Cookie Swap 2014

Hi Everyone!

So I intended to publish this post last monday when I was away skiing but unfortunately there was no working wifi in my room so I haven’t been able to publish anything for the past week! I am back now though and can’t wait to update you on what’s been going on 🙂 I am so excited for the upcoming week of Christmas festivities and I had the most incredible week skiing last week!

This year I took part in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I love cooking and baking and so any opportunity to do this is something I would always take up on! Basically, everyone that signed up was assigned some bloggers to send cookies to and then we receive a batch from another couple of bloggers! What a lovely idea, especially around Christmas 🙂 I went for one of my favourite recipes: raspberry and chocolate. I use this combination a lot in brownies/cupcakes etc but I have never used them in cookies so it was interesting to try out something new. I based my recipe on the Raspberry and White Chocolate Chuck Cookies method by Carnation that you can find here. However, I decided to make them even more sinful and indulgent and I used both white and milk chocolate. Here is how I got on!

1. After pre heating the oven to 180 degrees C, mix together 225g unsalted butter and 225g Caster sugar.

2. I then added 170g condensed milk

3. Now add 350g self raising flour and then mix together all the ingredients in the bowl.

4. The recipe says to use nestle chocolate but I decided to use Green and Blacks. I continued to break it up into small squares and add it to the mixture, stirring it all together.

5. Now it is time to create the cookies! Basically, using 175g raspberries, collect a ball of the mixture and flatten  it out. Place a couple of raspberries in the middle, form the mixture back into a ball with the raspberries inside. Then slightly flatten it out again, taking care not to let the raspberries break too much and spill out of the side! I warn you, this step does get quite messy!

6. Lay out the cookies on a baking tray and then place them in the oven for about 15-18 minutes. Voila! I under estimated how much the cookies would grow so when I took them out of the oven they had all stuck together! Anyhow, I just used a fish slice to separate them once they had cooled.

I tasted a few myself and I have to say, they were delicious!! The combination of the gooey raspberry and chocolate with the chewy cookie dough was just bliss. I received cookies from Victoria (Victoria Sponge Pease Pudding) and Roshni (The Vanilla Bean). Find their blogs by clicking on the links on their name 🙂 I was so excited to receive my cookies in the post!!

Firstly, I received this package from Victoria complete with a lovely Christmas Card! These cookies were absolutely delicious! The Salted Caramel Popcorn and Dark Chocolate flavour was so indulgent and delicious, I definitely would love to try something like this out for myself. I have always been a fan of salted caramel and it just worked so so well! Thankyou 😀

Secondly, I received this lovely package from Roshni I love the rustic homemade card! These cookies were earl grey flavour and you really could taste it! Finished off with a dipping of chocolate, they were absolutely delicious. I previously tried to make early grey cupcakes (read here) but the taste was no way near as strong so I am tempted to try them again!

I am so glad that I took part in this challenge. I was so much fun and I loved trying out different types of cookies! Thanks girls 🙂 Lots of love,