What’s better than an evening at home with friends and cookies? Here are a few photos of our cookie swap, plus the winning recipe…

What a spread. I hosted my first cookie swap 14 years ago, as a sleepy new mom (can you spot baby Toby in the second photo?), then again for the past couple years, and now for the fourth time. It’s always one of my favorite gatherings.

My friend Leah ordered these personalized photo cookies, which made us all laugh. Brooklyn Nine-Nine! The Warriors! Panda Dunks! Potato chips!

My friend Zahra made homemade Oreos.

Dan Pelosi brought his Italian cookies, of course.

We drank wine and egg nog…

And mingled.

A cookie swap isn’t usually a competition, but 14-year-old Toby loves to proclaim himself judge. “I didn’t try all of them,” he admitted to the group this year. “I got full.” But he did taste the lion’s share, and the much-agreed-upon winner was…

These fantastic passion fruit thumbprint cookies, in the pink box, above. They were incredibly delicious — with tart passion fruit and a soft cookie that tasted almost like shortbread.

Writer and amateur baker, Ruby Smith (right, with Erika), was kind enough to email me her recipe the next day:

Passion Fruit Thumbprint Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
2/3 cup (150 grams) sugar
2 egg yolks (room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (you can also add a few drops of almond extract, if you like)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/3 cup (300 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (or thereabouts) passion fruit curd (Passion Fruit curd can be hard to find. I buy it at Kalustyan’s, and you can also order it online. You can use lemon curd, instead; or any kind of jam. I just made them for my family with guava butter that my mom brought back from a trip — delicious.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer), beat the softened butter with the sugar for 2 minutes, or until well combined. Add in the egg yolks, vanilla, and salt and beat until incorporated. Mix in the flour. The dough will be a bit crumbly, but should stick together when pressed.

Roll into balls and use your thumb or the handle of a wooden spoon to make indents in each cookie. Spoon the curd into each cookie. Bake for 11-14 minutes. The cookies are done when they look matte without any wet or shiny spots, but they should still be pretty soft to the touch. They will set more as they cool. Let cool completely and enjoy.

Blurry photo but I still love it 🙂

What about you? Have you ever hosted a cookie party? Or another type of gathering you’d recommend? Always enjoy hearing about get-togethers…

P.S. Last year’s epic cookie swap, and the year before that (how cute is that sweater?).

(Film photos by Erika Veurink.)