Christmas Cookies Swap: Brown Sugar Mixed Nuts Cookies

To me, Christmas is a season of giving and sharing. It is a time to connect with old friends and make new ones. It is also to welcome the new year with positivity, love and care. With this day and age, one way to make new friends is to participate in online communities where people of same interest share their passion and interest. I have been lurking in a few google+ food communities and recently I got pretty excited over the Xmas Cookies exchange. I have participated in Cookies Swap with Boston Food Swap when I was on Boston a couple of years ago and I love it very much. I lament that why can't Singapore have something like that. I tried but it is not easy. If you are interested to start a food swap in Singapore with me, please please connect with me. 

As I was saying about the Xmas Cookies exchange on google+ community, I joined and got paired up with someone staying in Singapore too. I was happy to receive my cookies with my swap pal and I started cracking my brain to think of cookies that she would like. As you may have experienced that anxiety makes things worse, I witnessed 2 failed recipes. I wanted to make almond cloud cookies but somehow I think the almond paste I have gotten has different consistency or maybe the eggs I used were humongous. Also, I attempted the coffee kalua cookies and it was also a failure because I replaced the requested shortening to butter... and my piped cookies melted flat. That is me to blame despite knowing that the two has different melting points!

Finally, I picked a butter cookie recipe and made some adjustments to it. 

Recipe (About 25 pieces)
Ingredients:

• 65g Unsalted Butter,softened
• 40g Brown Sugar
• 10g Caster Sugar
• 30g Whole egg, lightly beaten
• 170g All purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste
• 1/4 tsp Salt 
• 80g Mixed nuts, chopped (e.g. Walnuts, almonds, pine nuts)

Steps: 

1. Using a electric mixer, cream the butter with sugar.
2. Add in egg and vanilla paste. 
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt together. 
4. Add into the liquid mixer and mix well. 
5. Remove the cookie dough from mixer.
6. Lay a piece of cellophane sheet on the table, place the dough on top. Shape the dough into rectangle block. 
7. Wrap it with the sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour. 
8. After it is hardened, remove from plastic. Slice the dough into 0.8 cm thick slices. 
9. In a preheated oven of 170 degree celsius, bake the cookies on a cookie sheet for 12 minutes.