Glad to Give: Cookies for Kids’ Cancer

You and your readers can help GLAD meet its goal of exchanging one million cookies this holiday season. We’re looking for a group of Tastemakers to host a Cookies for Kid’s Cancer Bake Sale or Cookie Exchange, blog about their favorite holiday baking recipes, and encourage blog readers to exchange virtual cookies at www.Facebook.com/Glad. GLAD will donate $.10 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each cookie sold, exchanged or given this November and December 2011 – up to $100,000!

Today pediatric cancer is the number one cause of death by disease of children in the U.S., due in large part to the need for funding for research into new and improved therapies. That’s why we’ve selected you to participate in the GLAD Holiday Cookie Exchange.

Hey guys, you don’t have to do a single thing but click on some stuff, and you can help Glad donate lots of money to the cause.  That’s not so bad right?  Also, if you decide to host your own Cookie Exchange, be sure to register it at http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org/ so more money can be donated to this excellent cause! 

As for me – well, you know I’m not a strong baker, BUT I do make chocolate chip cookies fairly frequently.  One year I made literally about 500 cookies to give away, and loved every minute of it! so I’m familiar with making choco chip cookies and don’t feel nervous, which may contribute to me messing up my baking.  So I made the above cookies using a sugar cookie mix (sorry!) from Trader Joe’s, and then the chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from James at the Eaten Path.  This has been my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe for the past two years now, since the first time I tried one of his cookies and just had to make them. 

I discovered on this making, however, that when you accidentally buy self rising flour instead of all purpose, and use 2 cups of it, and bake the dough right away instead of aging it in the fridge as the recipe indicates… well, the cookies will spread very flat and very quickly, and with a baking time of about 12 – 14 minutes, will become very crisp on the edges and toffee-chewy in the centers.  So my first batch was really ugly (they all ran together and became squares), but tasted fabulous.  I love that chewy texture!  Oh, that might also be a result of my refusal to use bourbon and instead doubling the vanilla… yum.  So if you like flat, crisp edged, chewy centered cookies, you may want to try using my mistakes as your basic recipe… 

I’ve participated in bake sales in the past (for Share Our Strength), and I’ve hosted cookie exchanges as well (and we’ll be doing one again this year!).  I think this combines the best of all worlds – baking, cookies, sharing food, a great cause, helping children! – and everyone should take at least a minute to exchange a virtual cookie or 50 and help donate some money to the cause! 

For ease of reading, I will include the adapted recipe below:

adapted from The Eaten Path’s Helpless Home Baker’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
2 cups self rising flour, packed but not sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet cream butter, unsalted (I used Breakstone)
3/8 cup granulated sugar
9/8 cup packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Chocolate morsels to your liking (I don’t like mine to be ALL CHOCOLATE CHIP, with a little dough binding, so I put less than some people might)

Mixing
Use a fork to combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Use that fork to beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a larger, separate bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating mixture slowly until each egg is completely distributed. Gradually add flour, folding it into the mixture. As soon as all of the flour has been mixed in, stir in the morsels and nuts. Be careful not to over-mix the cookie dough.

Baking
Preheat oven to 375° F. Spoon mounds of cookie dough onto a baking sheet using a tablespoon – note that the cookies will spread a bit, so do not use heaping spoonfuls and leave a decent amount of space between cookies. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies start to gain a little color. Cool until cookies firm up a bit – they will be very soft initially.  

Enjoy!!!  And please do let me know if you try the above modified recipe as I never modify baking recipes (and this was entirely accidental!)… and if you do, what you think… and do sign up to exchange virtual cookies to help raise money!!  Thank you!!!

Please note that as a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program, I received baking supplies (including the above pictured Glad container for giving away cookies! maybe the people I’ve given cookies to will speak up and tell us how delicious the cookies are…) and a stipend to cover the cost of cookie ingredients.