Orange Kissed Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut and Pecans: 2012 Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Last year, I participated in the 1st Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and it was even more fun than expected. I made one of my holiday favorites Rudolph Noses that proved to be popular with my blog swap partners and readers too. As I ate my last cookie, I couldn't wait for the 2nd annual swap.

I obviously signed up again. But this year, the Food Blogger Cookie Swap got even better because each participant had to donate $4 to the Cookies for Kids Cancer. Also OXO is matching our donations dollar for dollar. They gave us this cute little spatula for participating - love it!

This year, I had a major surprise though. My good ol' Kitchen Aid mixer circa 1989 died literally in the middle of making these cookies! Don't worry, the cookies aren't that hard to make, it had a problem from a little incident a few weeks ago when the front bolt fell into the mixer while I was using it so I knew it was just a matter of time. So, these cookies didn't turn out exactly like they would have normally because my arms just can't cream like a mixer does. But in spite of the set back, they turned out pretty darn good and I got them in the mail on time.

My cookie inspiration came from Orange and Oat Chewies from Real Mom Kitchen. Oatmeal cookies are one of my favorites and I thought the orange would be a perfect addition.

Orange Kissed Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut and Pecans

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups rolled oats
1 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 Tbsp. orange juice
orange zest from 1 orange
2 eggs
1 cup pecans
2/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut
3 T sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, & oats.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Add orange juice, orange zest and eggs and mix well.
Add the flour mixture to orange mixture and mix until blended.
Fold in the pecans, coconut & sprinkles.
Place 2 Tbsp dough per cookie and place 1" apart on a greased cookie sheet. I used a cookie scoop to help keep them uniform in size.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes until edges are golden brown.
Cool cookies on cookie sheet slightly, then move to cooking racks.
Yield: 4 dozen cookies

For this Christmas cookie exchange, I used red, white and green sprinkles but obviously, you can use whatever colors suite you. They aren't the prettiest cookie for the holidays so the sprinkles make them a little more fun.

Plain cookie - delicious but not nearly as much fun!

I also drizzle them with melted caramel or white chocolate sometimes but didn't do so for the exchange because they would be too messy for shipping.

Cookies ready to be shipped!

This year I received these awesome cookies from three lovely bakers:

Chocolate Chip Sugar Kiss Cookies from Big Bear's Wife

Kiss Kringles from The Kid Can Cook

Salted Brown Butter M+M Cookies from Keep it Sweet Desserts.
(Unfortunately I can't find my photo for these so I'll share one from her blog which is so much better than the one I took.)
Check these out!

photo from Keep it Sweet Desserts

And the best part about these is you can order them for yourself if you don't want to bake! The salted brown butter takes these to another level - yum!

As expected, the Food Blogger Cookie Swap was super fun and I loved sampling cookies from all over the country. If you want updates about next year's swap, click here. There will be a recipe roundup on Friday - I'll update this post with that link so you can get ALL the delicious recipes.

You can follow the Cookie Swap on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And a huge thanks to our organizers Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen!!!