The Christmas Food Gift of 2014 is ...

Grinch cookies

Grinch Cookies AND Lump of Coal Cookies!

That's right - I picked two cookie recipes to make and gift to family this year. The Grinch cookies were really cute and clever, but I just couldn't resist the cookies that looked like lumps of coal (but taste like sugar cookies!). I knew there were a few people that I could have a little fun with this holiday season by giving them coal cookies.

The Grinch Cookies were very easy to make, however, I couldn't find heart-shaped sprinkles. I guess Christmas isn't really the season for hearts. You'd probably have better luck finding heart sprinkles during the Valentine's Day season.

So, instead of sprinkles, I used three red mini M&M's to form a heart shape on each cookie. They looked cute, but then I baked them, and well, they weren't really a heart anymore. But I played into it by attaching a tag to each batch of cookies that said, "It might not look like a heart, but when the cookies baked, the hearts grew two sizes, kind of like the Grinch's."

Lump of Coal cookies

The Lump of Coal Cookies were a bit more difficult to make, mainly because the directions were not super awesome. I used the creator's sugar cookie recipe, which was supposed to make about two dozen sugar cookies. HOWEVER, I had enough dough to make FOUR DOZEN sugar cookies, and it was way too much dough for my KitchenAid mixer to handle. If you choose to make these cookies, definitely cut the recipe in half!!

The other problem I had was getting the cookies to turn black. It was super easy to create black food coloring. You basically just mix 10 drops of red food coloring, 10 drops of blue food coloring, and 10 drops of yellow food coloring in a bowl. But I think I added the mixture at the wrong time when mixing the dough. Add it in BEFORE you add the dough.

When I rolled the dough into balls, I had to roll the balls in the black food coloring before placing them on the cookie sheets. My hands were stained black pretty much the whole week.

Do you guys give baked goods as gifts? What's your favorite cookie to make and gift?

You can find more food gift ideas on my Pinterest board The Gift of Food.