Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking ahead. What are your favorites?

Cookie exchanges are gross. I dump them all in the trash when I get home. I bring iced sugar cookies from a local bakery.

My daughter and I made these this year:
Buckeyes - but we make them as bars instead of rolling and dipping in chocolate
Molasses crinkles
Double chocolate crinkles
Gingerbread meltaways
Snowballs
Kolache
Crème wafers (old Betty Crocker recipe and my mom’s favorite)
Peanut butter blossoms - it’s the one with the Hershey kiss but we switched it up this year to use a dark chocolate Reese thin instead
Caramel bars

I used to make a fruitcake cookie just for my grandfather as he loved fruitcake but he passed away multiple years ago- I would pack all of them up in a huge tin just for him.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone at my exchange loves Alison Roman’s salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread

I made those for a cookie exchange last year and they went over well.

These peppermint brownie cookies are always a hit: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022771-peppermint-brownie-cookies?unlocked_article_code=1.9k8.avN9.SicIVy9OBdqB&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

These were a huge hit
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/spumoni-cookies/#tasty-recipes-154759

Anonymous wrote:
Aren't you bothered by your circle's possibly less-than-hygienic practices?

Cookie exchanges don't sit quite right with me.

No. All my friends are reasonably clean people. Do some have cats and kids? Yes. But I’m not losing sleep over if someone’s kid stuck a finger in dough or a cat jumped on the counter. Everything is going in the oven. Most restaurants have some degree of mice and employees that aren’t perfectly hygienic. It is life.

I usually do chocolate dipped coconut macaroons and thumbprint cookies. There a few people in my circle who have a gluten intolerance and the coconut macaroons are easy to make gluten free.