It was such a pleasure to make three different cookie gift packages for three fellow food bloggers, and also a pleasure to be included in the The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. In the meantime I was changing my blog theme and opening an Etsy Shop. Well lo and behold, my blog crashed due to an error that was not my fault and beyond my ability to fix. So for the past three days my site has been down and I apologize for that. Thankfully it’s up and running in time to beat the deadline:)
Anyhow, I wanted to make a filled envelope style cookie. I had seen a recipe in an old cookbook of mine similar but wanted to make my own version using a sugar cookie dough instead. Dumb, dumb me forgot to take photos of the filling but anyhow it consisted of chopped figs & raisins, and some dark chocolate. I just lightly decorated the outside/top layer of the cookies with sugar cookie icing.
I wanted the cookies to have an old-fashioned red wax/icing seal, just didn’t have a letter of any sort to impression, but you get the idea. I ran out of filling at 24, so finished up the gift boxes with Christmas shaped sugar cookies, iced and sprinkled. The Love Letter Cookies I individually wrapped incase the receiver wanted to share and give some away as a little gift at work or such.
I wish I would have taken photos of the cookies I received (which were all very delicious), but they just didn’t last long enough:) I do want to give a Thank You shout out to, Rocio @ Rosy Girl Baked Goods, Carrie @ Carrie’s Sweet Life, and Michelle @ Fitness, Food and Whatever Else.
I had decided early on that I wanted to include a handmade apron from the Vintage Hanky Apron pattern from my blog. In the meantime as I was sewing them, I thought, what the heck, I’m gonna open a Etsy shop and sell handmade hanky creations. Funny how the simplest things inspire us and so The Swanky Hanky was born:)
The three aprons shown are the ones I sent out and also what you see packaged in white tissue laying on top my gift box. (Once wrapped, I do not know who got what color, so hope you enjoyed which one you received?)
All in all it was so much fun and if your a food blogger and not signed up for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, then your really missing out on a really special way to physically interact with fellow foodies!
Sign up for notifications about next years Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap HERE, ( I m sure spots will be limited as this years was, so you don’t want to miss out!)
TGFBCS Facebook HERE
So to wrap it up enjoy the recipe, sign up for the Cookie Swap notifications and like them on Facebook and check out my new Etsy shop!
Adapted from Land O' Lakes Butter.
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 cups butter
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 2 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar.
- Add egg, vanilla, and almond extract.
- Add sifted dry ingredients.
- Refrigerate at least an hour to make dough easier to handle.
- Once the dough was cold, I broke off enough to do one envelope and kneaded the dough a bit to warm it up before rolling.
- Roll to about 1/4 inch thick.
- Envelope Template Link
- Cut the dough into envelope shapes from template link provided.
- Place 2 teaspoon of fig/raisin/chocolate filling in the center of cutout.
- Bring sides in until touching. Use a small brush dipped in water and stroke onto where cookie envelope will come together and touch. It will help secure it in place.
- Bring the bottom up and fold down the top, making sure to overlap a bit.
- Place on very lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for approximately 15 minutes, or until slightly turning golden.
- Let cool entirely before icing.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup figs, chopped
- 1/2 cup raisins, chopped
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup boiling water
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/ tablespoon butter
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips (or your preference)
Instructions
- Mix all but chocolate and slowly cook until thick.
- Once thickened, add chocolate chips and finish cooking, just until chocolate is melted.
- You may need to slightly reheat to soften as you fill the cookies.
- Use 2 teaspoon or so per cookie.
Ingredients
- 2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 4 teaspoons milk
- 4 teaspoon corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon flavoring
- food coloring optional
Instructions
- Place sifted powdered sugar in a bowl and and the rest of the ingredients, stirring until smooth. add food coloring to your preference.
- You will wont a pretty thick icing for lining and a thinner consistency for filling, which you can obtain by adding some more corn syrup, in tiny increments.
- Here is a link on basic sugar cookie decorating, Basic Outlining & Flooding Cookies Video
I love this! I will definitely try it- so cute for sack lunches. How big would you say the finished envelope should be?
I didn’t measure but approximately 3×4 inches:)
What a wonderful idea–stuffing cookie envelopes! Brilliant! What lucky ladies who received your cookie packages with a beautiful surprise of your homemade aprons! Great work!
Thank you Veronica. I never even thought of it when I was making them or I would of done this, stuff them with Nutella:)
I got the blue one mary!! I forgot to tell you how good the little sugar cookies were! where did you find such tiny cookie cutters? they were soooo cute. i hope you will post the recipie for them…..
Thanks for letting me know, that’s cool Vickie. You look like a blue type of girl:P The sugar cookie recipe is the same dough I used for the Love Letters:) It was actually the leftover dough.
oh! Yummy! i will try this recipe for sure! I just need to look for some small cutters…..how long did you bake them? 10 mins or so?
I think around 7 minutes or just until they start to lightly brown. They were small like the iced animal cookies you buy in the store. I actually bought the cookie cutters when we lived in Hawaii last year at a thrift store:)