presents, baking, cooking, socializ- ing. The holidays can be a busy time, indeed. To save time and moneyon holiday baking, consider hosting a cookie swap. It’s a great way to spend time with family and friends, and come away with a widearray of holiday cookies to grace your holiday table. How It Works Invite a group of family and friends to each bake 2-4 dozen of their favorite holiday cookie. As guests arrive, they arrange their cookies on a table with a card identifying each type of cookie. Guests then go around the table and pick a specific numberof assorted cook- ies to take home with them. For ease, divide the numberof guests by the total number of cookies to determine how many cookies each guest can select. Each guest should go home with the same number of cookies they brought—butin a var- ied assortment of tastes, shapes, styles andcolors. To make the swap more personal, each guest could beintroduced and then share a favorite holiday memory, the history behind the recipe, or a holiday family tradition. These stories are great icebreakers, especially if you have a group of people who might not know each other well. And, it helps to reinforce the spirit of the holidays. Another thought is to ask each person to make a few extra cook- ies. The extra cookies can be put into tins and delivered to friends and relatives who are too sick to cook or bake this year. Or, they can be delivered to local charities, fire or police departments. Cookie Swap Tips e Avoid duplication by having each guest provide the cookie name when they RSVP for the event e Ask your family and friends to bring enough copies of their cookie recipe for each guest scheduled to attend, so you can swap recipes too To avoid munching on holi- day cookies, offer a few appetizers and drinks to guests, or have them bake enough cookies that on-site sampling won’t deplete the number of cookies available to take home e If you are going to encourage cookie sampling during your cookie swap, have beverages such as tea, cider, coffee and milk on A SWEET SWAP—Cookie sampling at a holiday cookie recipe swap takesthe cake. hand A great holiday recipe to try beat well. (If necessary, refrigerate dough 1 hour or until rated to reflect any holiday or 3. Shape the dough into 1inch balls and place them 1 1/2 for your cookie swap is shortbread cookies, which can be decooccasion. SHORTBREAD COOKIES 114 cups Argo corn starch 2 cupsall-purpose flour 47/3 cups powderedsugar, sifted and divided 2'% cups butter, divided 1% teaspoon vanilla 2'2 teaspoonsgrated lemon peel, divided 13 cup lemonjuice sprinkles, optional Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl combine Argo corn starch, flour and 2/3 cup powderedsugar. Set aside. 2. In a large bowl, beat 2 cups of butter with a mixer at medium speed until softened and smooth. Add the corn starch mixture, vanilla and 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon peel; easy to handle.) inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on wire racks. 4. For icing, beat together in a medium bowlthe remaining 1/3 cup of butter and the remaining teaspoon of lemon peel until the butteris soft- ened. Add the remaining 4 cups of powdered sugar and lemon juice; beat until well combined. Add red food coloring, if desired. Decorate cook- ies with icing and sprinkles in fun designs such as stripes and polka dots. Store ina tightly covered container. Makes6 dozen cookies. Consumers can visit www.argo starch.com or www.karosyrup.com for additional, versatile recipes from delicious desserts and glazes to holiday side dishes and drinks.
