You've already read the first half of the 2005 SHF/IMBB Cookie Swap Round-Up, andhave impatiently waited for part two: here it comes! Jennifer and I divided the received entries into two parts in alphabetical order: the first half of the entries, from A to K have already been presented by Jennifer. Today we go on: from L to Z, or better said to W. Hey, no Z-named blogs out there? Zorro's cooking blog will have to wait till next time.
If either of us has missed anyone, please let us know so we can add you. And please don't forget to vote on your favourite cookie recipe once you have read all the entries! There will be 12 copies of "Cookie Sutra" going out as soon as the votes are tabulated.
Note: As many of you have noticed, there were some issues with many of the pictures. Everything should, hopefully, be OK now. Sorry for the inconvenience and the long wait. Thanks!
We start off the round-up with Emily of La Dolce Vita, from Toronto, Canada. Her Normal Different Skor Sugar Cookies and accompanying post makes us reflect on what we define as normal and what is therefore different. I can say one thing for sure, I don't know if her post is "normal" or "different", but it definitely is special: it's the only one with included invisible blog cookie monster... how do you explain this picture otherwise?
A few thousand kilometers southwards, in Cordoba, Argentina, Marcela of La Majuluta shares some useful information on leavening agents for sweets. And while doing so she shows us how to apply this to coconut cookies and alfajores Marplatenses. Mmmh alfajores, you just have to love anything with Dulce de leche in it.
Daphne from L'escargot Gourmand (guess where she's from!) shares with us her tried and tested recipe for these incredibly cute Little Imps. I know what I'll bake with my son next time.
Lex Culinaria's Lynette shows us how to make Chocolate dipped cardamom pistachio and candied ginger cookies. If that does not sound intriguing enough, just follow the link and read about all the possible flavours you can give to her basic dough, easy and impressive!
On to California where Anni of Life's a Banquet gives us her recipe for Chocolate-Pecan Caramel Candy Bars. Being busy with her thanksgiving preparations she still hasn't posted the pics, but we'll come back to have a look at them when they're ready: the recipe sounds delicious
I swear this was not on purpose: it seems all the Italian posts landed in my half of the round-up. Call it destiny. My friend Simona from Lo Spazio di Staximo earns the first Italian mention with Sweet Rombi: butter, nuts, sugar... what do you need more? A diet, maybe.
Enough Italian already? You must be kidding! Ilva, from Pistoia (in Italy clearly) gives us not one but two recipes on her blog Lucullian Delights. Chocolate cookies with pine nuts and walnut cookies with jam just show how nuts about nuts we Italians are.
Indira from Mahanandi shows us the step-by step preparation of Ma’amoul, Dates-Pistachios Filled Cookies. Very well explained and mouth watering. That's not all, the recipe is adapted from one coming from the blog "My mom's recipes and more": a swapped recipe for a cookie swap. Swap to the second power!
From Honolulu Alan of Ma'ona brings us the recipe for penuche a much loved local fudge. Just the looks make me want to bite into one of these candies.
masak-masak's Boo_licious spreads her contagious passion for cookies with her submission. Her traditional Chinese New Year peanut cookies (picture), pineapple balls and brownie cookies look simply divine.
Ever wondered how to make those Amaretti you get with your coffee?
Drop off to Meanwhile in the kitchen and learn how. Whether you like your amaretti crunchy or chewy Julia has what you need
Mental Masala's Marc used the cookie swap as a chance to test a couple of new recipes. Are you more the chocolate or friut kind of person? No problem, there's something of both. Pick between Cardamom Butter Squares and Apricot-Pecan Squares
The Dark Fudge Truffle Cookies Darla of Messy cucina prepared for us seem the perfect cookie seduction for those who love the intense chocolate and coffee combo. Count me among the fans, just reading the post made me imagine the luscious taste.
Muffins? Cookies? We don't really mind, both sound delicious, especially when the question tries to pin down what the Pine Nut Tassies
Rorie from Milk & Honey prepared for us are. And as she wrote in her comments: "pine nuts make everything taste better". Couldn't agree more!
