Holiday Cookie Exchange – White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies

One of my favorite parties to participate in during the holiday season is an annual cookie exchange.  I love sharing a cookie recipe that I love and sampling other bakers masterpieces.  It’s amazing to see the cookie talent among my friends and spend a wonderful afternoon together sipping hot cocoa and eating tasty treats.

Unfortunately, it’s been hard to host my annual cookie exchange party since having my little ones.  One day it will return, but for now the organizing, baking and sharing during the busy holiday season is too complicated.  So, you can imagine my excitement when I was invited by Carli at Dimpleprints to participate in her 3rd Annual Holiday Cookie Exchange.  It was the perfect chance to bake, get to know someone new and share a special recipe with you.

Silly question, but have you ever made snickerdoodle cookies?  I hate to admit it, but in all my years of baking, I’ve never gotten around to making this classic cookie.  I was so excited when Our Mini Family asked me to make her white chocolate snickerdoodle recipe.  It’s the perfect holiday cookie exchange recipe and is sure to make your home smell like cinnamon.

You Will Need:

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 cup unsalted butter – room temperature

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup white chocolate morsels (being a chocolate lover, I recommend using more than this.  I think an entire bag would be perfect so you get some chocolate chips in every bite!)

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Mix together sugar, butter and eggs in a large bowl.  The recipe originally called for 1/2 cup of butter and a 1/2 cup of shortening.  Since my daughter was home sick the day I decided to make these, I didn’t want to go to the store for shortening.  I found the easy substitute was a 1/2 cup of butter.

3.  Stir flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl.  Although this might sound simple, of course, another baking dilemma ensued.  In the middle of mixing the liquid ingredients together, I realized that I didn’t have cream of tartar called for by the original recipe.  So, I discovered a new baking trick – combine the baking soda and cream of tartar amounts and replace with baking powder.  The baking powder will make the cookies rise just as well.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.

4.  Pour in white chocolate morsels and mix well.  Although the recipe calls for 1 cup of morsels, I feel like you can never have enough chocolate.  I recommend using the entire bag if you want chocolaty goodness throughout each cookie.

5.  Using a cookie scoop, shape about 1 inch wide cookie dough balls on your cookie sheet.  (I decided to use my silicone baking mat on the bottom of the cookie sheet for the first time.  I LOVED it!  The cookies didn’t stick.  I will be using it every time I bake from now on!)

6.  Bake your cookies for about 12 to 15 minutes.  Let cool.

Recipe yields about 24 white chocolate snickerdoodle cookies.

Since we didn’t need another two dozen cookies hanging around our kitchen, I delivered fresh baked cookies to our friends and neighbors that afternoon.  You should have seen their faces when they felt the bag of cookies and said “They’re still warm!”  Love bringing smiles to everyone during the holiday season!

We hope you have a wonderful holiday and can’t wait to return in 2015 with so much more to share.

Happy Celebrating,

Natalie

Looking for more fun holiday cookie making ideas?  Check out the other amazing cookies in our swap.  It’s enough to make you hungry for some Christmas deliciousness!