It’s Christmas Cookie Exchange Time.. what are you going to make?
Sometimes you have time to make elaborate hand decorated one of a kind cookies for your friends at your annual cookies exchange and sometimes you need something that tastes like a dream but doesn’t take a ton of time… or ingredients… enter this amazing find from my Mom’s old Gooseberry Patch cookbook that I adapted a tiny bit.
First I’m going to give you the recipe and then I’m going to give you what I would change the next time I make it.
Pin this image to your Holiday Cookie Exchange Pinterest Board.
Lemon Cloud Cookies Recipe
- 1 package of lemon cake mix (any kid)
- 1 package of Coolwhip (I like the Original)
- 1 egg
- Zest of 1 lemon – or Lemon Peel / Zest
- 4 Drops of Lemon Young Living Essential Oil
- 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
Directions:
- Thaw Cool Whip in the refrigerator overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Combine all first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. (cake mix, cool whip, egg) This mixture will be sticky. Be sure to combine the ingredients well. If the Cool Whip gets baked by itself it turns into caramelized sugar and ruins the look of the pretty crinkles. (Note: since cake mixes are a bit smaller than they were in my Mom’s day next time I make this I will add a tablespoon of flour to the mixture. This might also help a bit with the stickiness.
- Put the bowl in the refrigerator to chill for 5 minutes (also helps with the stickiness)
- I started with my handy dandy cookie scooper but soon realized the stickiness of the batter made that too hard so I went with the old-fashioned.. two teaspoon method.
- Take a heaping teaspoon of batter and plop it into a small bowl of powdered sugar.. form into a nice ball and coat all sides.
- Place the round cookie on a lined cookie sheet (I like parchment paper) about 12 cookies per cookie sheet is perfect and gives them room to spread out. The powdered sugar makes the neat crinkly pattern on the cookies as they bake.
- Place cookie sheet in 350° oven on the middle shelf bake for 8-12 minutes. Look at 8 … the cookies will seem soft but as long as they have spread and look “crinkly” you are good.. Overcooking cookies is what makes them hard.
- Between each cookie sheet place cookie dough in the refrigerator.
- Remove cookie sheet from the oven and use a spatula to move the cookies on a piece of parchment or waxed paper.
- Arrange on the plate and cover..
- Bring to party and enjoy!
Just because I felt like this big beautiful plate needed some more cookies, I added one of my favorite standby’s…. Jane’s Mock Salted Caramel Toffee – That recipe is here!
Need some more inspiration for your cookie exchange? Check out these fun cookbooks, many of them are free on Amazon.
