an easy drop cookie or a labour intensive holiday cookie. Well, I found my answer, a sugar drop cookie rolled in crushed candy canes!

This recipe is so easy, and what else, it makes so many cookies. I made 100 cookies with this recipe – let me repeat that – 100 cookies!  So, this (in my opinion) is the perfect recipe to use for a cookie exchange.  Now, this will get awkward if everyone uses the same recipe…but that is when you can start to institute some cookie exchange rules.

So, I whipped up the cookie batter and before I baked them, I rolled them in crushed candy canes. So, now they have a wonderful holiday look and they taste like peppermint.  This is the perfect holiday cookie.

The one thing I learned the hard way was you have to bake these on parchment paper. Trust me, I did one batch without, and, well let’s just say that Jamie and I have a bag of cookie crumble to put on our favourite ice cream.  Oops 😦 🙂

Happy Baking!

Adapted from AllRecipes
Sugar Cookie Drops

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup crushed candy canes

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil, confectioners’ sugar, and 1 cup white sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and stir in the vanilla.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar; stir into the creamed mixture.
5. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and then roll the balls in the crushed candy canes.
6. Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes.  Cool on wire racks.
7. This makes enough to share!