DISH | The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013 + hazelnut dark chocolate cookies

If you have yet to start your holiday baking, today’s the day to start. Today bloggers from all across North America, and perhaps around the world, share their cookie recipes in the 2013 Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap reveal. 

In its third year, The GFBCS isn’t just about spreading the holiday cheer to fellow bloggers. Participating bloggers raised $13, 778.40 for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a non-profit organization raising funds for paediatric cancer research. It’s amazing how cookies can come to mean something so much more. This is exactly why I joined. Well, that and the three dozen cookies coming my way. 

Each time a new package arrived, I was elated. Besides the fact that I never receive packages, it was always such a surprise what cookie would be found inside. Big thanks go out to Kristy from Gastronomical Sovereignty for her Momma’s Glazed Sugar Cookies, Megan & Susan of Savour Sisters for Cardamom Spice Stars, and Peanut Butter and Onion for Browned Butter Cardamom Sugar Cookies. 

With loads of cookies in the holiday rotation, I really wanted to try something new. Hazelnuts meet amaretti, the crispy on the outside, melt in your mouth traditional Italian almond cookies. Simply a meringue made with ground nuts, these are ridiculously easy but every bit as delicious as those cookies that took you two days to make.  Though they’re great on their own, you really don’t have a choice but to add some dark chocolate to those hazelnuts. Happy baking.