This year I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, an event now in its third year. The concept is pretty simple, food bloggers from several countries submit their information to the organizers. For a small fee each blogger is matched with three other bloggers. Each person bakes three dozen cookies and sends a dozen off to each match and in return receives three dozen different cookies to taste and share. The best part is the entry fees go to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, an organization that funds therapies to treat pediatric cancers. This year, along with sponsor matches, the event raised nearly $14,000.

The recipe I selected came from a friend. Her description was, “sounds like a nothing cookie, but the taste is amazing.” She got the recipe from a co-worker back in 1996 and could only give me the picture of the original recipe. It was clearly cut from a magazine or newspaper but she doesn’t know where it originated. I searched the Internet for awhile but couldn’t find a recipe quite like it.

My friend was right. When you look at the recipe it’s so easy and there’s not much to it but the result is delicious. My friend also told me that she uses the shortbread as a secret ingredient in other recipes – I promised not to reveal them 🙂

I started by sifting the dry ingredients. The recipe doesn’t call for it but I sometimes find there are hard bits in the brown sugar and I wanted to be sure to leave those out.

Then I cut in the butter by hand using a pastry blender. I suppose you could use a food processor but it didn’t seem necessary.

And finally I mixed in the chopped crystallized ginger.

The cookie mixture is placed in a buttered 9″ x 13″ pan. I found through a little trial and error that pressing it firmly in the pan is better because the cookies are fairly crumbly.

For the cookie swap I decided to tjuz it up a little and cut the shortbread into fingers and added a little white chocolate drizzle.

As I mentioned, the cookies are crumbly so there were a few mishaps, better known as “cook’s treats,” that occurred along the way. But I’m happy with how they turned out and I hope the recipients enjoyed them too.

For my portion of the swap I received:

• Peppermint Mocha Pudding Cookies from Alyssa of What’s Cooking, Love?
• Beautifully iced Holiday Sugar Cookies from Sarah of My Little Red Mixer
• Double Chocolate Crinkles from Jennifer of Mother Thyme

Please check out these beautiful blogs.

And finally, thanks again to Lindsay (Love & Olive Oil) and Julie (The Little Kitchen) for organizing this great event. I’m looking forward to next year!

Print