I’ve never been to a Cookie Exchange Party. The idea behind it is absolutely genius: make a batch of your best holiday treats, print out cute little recipe cards to give away, and come home with a full set of new ideas and taste-tested cookies. A party dedicated entirely to cookies. Sign me up!

When I finally decide to host one/ finally get invited to one, I envision it as a scene straight out of a magazine [or Pinterest Board]: a cozy, warm atmosphere, perfectly decorated and sugary indulgences covering the counter tops, classic holiday tunes playing in the background, snow lightly falling outside…

Oh come on, Who Am I Kidding? The day that someone within my circle of friends actually organizes a Cookie Exchange Party we will all just end up drinking too much of that holiday punch to discuss baking tips and tricks. All with good intentions of course, but maybe that’s just us.

I like us.

Until I have the pleasure of sharing a real-life-cookie-exchange-party-experience with all of you, I figured I would host my dream Cookie Exchange Party: right here, right now. I hope you have time to join me for this festive occasion!

For starters, I would have sent you this invitation out weeks ago, letting you know about today’s gathering.

Considering my love of food writing has stemmed from a few of my favorite blogs, I obviously would have these ladies [ and their cookies] in attendance. I hope they would bring these chewy Chocolate Chip Almond Meringues , these Red Velvet Thumb Prints with Marshmallow Frosting [ if Christmas looked like a cookie- it would be these], these classic Peanut Butter Blossoms, and these perfect Gingerbread Cookies.

I’d serve milk in cute bottles. And you know, other things that a hostess with the mostest (?) would do!

Oh, and I would make these:

Surprise Holiday Kisses

Recipe slightly adapted from Hershey‘s

You will need:

• 40-45 of your favorite holiday kisses: i used candy cane & mint chocolate truffle, unwrapped
• 1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup of holiday color chocolate chips, chopped (or minis)

Oven to 375. Unwrap all of your kisses. Is it weird that I feel bad throwing those pretty little foil pieces away? Probably. I put the kisses on a plate and back into the fridge to keep them cold.

Cream together your butter, sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Add in your flour, about a 1/2 cup at a time. Chop up your chocolate chips and stir them into the dough. Mold about a tablespoon of dough around your kisses and roll in a ball in your hands. This is super easy. Line them up on your baking sheet. [The below picture would be so much cooler if I had a Silpat.] I LOVE how you can see the flecks of red and green from the chips in there!

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. I left mine in for a little under 12 minutes and they were perfect. They might seem a little soft when you take them out of the oven, but just let them hang out for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack- they will firm up quickly.

While they are cooling- you can prepare the DRIZZLE. I unwrapped 6 additional chocolate mint truffle kisses + 1 T of butter and microwaved on a medium power setting for about a minute. Stir, Stir, Stir. You can use regular chocolate chips of course, but ‘Tis the Season for minty things!

Drizzle chocolate over cookies in no particular fashion.

I’d then share these with all of you lovely people who I know would be in attendance at my Cookie Exchange Party, too.

Thanks for coming! Here’s the gift I’d give you for so kindly attending.

Mangia!

PS: Hey Patty! Look for an email from me today!  You win free Sparkling Ice for commenting on my Sangria post last week!

Thank you so much for reading!