It's the most wonderful time of the year

The weeks leading up to Christmas are a perfect time to throw a cookie swap party with your friends, or you could even organise one as a fun work 'event'!

The general idea of a cookie swap is usually not to eat the cookies then and there, but for everyone attending to bake some cookies, bring them along and share them out. At the end of it, you'll have a wonderful selection of cookies to try!

There should really only be four rules to a Christmas Cookie Swap:

1) The cookies should be home made
2) They should be Christmas themed
3) They should bake enough for everyone
4) Too many rules mean not enough fun! Just follow the first three and you'll be fine!

Some additional ideas are to ask people to dress up, or ask them to bring the cookies un-iced so that you can decorate the cookies during your Cookie Swap party.

If you're feeling really adventurous, you could turn it into a Christmas Bake Swap instead - really whatever takes your fancy - remember rule number 4 and just do whatever makes you happy!

To get you started, here's one of my favourite Christmas Recipes...


Christmas Gingerbread Cookies


280 g flour
4 g ground ginger
5 g baking soda
2 g ground cinnamon
1 g ground cloves
2 g salt
165 g softened butter
1 c white sugar
1 egg
15 ml water
60 ml maple syrup
25 g white sugar

Preheat your oven to 175 C.

Sift together all the dry ingredients then set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, this will take a few minutes. Beat in the egg, then on a low speed, add the water and molasses.

Once the wet ingredients are fully combined, start gradually adding in the dry ingredients, adding a bit at a time and then beating well to keep the air in the mixture.

If you're just going to make round cookies, you can immediately start rolling them into small balls (about walnut size) then squashing them down with a fork. However, if you want to cut the cookies, leave the mixture to rest for an hour, first then roll the cookies out, using icing sugar to stop the mix from sticking to the board and cutters. You should get about 24 cookies out of this mix!

Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes before putting them on a wire rack.

Note: these cookies are wonderfully soft, so to keep them that way, make sure you keep them in an airtight container.