Penotti Cookie Butter Pennies with Hazelnut Spread

I’m not exactly sure how it started but three times a year (Valentine’s, Halloween and Christmas) I throw a cookie decorating party for Scarlett and a small group of her friends. It began with one family at Christmas and slowly grew to include additional holidays and five families; each taking a turn at hosting. I make a whack of cookie dough, the other moms chip-in by getting the bits and bobs for decorating and we meet up with all the children for an afternoon of baking fun. To be honest, in the beginning, there were tears (“Why does she get to use the rolling pin?”) and battles (“He’s eating all the licorice!”) but now the kids know the drill. We can actually sit around a table, chat and decorate some gorgeously decadent looking cookies. Over the years, I’ve also learned these valuable lessons: 1) life is better if candy is equitable 2) there should always be pre-baked, ready to go cookies in addition to dough that can be rolled, cut and baked 3) never tidy the kitchen in preparation for the “guests” because it’s a waste since the post-party clean up is the stuff of nightmares. (Alert: giveaway below)

This week, I’ve actually been putting the finishing touches on our upcoming holiday decorating afternoon. As usual, I’m planning on using my gingerbread recipe but, this year, I also created a new cookie. I’m calling it the Penotti Penny. When asked by the famous chocolate spread company to create a holiday cookie, it was an easy project for me to tackle. I already had my heart set on creating a thumbprint cookie for the holidays so I knew right away that the brand’s Cookie Notti–a spread containing the original caramelized Belgian Speculoos cookie–would be great mixed right into the batter. I figured the cookie spread would add a rich and creamy quality in the same way peanut butter lends to a cookie’s tenderness. And I wasn’t wrong. Then I couldn’t help but give each penny a twist of the companies famous white and brown striped hazelnut spread, known as Duo Penotti, on top. These thumbprint hybrids have soft centers and crisp edges. But adding the ultra creamy hazelnut spread makes them the perfect holiday treat. I’ll leave it for the kid’s to decide, but I’m thinking these guys could be a new holiday classic.

Penotti is one of the world’s largest premium chocolate spread companies using freshly harvested hazelnuts and sustainable sourced ingredients including cocoa and palm oil as well as organic milk. All their spreads are also free of GMO’s as well as artificial colors, flavours and preservatives. Obviously, none of these fact will matter to the children during our holiday cookie decorating festivities but they matter to me. The only thing that will matter to the kids is whose thumb gets to make the print for the hazelnut spread. (They’ll have nothing to do with the spoon I recommend to do the job in the recipe’s method!) And, really, can you blame them?

Comment below with your favourite holiday cookie recipe for a chance to win a Penotti gift basket with an assortment of delicious spreads including their newest Duo Penotti flavour Cookies and Milk. We will be selecting a random comment on Monday, December 12th. All or selected Penotti products can be found in various grocery stores across Canada including Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Thrifty Foods, Shoppers Drug Mart, London Drugs, Buy Low Market, H.Y. Louie, Co-Op, Walmart and Whole Foods.

This post was sponsored by Penotti but all of the opinions are our own.