Cookie parties can be easy, fun

Here’s what she had to say about the great cookie swap.

Q: How do you get buy-in from people who have never participated in one? 

A: “You’ll often get push back from people who’ve never been to one before. When you send the invitation, they’re like ‘you want me to come to your house and bring the cookies.’ But once they’re there and see what you are providing, they get really psyched. At one party, I had chili, nice wine and food, and then we had the swap. I had gotten bakery boxes for everybody with pretty ribbon. One of my friends who had really given me a hard time said ‘you know this was just the best party ever.’ She was going home with the big box of cookies. It was great.”

Q: What are some tips for someone having their first cookie party? 

A: “The first thing is to give your guest and yourself enough time. Figure out at least a couple of weeks in advance how many people you want to invite and send out those invitations. You really can’t throw this on them at the spur of the moment.”

Q: How do you figure out how much each person should bake?

"There’s a little bit of math involved in a cookie swap. The first number you have to figure out is how many people you're having. If you’re going to have it at your house, you’ll only want to have as many people as you can fit comfortably at your table. Some people who throw cookie swaps don’t always understand that. They think the more people I invite the more cookies everyone will get, but that’s not how it works.

"The second thing is to figure out how many cookies you want to ask everybody to bring. The number of cookies that your friends arrive with, that’s going to be the same number that they leave with. Say you’re inviting people who want to have cookies around for the holidays. You take a number like four or five dozen that they’re going to need over the week after your swap. Everybody brings that number.

Q: What if someone wants to come who’s not a great baker? 

A: "Most of the recipes in my book are very simple. What I tried to do was come up with recipes that are really simple but still very pleasing to the eye and to the palate – impressive but delightful for the people that are going to be taking them home.

"For the non-baker, there is a chapter that starts out with store-bought cookies. I know this is a no-no in a lot of circles, and you should certainly not go to the supermarket and buy a box of Oreos and say here’s my contribution. But there’s no reason you can’t go to the supermarket and buy some Walker shortbread cookies, which are very high quality store-bought cookies. Dip them in chocolate, sprinkle them some Heath Bar mixed with nuts. They look beautiful and they taste great"

Q: What are some tips for baking ahead of time?

A: "You want to bring cookies that are fresh so you don’t want to bake them a week before you go to the swap and have them be stale.  Then I have people arrive at my parties with cookies that are still warm and they are panting. But there are recipes that you can make partially ahead of time, freeze and bake the day of the swap. I know a woman who was blown away by the idea of freezing unbaked balls of cookie dough. It was like a life-changing piece of advice for her."

Q: What’s a good menu for the host to serve? 

A: “The easiest thing to do is tell everyone to bring six extra cookies. Put them on a platter and those are your party snacks, and you provide the beverages. Another really easy thing to do is provide things like cheese, nuts, olives and serve some Italian wine.

"If you’re having a cookie swap at your house, chances are your dining table is going to be taken up with cookies so there aren’t going to be a lot of places for people to sit. So you want to think, what can people eat while they are standing? I invited some people over recently, and I made a tomato soup and some savory cookies. I served it in mugs so you didn’t even need a spoon."