Gingerbread Shortbread #greatfoodbloggercookieswap2015

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is an event I look forward to every year. It's right up there with Thanksgiving and my annual Cookie Bake. For this event, organized by Julie from The Little Kitchen and Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil, thousands of fellow food bloggers from across the globe, bake and swap cookies through the mail with other food bloggers, all to raise money for Cookies for Kids Cancer, a non-profit organization committed to funding pediatric cancer research.

 

 

 

For this year's cookie swap, I baked Gingerbread Shortbread. Shortbread is always a classic during the holiday season, but gingerbread shortbread is even better! Instead of cutting the shortbread into small shapes, I decided to bake them into wedges! Pretty cute, huh? Now that I think of it, cutting them into actual gingerbread men/women shapes would have been cute too!

 

 

 

My cookies were shipped to Ashley from Couture Palate, Susan from A Less Processed Life and Tracy from Pale Yellow. I hope they enjoyed them!

 

I included some Tazo Sweet Cinnamon Spice Tea to compliment the spices in the cookies. After all, what's shortbread without tea?

 

 

 

In return, I received Southern Molasses Crinkle Cookies from Rachel at A Southern Fairy Tale, Chai Spiced Oatmeal Cookies and Funfetti Biscotti from Mel Bakes Things and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Forty Cakes. All of the cookies I received were super yummy! Thanks Ladies!

 

I have to give a special thanks to Lindsey and Julie. Each year they spend countless hours of their time organizing this event. I personally have a lot of fun baking, packaging and shipping the cookies and waiting to see what I receive in the mail in return. But, at the end of the day, it's not about the cookies, it's all about finding a cure for pediatric cancer.

 

 

 

If you are a food blogger and are interested in participating in the 2016 Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, be sure to sign up to receive notifications about next year's event here. You won't want to miss it!

 

Now onto the recipe for these delicious Gingerbread Shortbread....

Gingerbread Shortbread
Makes 16 cookies
Adapted from BHG

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup cold butter, cut into tablespoon size pieces
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
Turbinado Sugar for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

Combine the flour, sugar and spices in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.

Add the butter and molasses to the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Knead the dough to form a ball. Divide the dough in half and place one ball of dough onto each prepared cookie sheet. Pat into an 8" circle. Using your fingers, create a scallop edge.

Sprinkle each round with turbinado sugar, then prick with the tines of a fork (about every inch or so). If desired, make a heart shape on the top of each wedge using a toothpick or small cookie cutter (just make an indentation, do not cut all the way through the cookie).

Cut each circle into 8 equal wedges leaving the circle intact.

Bake at 325f for 15-18 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown and the center is set.

Remove from the oven and recut the wedges while still warm using a sharp knife.

Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Store tightly covered in an air tight container for up to 3 days.