Dessert Club - Cookies and Bars

 Just 15 months old, and Dessert Club already has some holiday traditions.  Like doing cookies in December - don't we all need some new cookies to try?  Always.  Dessert Club is the perfect test-drive for new recipes, which is especially important for holiday cookies, before you make a triple batch of something you've never tried before.  The spread was amazing and I think we all learned a few things as well.  Here is what we made:

 1.  Mint Chocolate Kisses
2.  Browned Butter Shorties
3.  Chewy Caramel & Coconut Cookies (the winner)
4.  Cashew Caramel Cookies
5.  Toffee Apple Bars
6.  Chai Spice Snickerdoodles
7.  Cinnamon Swirl Cookies
8.  Goat Cheese Brownies with Honey
9.  Hot Chocolate Cookies
10.  Cherry Tart Cookies (mine)
11.  Chocolate Dulce de Leche Bars
12.  Raspberry Lemon Shortbread
13.  Peanut Butter & Chocolate Brownies

Impressive, right?  I loved the variety.  And the reason I'm not posting individual pictures is because a lot of these will get their own posts in the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned. 

Another holiday tradition for Dessert Club, started last year by my Mom, is an annual Dessert Club ornament.  Guess if I had fun hunting down the perfect thing. 

 I meant to give everyone their DC ornament at our meeting but there was so much going on, I forgot!  I was ticked because I put a lot of time into finding them and painting our initials on the bottom. 

 

But everyone lives pretty close so I am hand-delivering them instead.  I got these at World Market; I couldn't decide which I liked better so I got half brown and half pink.  Love Dessert Club!

The final tradition, that we started this year, is a white elephant gadget exchange - everyone brought a kitchen tool/gadget (<$20) wrapped up, then we drew numbers and took turns opening/stealing gifts.  It was an awesome idea, but to be honest, I was disappointed in my own showing as well as some of the results.  There were a lot of duplicates, which isn't anyone's fault; it just means we all like the same things and/or think along the same lines.  I couldn't even count the number of zesters and microplanes.  Next year I plan to think much further outside the box.  Hopefully.  But I was very happy with my results - I scored a set of six tartlet pans made in France, ooh la la!  And the kicker is that "Gadget" is our theme for January - we all have to use what we got in the exchange.  I am already collecting tart recipes to try - twist my arm!