Chocolate & Butterscotch Chip Cookies

Our house loves cookies, especially around this time of year. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I spotted “The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011” badge on Eat Yourself Skinny blog. I clicked it to find out more and before I knew it I had signed up for one of the largest cookie swaps in the world (over 22,000 cookies baked)!

The rules of the swap were to send a batch of your favorite cookies to 3 other food bloggers. In return, 3 food bloggers would send you a batch of their favorite cookies. For my swap I went to a well-worn favorite: my dad’s chocolate & butterscotch chip cookies.

As you probably know, my Dad is not handy in the kitchen. Well, I take that back. If it’s red and previously mooed, cooking is his specialty. Baking on the other hand is my mom’s area of expertise. So when my dad came home with a co-worker’s recipe for cookies, my mom was the one who baked them.

Twenty years later my family and I are still munching on these chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies. It has developed into a tradition when we’re all together: dad brings the steaks, mom brings the cookies and my sisters and I eat. In fact, I love them so much, I’ll take the gluten stomach ache that follows.

As a part of the swapping rules, I sent these cookies to 3 fabulous bloggers that I’m excited to start following:
- Veronica from Veronica’s Cornucopia
- Hannah from Cooking by the Book
- Lisa from Tequila Cupcakes

After baking and shipping, it was time to wait in anticipation for my 3 batches. And wait I did. In fact, my husband and I got into the habit of waiting by the mailbox at 1:30pm every day.

My first batch arrived from Lauren at Lauren’s Latest. Lets just say it took my husband and I about 3 minutes to consume all of them. They are by far the best sugar cookies I’ve ever tasted.

My second batch came from Christian (check out her blog here). These were a culinary delight of wonderful flavors! The cookies were carrot cake cookies with vanilla bean cream cheese icing (the icing was a GREAT addition). After my stomach ache from the sugar cookies, I tried to refrain myself from eating all the cookies at once and managed to save them for a few days.

My third batch is being eaten by the USPS – just kidding – well kind of! Thanks to overloaded mailmen and uncooperative weather, my cookies are currently being held hostage. Claire from The Realistic Nutritionist was nice enough to email me this and I’m staying hungry in anticipation of them arriving!

Don’t forget to check out their blogs to get the recipes!

A big thank you goes to the organizers of the group Julie from The Little Kitchen and Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil.  Both have fantastic food blogs you should check out!

If you are a food blogger and love cookies, don’t miss this next year! You can sign up for alerts here.   I’ll definitely be participating!

Dad’s Best Ever Chocolate & Butterscotch Chip Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

You will need:
~ 1 1/3 cups half margarine half Crisco
~ 1 cup sugar
~ 1 cup brown sugar, packed
~ 2 eggs
~ 2 tsp vanilla
~ 1 tsp baking soda
~ 1 tsp salt
~ 3 cups all purpose white flour
~ 6 oz butterscotch chips
~ 6 oz chocolate chips
~ ¼ cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large standing mixer, combine margarine, Crisco, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Blend thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, sift together baking soda, salt and flour.

Turn mixer on low and slowly add dry ingredients. Once thoroughly combine (about 2 minutes) let sit for a few minutes.

Add butterscotch, chocolate chips and coconuts. Mix on low for about 30 seconds or until combined. Place dough on a baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Enjoy!