Did you know December 22nd was National Cookie Exchange Day? Which is the glorious occasion when festively-decorated cookie tins and boxes appear at Cookie exchange parties. Cookie Exchange Day is a classic celebration where the host throws a holiday party for family and friends, to which everyone brings homemade Cookies to share no, store bought Cookies are allowed.
The toughest decision of Cookie Exchange Day is which cookies to take. You could bring Wintertime classics like Thumbprint Jam Cookies or Gingerbread Cookies which are always festive, but since this Cookie Exchange Day celebrates all Cookies, go ahead and add in Funfetti Cookies or Lemon Squares!
I hope someone brings Whit Chocolate Macadamia Cookies that have a touch of Coconut in them. Like they make at the Mall. As well as Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts or Pecans. Just remind everyone they have Nuts incase someone is allergic to Nuts. If your not sure how to prepare Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts I’ve included a recipe below for you.
According to some culinary historians, our modern-day idea of Cookies may have been a happy byproduct of Cake-baking. The earliest modern Cookies could have been dollops of Cake Batter used to test if the oven was hot enough. Technically, a Cookie is any kind of hand-held sweet Cake, crisp or soft, so this counts in our book! What about your book?
People know very early Cookies came out of Persia in the 7th Century, as this was very near where Sugar originated, and Persia was one of the earliest empires to get a hold of Sugar. When Spain was invaded and after the Crusaders established the Spice trade, Sugar, and the delectable Cookies that it produced began to spread throughout Europe. Did you know in the 14th Century, sweet Cookies could be purchased along the streets in Paris.
Cookie recipes started to appear in Cookbooks in the 1500s and baking became a serious profession in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Cookies became works of art and featured careful measurements of particularly-chosen ingredients. In the late 1600s, Dutch, English, and Scotch immigrants brought European Cookies, like Shortbreads and simple Butter Cookies, to America. Particularly in the South, these “Tea Cakes” took off and were the pride of the Southern housewife.
Cookies were uniquely influenced by American geography once they arrived in the Country. Oranges from the West Coast and Coconuts from the South gradually became included in Cookie recipes as railroads were laid to connect the Nation.
In the 1930s, Iceboxes gave way to Icebox Cookies. The 1930s saw the accidental advent of the ever-famous Chocolate Chip Cookies, when the Toll House Restaurant owner, Ruth Graves Wakefield, thought the Chocolate Chips would melt into the batter when baked.
Cookie exchanges are a Centuries-old tradition dating back to Medieval times. The classic idea of a holiday party in which guests bring a selection of homemade Cookies to trade with one another. While the festive holiday has sweet beginnings, the etiquette associated with them has become elaborate and strict. Guests are judged for the quantity and quality of their offering, and cookbooks like The Cookie Party Cookbook outline the acceptable and unacceptable practices.
Today, Cookie exchange traditions live on in families and friendship groups. Though there is traditionally a strict etiquette that accompanies the party, you don’t have to adhere to it. The spirit of National Cookie Exchange Day is the joy of Cookies, so get together a group of friends and celebrate the treat on your own terms!
National Cookie Exchange Day Activities
Start a Bake Sale for charity allowing your friends and family to host a classic bake sale. Which we all should remember these from childhood. The best part, however, is that you can use your fantastic Cookies to support organizations that do meaningful work in your community or help a cause you care about. Not to mention, you get to spend a fun afternoon selling Cookies and meeting new people.
Take the opportunity today to try a new cookie recipe you’ve never tried to bake like Grammy’s secret World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe which you should dig up and give it a try! If you don’t have a recipe from your grandmother then I bet you have an old cookbook somewhere in your closet and it probably has a recipe you are yet to give a go. If not, look up the most extravagant and drool-worthy Cookie recipe you can find online to rule your Cookie exchange with.
Remember there’s no better party than a Cookie party on National Cookie Exchange Day when you can invite your friends over to bake, decorate, and to taste test Cookies, which allows everyone to get behind a baked goods invitation. Don’t forget to turn on holiday music and let your Cookie party be a celebration of friendship (and sugar)!
Delicious Facts About Cookies
1. Oreo cookies are the best-selling Cookie on the market, followed by the ever-popular Chips Ahoy. 2. Did you know Massachusetts and Pennsylvania both have Chocolate Chip Cookies as their Official State Cookie? Isn’t that a great way to keep it classic?! 3. In France, the most popular Cookie is the light and fluffy Meringue; in Germany, they prefer Springerle, an anise-flavored Biscuit that is designed with a pressed image on top. Doesn’t sound to tasty does it? 4. Did you know the most Cookies baked in a single hour was recorded by 16 bakers representing Hassett’s Bakery in 2013 – and they baked a total of 4,695 Cookies. Can you imagine that?
5. Some people believe that the first Chocolate Chip Cookie was made entirely by accident when the baker who invented the Toll House Cookie thought the Chocolate pieces would melt. When they didn’t, the classic Cookie was born!
Why People Love National Cookie Exchange Day
Because Cookies come in endless varieties including Snickerdoodles, Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Double Chocolate – and those are just the standard Cookies. If regular flavors don’t float your boat, never fear in a cookbook somewhere, there is a cookie for you. Throughout human history we have created such a variety of Cookie recipes it’s simply impossible to try them all. Lace-up your apron and get cooking new recipes, Cookie exchangers!
There is no better way to bond than chatting while the smell of Cookies in the oven wafting through the air? Take the opportunity today to recruit friends or family to help you concoct your Cookies, and enjoy all the laughter and conversation that follows.
Nothing brings people together like baked goods. Whether or not you were the baker of the Cookies you gift, it’s rewarding to see the smile on the face of the person you hand the Cookies off to and the box full of fresh Cookies they hand you back feels like a basket of love.
Recipe for Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies
Ingredients
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2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
One 12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chunks or chips
2 cups walnut halves, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon flaky sea salt
Directions
- Sift the flour, kosher salt, baking powder and baking soda together into a large bowl.
- Beat the butter and brown sugar in another large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. (Use the paddle attachment for a stand mixer.) Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the dry ingredients and beat until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks and walnuts by hand.
- Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
- Use a 2-ounce ice cream scoop to scoop half the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart (you should have about 8 cookies, roughly 3 1/2-ounces each, per baking sheet). Sprinkle the flaky sea salt on top of the dough balls.
- Bake, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until the cookies are golden around the edges but still soft in the middle, 18 to 20 minutes. Let them cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Store the cookies in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
