Cookies for a Cause

Gingerbread, Snickerdoodle, Apricot Rugalach, Chocolate Krinkle, Snowball, Hershey Kiss, Peanut Butter, Holly Cluster, Ginger-lemon pinwheel, Peppermint Candy Cane, Jam Thumbprint, Russian Tea Cake, Christmas Sugar, the list goes on.

The YWCA's on Tuesday evening saw 50 local women serve up 49 different varieties of holiday treats and a total of 1,836 cookies. But these cookies weren't for eating. The event was held as a means to focus awareness on the broadening role the Y hopes to play in the community.

"That includes beginning preparations for a luncheon in the spring to celebrate 'Women of Distinction in Fairfield County'," said Director of Communications Amy Webster Kiser.

Each participant brought along three dozen holiday cookies to share and swap at YWCA volunteer Heather Curran's Darien home. Cookie swappers also made monetary donations to help fund the YWCA's broad range of programs that help further the organization's mission to empower women and eradicate racism.

"New Directions" is one such program that helps women achieve economic self-sufficiency following separation, divorce, disability or widowhood. "Better Beginnings," a bilingual program, helps women overcome language, economic and cultural barriers to access prenatal care.

"These women from Darien and surrounding towns have low self esteem, no sense of self worth. We let them know we're going to work with them to make them confident in their choices and able to raise healthy families," said Executive Director Maija Judelson.

In addition, the Y also offers child enrichment programs and social programs like the Newcomers Club.

That's how cookie-swap hostess Curran, a mother of three who moved to Darien two years ago from the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, got involved.

"It gave me an instant connection to the community," Curran said. "You can move here, put yourself out a bit and get in the groove."

And what better way to strike up conversation and meet new friends than to share cookies and recipes?

Here's a few of the holiday-cookie recipes YWCA women shared with Darien Patch:

Apricot Rugalach: A flaky, buttery confection filled with apricot preserves and walnuts and spiced with cinnamon.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups chopped walnuts
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup butter, melted

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

1.  In large bowl, combine 1 cup of softened butter and cream cheese; beat at medium speed until smooth. Gradually stir in flour until stiff dough forms. Knead in any remaining flour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
3. In small bowl, combine all filling ingredients except butter; mix well. Set aside.
4. In another small bowl, combine topping ingredients.
5. On lightly floured surface, roll out 1/4 of dough at a time to approximate 11 x 8 inch rectangle. Brush each rectangle with the melted butter.
6. Place 1/4 filling mixture along the long side of each rectangle. Starting with the long side off the rectangle, roll up each rectangle into a log.
7. Seam side down, sprinkle the topping ingredients on the top of the log.
8. Cut each loaf with a knife, creating 10 to 12 cookies.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 14 to 16 minutes until light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets

Chocolate Krinkle: a sinfully delicious yet healthy twist on a chocolate cookie that uses vegetable oil instead of butter.

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sifted confectioners sugar

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed cream the sugar and oil. Add cocoa powder and mix at low speed until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla extract, and beat until well combined.
2. On a piece of parchment paper sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add sifted dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and mix at low speed until well combined. Cover the soft dough with plastic wrap and chill for six hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.
5. Roll the dough into one-inch balls; roll each in confectioners sugar and arrange balls one inch apart on the cookie sheets.
6. Bake for 12 or 14 minutes, or until the cookies have puffed up slightly. Let the cookies cook in the pans for five minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Snowballs: seriously sweet balls of winter white, flaked coconut encasing a chocolate-y surprise.

Ingredients:
2 cups sweetened flaked coconut (4 oz.)
1 cup finely grated unsweetened coconut (3 oz.)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 large egg whites
2 tsp. water
Fine quality bittersweet chocolate chips (2 per cookie)
Confectioners sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Pulse sweetened and unsweetened coconut, granulated sugar and salt together in a food processor until flaked coconut is finely chopped.
3. Add egg whites and water and pulse until mixture is moistened together when squeezed.
4. Roll about a tablespoon of coconut mixture into balls with wet hands (you'll need to rinse your hands quite often).
5. Make an indentation in center of each ball and insert 2 chocolate chips, then pinch hole closed and re-roll into a ball.
6. Arrange balls one inch apart on a parchment-lined large baking sheet.
7. Bake macaroons at 350 degrees in middle of oven until bottoms are golden and balls are puffed but still white (about 13-15 minutes). Slide cookies on parchment to rack to cool completely, then peel off paper.
8. Dust macaroons lightly with confectioners sugar just before serving.

If you have your own favorite holiday-cookie recipe that you'd like to add to our coverage, you can upload it right here in the comment box; or forward your recipe along to our editor at cecelia@patch.com, and we'll post them on the site for the community to share!