The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap came on my radar last winter when cookie recipes from their inaugural swap started popping up all over the food blogosphere. I thought it was such a cool idea and put my name down right away to be notified when they started organizing for this year’s event. Well, when I got the email in the fall from organizers extraordinaire Lindsay and Julie that registration was starting I was super excited…and then I realized I was living in Spain. (Which is also super exciting, I’m not complaining!) Because they didn’t get enough participants in Spain to organize a swap here, my fantastic mum agreed to be my cookie chef and my fantastic twin agreed to photograph the process. And so my cookie swap dreams were made possible by my wonderful family! I really am one lucky gal.
And their awesomeness continues: the cookies that I will be receiving they are kindly putting in the freezer until I am home for Christmas (soon!), so I look forward to sharing those with them and thanking my fellow cookie swappers.

Aside from this swap being a grand idea from a purely cookie-loving point of view, it also helped a great cause, Cookies for Kids Cancer. Participating in the swap introduced me to some more wonderful Canadian food blogs, too — there are so many talented people out there. A good cause, cookies, food blogs, snail mail, the holidays….thanks mum & TShap for letting me participate by proxy and thank you Lindsay & Julie for organizing this lovely event, I’m already looking forward to next year!

These cookies are melt-in-your-mouth chocolate dreams. My mum has been making these for as long as I can remember; this is her recipe that she adapted from one of Martha Stewart’s magazines back in the day. These are sophisticated little cookies and I remember being pleased as punch when I made them for the first time a few Christmases ago — I left a festive dusting of cocoa powder all over the kitchen when I threw everything into the stand mixer a little too enthusiastically, but that was pretty much my only misstep and they turned out beautifully. (What I am trying to tell you is that it is hard to mess these cookies up.) They are a staple at our home during the holidays (and often year round…), and I hope you enjoy them, too!

The espresso compliments the chocolate in this recipe and isn’t really the dominant flavour. When my brothers and I were younger my mum omitted the coffee grounds to make them a little more ‘kid friendly’ — but I assure you, adults will still gobble the kid-version up. Being a bunch of chocoholics, we added the chocolate chunks, but these will work without them as well — without the chunks they are almost like a chocolate shortbread.

Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Dutch cocoa
2 tablespoon finely ground espresso beans
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
Makes 64 cookies

Note: Recipe can be halved.

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift together flour, cocoa, and espresso beans; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, scraping down sides of bowl three to four times. Mix in chopped chocolate.
Scoop dough using a small cookie/ice cream scoop or roll a tablespoon of dough between the palms of your hand to form a ball. Place on prepared baking sheet. Flatten cookie dough using a fork, gently pressing tines into dough. Bake cookies 8-10 minutes or just until firm to the touch. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Serve cookies as a dessert with vanilla ice cream or with a glass of milk or cafe au lait.