Mommy Cooks Chocolate Chip Cookies, a variation on Nestlé Toll House cookies, are exactly how she describes them humble but satisfying. Though looking at the amount of chocolate and nuts in there I'd take away the humble :-). how can you resist chocolate chip cookies?
Kimberly, who writes Music and Cats and hails from Seattle, tickles our tastebuds with some rich and spicy Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies. If you never had chile and chocolate together, give this recipe a try: you'll fal in love with the combination. And if you already know what I'm talking about, you'll already be over at her blog, saving her recipe for later.
My Adventures in the Breadbox' Alice could certainly compete for the title of the crown of cookie-swap's master cookie decorator. Her Sugar Cookie Carolers look great, especially because they DO look like South Park characters!
VK and his blog My Dhaba bring us to Oman for a... traditional Indian recipe! My Dhaba's special rock cookies. Don't be fooled by their simple looks, with nuts, dried fruit and spices these are certainly a real taste explosion.
On to Israel where Chanit of My Mom's Recipes and More shares her recipe for this comforting and inviting Balck and white bar. We'd only like to know, if this is her recipe or her mom's.
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We leave the Middle East in direction Sidney, were Din of No Eggs or Nuts brings us Laura's shortbread, an intriguing shortbread made with a little adition of ground rice, and uses the occasion to add a couple of chocolate chips biscuits on top of that. Clearly, as always, allergy friendly.
Over at Noshes, Thoughts & Reves, Lady Amalthea prepared Biscuits de potiron et de farine d'avoine (pumpkin and rolled oats cookies) especially for us. She doesn't usually bake, even in the festive season, but we convinced her this time. The power of blogging events!
In Oregon Eliza of Notes from My Food Diary made bittersweet chocolate madeleines and cookie dough brownies. Simple she says: wonderful I reply. Chocoholics of the world unite!
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Back to Canada, once more I might add (does Jennifer have anything to do with this Canadian abundance ;-)?), where Ruth of Once Upon a Feast not only shares her mom's recipe for Shortbread cookies, some Surprise Oatmeal Cookies, and if that was not enough a special Christmas cookie book tip... just in case you had not put away enough recipes after this cookie swap.
One Hot Stove's Nupur writes form NYC, yet her post is an intriguing description of Indian cookies and cookie-like products. As cherry on the cake she tried, tested and modified this recipe for Kesar-Pista Nankhatai. Great work!
Sarah (yes, another Canadian!) made not one. not two but an incredible six different cookies for her entry on One Whole Clove. With Dried Mandarin & Chocolate Cookies; Lemon Poppy Seed Pretzel Cookies; Ancho, Espresso and Cocoa Devils; Ginger Stars; Anise Flats or Hearts; and Preserved Orange and Marmalade Shortbread she really put a cookie tasting session together.
Zinnur of NY's Our Patisserie might have left his baking to the last moment, but his Orange Pistachio Cookies look as professional and delicious as all the rest of his work.
If you're a Belgian living in Italy like my friend Sigrid of Petit Brocoli Illustré, you have a hard time choosing what to bake for an event such as this one. Italian biscotti or Belgian Speculoos? This time Italy had the upper hand and Sigrid delights us with these cantuccini. Sooner or later I'll have to understand why abroad everyone calls them biscotti (cookie, in Italian).
In Singapore Piggy's Cooking Journal brings us another chocolate coffee cookie. These diet-stoppers are made of two coffee cookies halves filled with gooey chocolate. Oreos? Keep them! I'll munch a few of these.
Travelling (in Krakow at the moment) doesn't stop Pro-bono baker from dropping in and sharing this recipe for Sesame-Butter and Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies. Since they don't need an oven they real are ideal for travellers.
Glutton rabbit over at Pearl of the orient puts any pastry decorating effort I've ever made with her Gingerbread Teddies on the Loose. Aren't they simply adorable?
Raquel might have called her blog Box of Chocolate but this time she made us some chocolate-less snickerdoodles. Being chewy, moist, cinnamony and sugary more than makes up for the lack of chocolate.
Rosie's Kitchen brings us another tassies recipe, this time with peacans. Rosie sure loves cookies and if you claim you don't... you're lying.
