December Baking
I grew up
in a family of German heritage and cookies were always a big part of our
Christmas celebration. My father’s sister Irma always showed up with big tins
of fancy homemade cookies for everyone—all kinds; my favorites were the iced
cutout cookies and the anise caps—and my mother’s family made cinnamon waffles
using a special waffle iron passed down through the family. When I got out on
my own I kept up the cookie baking tradition, trying out new recipes as I went
along, but still making my aunt’s anise caps and my grandmother’s cinnamon
waffles—which I now make on an electric pizzelle maker since a cousin has the
family waffle iron.
About 20 or so years ago I saw that my church in
White Plains was having bake sales on Sundays in December to raise money for
Heifer International, which struck me as such a worthwhile project that I
started taking a lot of my vacation time in December and added pies, coffee
cake, cranberry-orange bread, Christmas stollen and rolls to the baking list. I
get teased a lot about the “cookie calendar” I have to work out in late
November so I can keep what I’m doing when straight. I’m still doing that, and
I try to make plenty to give away to friends as well. My colleagues at the
library don’t see much of me in December, but they do seem to enjoy my
occasional visits with baked goods in tow.
I have a small collection of cookie cookbooks at
home, but there are some good ones here at the library as well:
The Cookie Party Cookbook by
Cookies For Christmas by
Cookie Craft Christmas by
Biscuiteers Book of Iced Cookies by
Gingerbread Houses: Baking and Building Memories by
The French Cookie Book by Bruce Healy and Paul Bugat
Contributor: Beth Mills, Senior Librarian @ NRPL and one of our favorite December bakers!
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