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Thursday, December 2, 2010

THE PITTSBURGH CHRISTMAS COOKIE TABLE

Heinz Ketchup. Mister Rogers. The Carnegie Libraries. These are just a few of Pittsburgh's great innovations. Equal to any of them is the Cookie Table.
You'll find a Cookie Table at nearly every Pittsburgh wedding--a proflitude of shapes, flavors, and textures. Relatives and friends compete to bring the best cookie. Wise old women hide carry-out containers in their handbags so they can take cookies home. My niece's wedding album has more photos of the Cookie Table than of the cake (the lower-case "c" for the cake is intentional).
Pittsburgh Christmases often involve a smaller (but no less elaborate and varied) version of the Cookie Table. Every year, my sisters and I return to Route 19 on December 25, bearing as many cookies as our roll-aboards can stow.
This year, I'll share my Cookie Table on this blog, as I bake.
The earliest batches must freeze well and store compactly, so I always start with bars and sturdies.
That's what Marilla kept in the pantry at Green Gables, too. For Anne's memorable tea-party, Marilla allowed her to "cut some fruit-cake and have some of the cookies and snaps."
So yesterday I set dried fruit to steep in brandy for fruit-cake bars. And I made a double batch of

JUDY'S GINGERS

I have two dear friends named Judy. One writes on this blog; the other copied this recipe out for me from her vintage Milwaukee Settlement Cookbook. The original recipe doesn't use allspice or nutmeg, and it calls for shortening. I use butter, so my cookies spread flatter and carry a subtle caramel smoothness alongside the "snap."

  • ¾ cup unsalted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup dark molasses
  • 2 cups sifted flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 generous pinch allspice
  • 1 tiny pinch nutmeg
  • Extra sugar for dipping
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and molasses. Combine the dry ingredients and stir in. Chill. Form walnut-sized balls and roll them in the extra sugar. Bake 2" apart on greased, light-colored sheets at 350 for 10-12 minutes. (Dark sheets bake cookies faster.) Remove after cookies collapse and start to wrinkle, but before they brown on the bottom. Cool on sheet for 2 minutes before removing to rack. Store airtight in freezer, or in tins. Makes about 5 dozen.

LIFE'S LESSONS LEARNED: When chilling dough, I use snap-top containers, and bag the containers in plastic. Fussy, perhaps. But tuna-garlic infused cookies don't "go" in my fambly.

3 comments:

  1. Yum, Susan. My family loves ginger snaps too, so these will be added to our holiday Christmas table.

    I'd never heard of the Wedding Cookie Table until I moved to Pittsburgh 20-some years ago - but now it's my favorite wedding tradition of all. I've already told my gluten-free daughter she can do everything for her wedding her way when the time comes - except there WILL be a cookie table (with plenty of tasty gluten-free ones for her - I keep finding good GF cookie recipes). Thanks for this recipe, and I'm looking forward to the others.

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  2. To cookie recipe sound great, Susan. To me, the Christmas holidays would not be complete unless I've baked a cookie to share or eat. (No rhyme intended.)

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  3. Upon moving to Pittsburgh I immediately fell in love with the cookie table. Thanks for another recipe to add to my collection!

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