In Atlanta Tami of Running with Tweezers made Snowball Cookies and Five Spice Shortbread Cookies for us. Weather you like your cookies on the sweeter side or less so, you'll find something delicious (and beautiful) to fit your taste here.
Though it is not the first time a blog gets started on the spur of a food blogging event, it is with great pride that I welcome the SDD-The Food Blog among us. They started blogging to join us in this cookie swap and their Lime Sugar cookies looks like the start of a beautiful blogging adventure.
Over in Tennessee Kevin, of Seriously Good, shares some baking memories and recipes with us. Tender applesauce cookies and chewy Ranger cookies: almost Yin and Yang.
Tara of Seven Spoons almost forgot about us. Just kidding. Her amusing post about Holiday season and good intention brings us an emergency baking classic with a seasonal twist: Holiday palmiers
She Bakes and She Cooks. And then she tempts us with these Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Why do all these cookies look so inviting, my trousers are already stretched as far as they go!
Our little Cookie Swap gave Elise of Simply Recipes a chance to prepare her beloved butter pecan cookies. While you read her recipe, look for the secret tradesman cookie-making tip: I promise, it really works.
I didn't know Buddha liked cookies, so thanks to S'kat of S'kat and the Food for the info. Her Cranberry-Lemon Iced Drops look pretty tasty too, just see how happy and content that Buddha is.
In Montana, Alicat of Something So Clever tried out some Cherry, Walnut & Citrus Cookies. The magazine she took the recipe from got the quantities wrong, but Alicat definitely got these little beauties right.
Sylvia of Soul Fusion Kitchen shows us how the simplest thing can be the most successful with these colourful no fail sugar cookies. I just know a three year old who'd love these :-).
Off to Belgium where Audrey of Speculoos tickles our eyes and tastebuds with this fantastic cookie platter. Coffee delicacies, apricot stars, nut squares, cinnamon cookies, ginger petits fours, and citrus trees, all fantastic... yet with a blog name like this I must ask: where are the speculoos? Just pulling your leg :-).
Stephen Cooks got his inspiration from a fellow blogger, Kevin of Seriously Good, for these Tennessee Bourbon Cookies. That's what I call a real cookie swap. And if that wasn't enough he drops a few tempting chocolate bombs in the form of Chocolate Espresso "Mayan" Cookies. Iwouldn't mind getting hitby one of these!
Su Good Eats went for "a little bit of the old with a little bit of the new". Her chocolate chip cookies may sound classic but have their own "new" twist and the luscious chocolate covered macaroons tickle our innate love of chocolate. The perfect balance.
Wawaya of Taimis tells us of Christmas in the Philippines: I thought that people started celebrating Christmas early here in Germany, but over in Manila people seem to have four months of Christmas! Wawaya decided to decorate a simple cookie in the fashion of the local Pampanga parol lantern, the typical Christmas light. Great work!
In Malaysia, Rokh of Tham Jiak shows us how to make the local Pineapple tarts. Usually made for the Chinese New Year, these little beauties are supposed to be auspicious too: another reason to share them with friends and Family.
We get back to Canada with the next three entries
I had seen cookies with big chunks of chocolate, but these beat them all. Tania of The Candied Quince topped them all: she made Swiss Mountain Shortbread, which are studded with whole chunks of Toblerone. Be careful about the size of Toblerone you pick though: here size matters.
The Cardamom Addict' Jasmine decided to play around with cookie dough and Pop Rock candies. After a few experiments, she came up with these sparkling PopStar Cookies. Full points for inventiveness.
The Domestic GoddessWhat can I say of Jennifer, my partner in crime in hosting this cookie swap and none less than The Domestic Goddess? A big thank you for the great time organising and carrying out this food event would only be a start. And don't forget to get carried away by her charming rosette cookies childhood memories.
Over in Pittsburgh, Mika of The Green Jackfruit revisits some of his Indian childhood favourites. Choose between cardamom sandwich cookies, maccarons or Faux Nice biscuits. Or even better, taste all three of them.
