Belly Baking and Cookie Exchange

My sweet friend and neighbor Angela had a cookie exchange party. I, of course, was ecstatic to go because cookies and me = good times! It didn't take me long to find yummy holiday cookies on my guilty pleasure pinterest. I found some cute holiday pinwheels found here.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

1 c butter, softened

1 egg

1/2 t vanilla extract

1 t peppermint extract

food coloring

3 T milk

powdered sugar, for rolling out dough.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. I am impatient, as I have stated before, so I just popped my butter in the microwave. It's probably a bit past "softened" but hey it works!

Add egg, vanilla, milk and beat until incorporated.

***Katy and I made two batches. She helped with my first (experimental) batch. When I was reading the instructions found on the website it did not mention adding the peppermint extract so the first batch did not have that included. In my second batch I only added a 1/2 t. It was a good flavor in the cookies but I liked the ones I made without the extract...so it's your call :)

***Have recipe handy if you have questions!

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.

Gradually add the flour mixture until combined.

Remove half the mixture from the bowl and add the food coloring to half. Even though it was noted to use the gel color I used my runny red....it was not very red and I ended up running out. Luckily I had some pink from a cake for Katy a while ago I used. It worked much better.

On a sheet of wax paper roll out each piece of dough, about a 1/4 inch thick. Carefully slide the red dough on top. I ended up just flipping over my wax paper with the red on top.

Roll dough into a log, creating a swirling effect.

This was the hard part for us. My dough was so soft that when I went to pick up my log it stretched WAY out. When I made my second batch I actually made two logs with half of each of the dough. It was much easier to handle that way.

After you have you log, roll in sprinkles.

Put in the fridge and let chill for 2 hours.

Again with the impatience. It was probably only an hour for me, but it worked fine.

Pre heat the over to 375 degrees F. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on how thick you cut your cookies.

The party was SUCH a blast! Angela had us play some really fun games. We all played christmas charades. There was a tie so we all picked a number between 1 and 20. Lucky number 7 won me some super cute cookie cutters.

When we were done with the games she had cute boxes made up for each of us with our names. We then had to go around and vote for our favorite cookies. There was a most unique, prettiest and best tasting (voted on by her husband). After we voted we gathered cookies to take home in our boxes. She had yummy food to much on. Then she announced the winners. I think I was the winner of prettiest cookie, so I got another prize of an oven mitt and some kitchen necessities! Whoo who0!

I wish I had brought my camera with me because Angela did such a GREAT job of decorating for the party, plus her house is decorated so cute. Yup, she is going to need to come to my house and help me out!

What a great way to start the season of treats. Hopefully I can pace myself with these delicious goodies!