Nutcrackle and Cookie Swap

My daughters get together with their high school friends during Christmas break while everyone is home from college.   This year, instead of their usual gift game, they had a cookie swap.  One of the friends is such a "Baker", hee hee, her last name too!  Corny, yes, but I like to joke with her about it.

One chose to make pretzels dipped in white chocolate.  Although it's not a cookie, it's something that everyone likes and is swapable (is that a word?).

The other choice was these nutella cookies called Nutcrackle that she found on Pinterest.  We're expanding our nutella use!

We learned to leave a lot of powdered sugar on as opposed to shaking it off before baking.

We also omitted the hazelnuts themselves.

These were slightly crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  Due to overload on Christmas goodies, I put the leftovers in the freezer to crumble and use in a crust later on.

I should have taken a picture of the platter they brought home from the cookie swap.  There were a couple of cake mix cookies and a cream cheese cupcake thingy with a mini oreo on top that I had to have a taste of.

I thought the idea of the cookie exchange was great.  It eliminated the shopping stress and was an opportunity to try something different.

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