The dream is always the same. Wearing a festive seasonal apron, I greet my guests with a heaping tray of colorful holiday cookies. They oooh. They ahh. They wonder where the heck I find the time to bake 10 different batches of treats.
I don't. I organize a cookie exchange.
Enlist your friends -- buddies from the office or the gang from your book club. Exchanges can succeed with as few as a handful of people or as many as 10. And it's not too late to get a group together. Heck, it's not even December yet!
But how do you get started?
Traditional favorites: Minty Meltaways, EZ Gingerbread Cookies and Kipfeln.
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No-bake favorites: Doris' Booze Balls, Diane's Christmas Wreaths and Laura's Ting-A-Lings.
THE HOW-TO
* Determine the size of your group. Between five and 10 is ideal. Say you recruit seven people, including yourself. That means each person makes six dozen cookies of one variety and then packages one dozen for each of the six other participants. Mathematically challenged? Just remember, you don't count yourself.
* Choose a cookie. Each participant decides what kind of cookie he or she is going to make. Compare notes and communicate. Make sure there's no duplication because you're striving for variety.
* Select a time, date and location for the exchange. It can be an informal gathering at someone's home or a quick meeting at the office to exchange with coworkers.
THE HELPFUL HINTS
* Set rules. I learned the hard way years ago, when everyone in our cookie exchange slaved over their sugar cookies and spritz. One person had signed up to bring a particular cookie, but apparently ran out of time. Instead, she bought pretzels the night before and dipped them in chocolate. To avoid such disappointment, we now specify that we're exchanging homemade cookies, candies or bars with quality ingredients.
* Be creative with your packaging. Each participant is responsible for packing the individual dozens for others. Rather than bringing good plates from home, use paper plates, plastic bags or even boxes. One year, each exchanger decorated the packages. Baggies were tied with ribbons and ornaments. Chinese food boxes were decked out with holiday stickers. One person bought lovely plates (not paper) and told each member of the exchange that it was her gift to them.
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* A nice final touch: Our exchangers have sporadically copied and shared their recipes. You're in luck today because I'm sharing some of our best recipes from past exchanges -- no-bake options and more traditional cookies.