Emma of The Laughing Gastronome brings up a taste of New Zealand with Afghan and ANZAC cookies. Kiwi comfort food?.
The Skinny Epicurean in Singapore, decided to go for these Sweet Potato Cookies. Perfectly matched for Thanksgiving just pasted and even healthy, something that might give a little guilt pang to some of us and our waistlines.
On to Edinburgh were Melissa of The Traveler's Lunchbox gives us a feast for our eyes with four tantalising recipes. Italian Ricciarelli, Persian Rice Cookies and Polish Raspberry Mazurkas all sound and look delicious, but what really makes me curious are those Scourtins. Olive cookies? I would have never thought they work, but I just have to try these out.
Luisa, The Wednesday Chef, has a go at Buckwheat Cookies. Originally from Piedmont, these have been tried and tested by NYTimes' Melissa Clark. Luisa's description of how eating a buckwheat cookie feels like is absolutely perfect. If you've never had a go, try these out.
Over at Tigers & Strawberries Barbara mixes German and Chinese and comes up with these frostflowers: german Pfeffernuesse turned made with Sichuan pepper...and a slight help from Mimi Sheraton. Intriguing and I bet delicious.
Over at Toast Lindy praises simplicity. And what a better example for cokie semplicity and perfection than Dorie Greenspan's and Pierre Herme's Korova cookies?
Some people are just lucky to have a food blogger as collegue. Tokioastrogirl's co-workers certainly must have felt that way. They got to taste the mouthwatering cookies she prepared for this cookie swap. They picked their favorites, but what would you choose? Chewy Pecan Diamonds, Chocolate Crackle Cookie or Jam Thumbprint Cookie? Choices, why do they have to be so hard?
Jennifer at the Weekly Dish chose a seasonal theme with her Spicy sweet potato cookies with maple orange glaze. Tasty, flexible and easy: this really sounds like a recipe made to impress guests.
Last, but absolutely not least Jeanne of World on a Plate brings us Black and Tans, the quintessential NYC deli cookies, served with a dressing of culinary history. Funny how things are: here in Germany these are called simply Amerikaner, Americans.
Thank you so much to everyone who participated, it's been an impressive display, in both quality of the recipes and sheer number of submissions! An astonishing 118 submissions, and that's only counting the posts. Now I only need to find time to prepare all the cookie recipes I saved... and start a big strict diet afterwards ;-)!
Hi Alberto,
I think you fogot me at:
http://onewholeclove.typepad.com/one_whole_clove/2005/11/a_virtual_cooki.html
Posted by: Sarah Lou | December 03, 2005 at 04:40 PM
Hi !
Same as Sarah Lou, I think that you forgot me too. Here's my post's URL : http://unspeculoos.blogspot.com/2005/11/imbb-shf-cookie-swap.html
And you did a great job with the announcing and listing posts :)
Posted by: Audrey | December 03, 2005 at 05:00 PM
I think he's in the Ms, trying to fix formatting problems and will have M-Z up ASAP.
Posted by: LisaSD | December 03, 2005 at 05:31 PM
Hi Alberto,
I think you fogot me at:
http://momsrecipesandmore.blogspot.com/2005/11/imbbshf-cookie-swap-black-and-white.html
Thank you, Chanit :-)
Posted by: Chanit | December 03, 2005 at 07:21 PM
Lisa is right, I'm having a few problems posting. Should have you all up by tonight. Sorry for the wait and thanks for you patience :-).
Posted by: Alberto | December 03, 2005 at 07:33 PM
Dear Alberto:
Thank you so much for the wonderful visual treat we have experienced with this great blog event. 47 (at Jennifer's) + 47 (here) wow! 94 special cookies! Is my total wrong with the additions? Thank you for all of your fantastic efforts and hard work. Kudos!
We at My Dhaba are so glad to note that you liked My Dhaba's simple rock cookies. Thank you for featuring our rock cookies here at IMBB-SHF cookie-swap event. Cheers!
Posted by: VK Narayanan | December 04, 2005 at 01:56 AM
Hi Alberto!
I love reading & looking at all the postings! They're all wonderful & delicious looking.
