Cookie Party

I knocked off two more recipes from the "Try Soon" folder.  Both desserts.  Yeah, big surprise.  In my defense, most of them went to a cookie swap.

I wasn't impressed as I started to mix together these Chai-Spiced Snowball Cookies.  But after they came out of the oven and were coated with the spiced powdered sugar?  Delicious.  I liked the texture and the sweet/spicy coating.  I ended up with extra spiced powdered sugar - I may make another very small batch to try using it up.  Definitely keeping this recipe.

Then I tried these Chocolate Oatmeal Bars.  The recipe caught my eye because the chocolate layer did not have sweetened condensed milk in it (not something I normally have on my shelf).  Wow.  My chocolate layer came out so much thicker I expected.  I probably could have put this in a brownie pan instead of an 8x8 pan.  And these are dense.  I cut these into small pieces.  I may shrink the chocolate layer (it would be easy to cut it by third) and it needs something - cinnamon?  Orange?  I bet it would be easy to swap out to milk chocolate, which I'm sure Rob would like better.  Regardless of the changes I'd make, these bars are addictive and it's easy to snarf down too many in one sitting.

Cookie party!

So many cookies!

Little house on the big tray

I'm a little surprised I've never written about this before.  It started years (years!) ago, supposedly by an aunt who wanted a nice plate of different kinds of cookies to serve at a party, but didn't want to bake up eight different recipes.  The idea is we all make just one batch, divvy them up and everyone takes home a batch's worth of 6-8 types of cookies. 

When you get that many aunts and cousins together, it's a party.  Lots of us try new recipes, so there's often rejects and extras to taste-test and critique (or explain why you will never make this recipe again).  We catch up on the latest happenings and take the opportunity swap more than just cookies (I came home with a new hand-knit shawl, some more Key West fabric and a case of wine that is supposed to be forwarded to my mother).

One batch in the swap is actually a build-your-own gingerbread house.  My house is simple compared to the elaborate setups everyone else created.  My cousins are gingerbread house master builders.  One of them even had blinking lights (top of the photo - not a good pic - sorry).

Gingerbread houses with seriously landscaped yards

Saturday's snow didn't slow us down too much.  We passed the afternoon eating, chatting and piping royal icing.  By the time we were done, the roads were clear and it was an easy drive home.  With nine participants, I came home with huge batch of cookies.  What a fun afternoon.  Now I need to find room in my freezer to store them all!  (They're all so good, it's hard to share.)