Merry Christmas Eve. =) Christmas is a time for family, gifts, food and of course…cookies! Every year, Bramble Berry celebrates something we like to call “Cookiepalooza.” Everybody who wants to participate bakes (or buys) their favorite cookie recipe. All the cookies are placed on a large table, and then it’s time to feast. Everybody helps themselves to the wide variety of cookies and enjoys a sugar buzz. This year we celebrated Cookiepalooza on a Friday, so everybody started off their weekend with on a sugar high!
One of my favorite cookies from this year’s event (or any year) were these Star Wars cookies. Made by Ed, who works in the warehouse, and his wife, these cookies taste as good as they look. I was especially impressed with the detail on the R2-D2 cookies. The little red candies were a great touch.
Just look at all those sweets! In addition to cookies, employees also brought candied pecans, candy and breakfast danishes. Anything full of sugar is welcome at Cookiepalooza. =)
Kelsey, who monitors our Facebook page and more, made these cute and yummy Hershey’s Kiss cookies. She mixed in candy canes for a little mint flavor. They also made them look really festive.
Below, myself, Haley and Kelsey load up our boxes with cookies. Haley’s idea of buying takeout boxes worked great! They made for midnight snacking at home really easy.
On the bottom left, you can see Carla’s full box of cookies. Yum! The cute swirl cookies on the right were made by our awesome accountant Shon and the festive snowflake and Christmas tree cookies were made by Rachel in customer service.
These Salted Caramel Butter Bars may have been the most loved cookie of the year. These delicious bars were made by Terah in customer service, and they were a wonderful combination of flaky dough and chewy caramel. You can find the recipe Terah used here. I definitely recommend trying them, they were amazing!
Below, Austin fills a glass of milk to wash down the cookies. In the background, checkout Terah’s adorable sweater! It was covered in sequins and even made noise.
More Star Wars cookies! How cute are the little Yoda cookies? The Bramble Berry team is creative in so many ways. I’m always impressed!
Below, Tina, Bentli, Dakota and Austin full up their boxes full of sugary morsels. We had so many cookies this year that there was plenty leftover. We have been finishing them up this week.
I always like to try a cookie recipe that’s a little unusual. Last year I made a cheesy “cookie” recipe (find it here), and the year before that I made Brown Butter & Basil Shortbread (find the recipe here). This year, I couldn’t decide between making more cheese cookies or making these Cornmeal, Black Pepper, Orange Zest and Rosemary Shortbread cookies. So I ended up making both! Below is the recipe from Edible Finger Lakes. These cookies are super unique with a great texture. I highly recommend!
Recipe from Edible Finger Lakes
2½ cups local unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup local finely ground cornmeal
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1½ cups local unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar (or ¾ cup Grade A maple syrup)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
Whole black peppercorns
Demerara or Turbinado Sugar Crystals
In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, cornmeal and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar (or syrup). Mix in the vanilla extract, orange zest, black pepper and rosemary. Add the flour mixture and blend on very slow speed, just until a ball forms. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Flour a clean surface and, with a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to ½-inch thickness. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to press out shapes. Gently place cookies 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper. Keep rolling out the dough and cutting cookies until all the dough is used. Coarsely grind black peppercorns over each cookie and then sprinkle each cookie with clear sprinkles. Bake cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan at the halfway point to ensure even browning. Let cool on a wire rack before serving.
What is your favorite cookie recipe? I would love to hear it. I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas Eve!
That looks so fun and super yummy! I have the best sugar cookie recipe I will have to dig it up for you! It makes the cookies so big and fluffy. I think it’s supposed to resemble the pink sugar cookies that are in vending machines and convenient stores. But 10x better! I will have to message it though it’s my Moms secret recipe. I usually make them for Valentines day so I need to call and get it from my Mom again…😅 They will be a huge hit if you decide to try it out! Merry Christmas Bramble Berry team! And Anne-Marie you are all so awesome!
YES! I would love to see your sugar cookie recipe. Please share =) The pink sugar cookies are delicious. Back in the day, I used to eat them all the time. Now, my metabolism has caught up with me so those days are behind me =) It’s a good excuse for you to call your Mom and, if you share it, I promise not to blog it for the world to see. Merry Christmas!
Oh my… all these cookies look great. You all put so much love and energy in these.
I am going to try Terah’s recipe…
Terah’s shortbread brownies with caramel were crazy delicious amazing. Definitely worth it. Try them! =) Our team is amazing with their creativity and love they put into each and every cookie.
Wow, Ed, I am impressed with the Star Wars cookies! It’s crazy to me how one movie can be so popular that it made its way onto a soap blog! I just saw the movie a couple nights ago, hehe.
OMGosh, Terah, those look DIVINE, I am gonna have to try that recipe!! Thanks for the link. Those peanut-butter chocolate balls are making my mouth water, too.
Anne-Marie, I love how you try to come up with unique recipes. Our family did a cookie “Chopped” cook-off this year for Christmas. If you’ve ever seen the TV show Chopped, the competing chefs have to create meal courses with unusual ingredients. We did a spin-off of this in our family. Each person had to make a cookie using an unusual ingredient that you randomly picked out of a bag, such as potato chips, black beans, root beer, or beef jerky. It certainly made for a unique cookie tasting experience, and was a lot of fun!
I love the behind-the-scenes posts on the blog, where I get to see all the faces behind the Bramble Berry company. All the Bramble Berry staff seem to be more like good friends than coworkers. 🙂 What an awesome place to work!
Have a very Merry Christmas all you BB people!!
That is GENIUS! I love your Chopped Cookie Bake-Off. I totally want to do that next year. In fact, I wonder if I can convince my family … Hmmmm…. =)
Terah’s shortbread bars were the best thing on the table, followed closely by the Cornmeal deliciousness Shortbread. I hope you try them.
I think Bramble Berry is a pretty awesome place to work too. I love my job; every day is new and different and we have quite an amazing crew to interact with and laugh with daily. I feel so blessed and lucky. I hit the jackpot with this team! =)
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Yes, the chopped cookie bake-off was a lot of fun! You should definitely try it. I really want to try Terah’s recipe!
Have a happy new year!!
I totally suggested it to my folks and they (rightly) pointed out that until our kids are older, it’s basically a bake off for the adults since the 1 and 2 year old wouldn’t get a whole lot out of it. But it’s on my list for next year for sure! =)
Keep me posted if you try Terah’s recipe; it’s a winner for sure.