Posted by: eliza | December 04, 2005 at 02:24 AM
I just want to say thank you for all the work you put into this! It is really nice to read about all the entries!
Posted by: ilva | December 04, 2005 at 08:34 AM
Ciao Alberto,
I just discovered your wonderful blog via this x-mas cookie post. If only I had seen it before, I'd have loved to participate.
Waiting for an upcoming occasion, I will be happy to test some of the great recipes I've found here.
a presto
Anne
Posted by: wlanel | December 04, 2005 at 11:22 AM
Why are the images not available? This entry looks very strange for me.
Posted by: ostwestwind | December 04, 2005 at 03:01 PM
Ostwestwind, very good question. I'd like to know what happened with the images too. They were all visible when I finished uploading the round-up yesterday night. I just sent a help-ticket to the people over at typepad to see what went wrong.d
Posted by: Alberto | December 04, 2005 at 03:13 PM
Alberto--thanks for the work that went into this post--it is huge!
I am sorry the pictures are acting weird--as I am about as tech-inept as I am kitchen-magickal, I cannot offer any advice. But I still want to thank you for all the work you put into the post and I am sure that you will figure out the pictures eventually.
Posted by: Barbara Fisher | December 04, 2005 at 09:03 PM
Alberto,
Thanks for all the hard work. I'm sorry about the technical problems. From my computer screen, the only image not currently available is the photo from She Bakes and She Cooks' entry.
Lovely event...so many great recipes!
Posted by: Jennifer | December 05, 2005 at 12:26 AM
Alberto, thanks for all the hard work that went into making this beautiful round-up. This event is really getting me into the holiday spirit, thanks to you and Jennifer. You guys are the best!
Posted by: Nupur | December 05, 2005 at 01:40 AM
this was way beyond fun...thank you for this beautiful event.
Posted by: stel | December 05, 2005 at 05:24 AM
Hi, Alberto -- On my computer, some of the images are still not visible, including the one for my Swiss Mountain Shortbread. Otherwise, nice work! Thanks for hosting this fun event!
Posted by: Tania | December 05, 2005 at 05:59 AM
Thanks Alberto! Lovely round up (lots of work!) and I am going to have fun reading about all those cookies and drool over them.
Posted by: boo_licious | December 05, 2005 at 07:18 AM
Thanks to everyone for the kind words and support. I can assure you that during the frustrating past three days, they were a real bliss and probably the only thing that stopped me from banging my head into my computer monitor :-). Now everything should really be OK... but considering how things went during the WE, you never know. I'll keep an eye open for a while and hope you'll now be able to pick your favourites for the book give-away. Thank you again.
Posted by: Alberto | December 05, 2005 at 09:06 AM
Alberto, thanks for the fabulous roundup...and for sticking through the technical challenges - it certainly all looks amazing now!!
This is definitely a bookmark post!!!
Posted by: Ruth | December 05, 2005 at 01:53 PM
What a fantastic job you and Jennifer both did! Thank you!
Posted by: Luisa | December 05, 2005 at 08:42 PM
Alberto, thanks for all the hard work and time, you put into organising this event. The entries are all amazing, just looking at them make me sugar high and crave all sorts of sweets.
Thanks!
Posted by: Indira | December 06, 2005 at 02:02 AM
Thanks for the hard work Alberto... And thanks to Jennifer too.
Now it'll be really difficult to choose only 3 favorites: I simply want them all!
Posted by: Marcela | December 06, 2005 at 02:46 AM
People, you make me blush.
Let's be honest though, the round-ups would be nothing if you all had not been so creative, dedicated and just plain great with those recipes. So thanks for the compliments, but kudos to all of you for the great entries.
Posted by: Alberto | December 06, 2005 at 08:41 AM
Very nice round-up!
Thanks to you, Alberto, and to Jennifer for the funny (and useful) event!
Posted by: Staximo | December 06, 2005 at 04:15 PM
Compiling all of these was a great task and you did beautifully. Thanks for putting in so much effort since we all loooove photos. It looks great now!
Posted by: tokyoastrogirl | December 06, 2005 at 05:44 PM