For many, cookies are the official food of December. The tradition of baking cookies during the holidays dates back to the Middle Ages, when gingerbread was said to be the first cookie associated with Christmas. By 1500, the concept of the holiday cookie had become popular throughout Europe. From buttery spritz cookies in Germany to the crisp krumkake wafers in Norway, cookies began to take center-stage at holiday gatherings.
In the early 1600s, Dutch settlers brought cookies to America. The English word “cookie” actually derives from the Dutch “koekje,” meaning “small cake.” Over the next few centuries, as immigrants from all over Europe and elsewhere made their way to the new world, they brought with them their own versions of Christmas cookies. The Italians brought pizzelle (crispy anise-flavored waffle cookies), madeleines (mini, shell-shaped sponge cakes) came from France, and from the Austrians, jam-filled Linzer cookies. As a result, cookie traditions became as diverse as the American population.
Despite these ethnic influences, perhaps the universal American Christmas cookie is the cut-out sugar cookie, decorated with colorful icing, sprinkles, or candies. In the late 1700s, recipes for the sugar “Christmas Cookey” began to appear in American cookbooks. However, today’s cookies are a far cry from the original version, which were simply cut and baked, devoid of any decoration. Modern sugar cookies are almost always covered in icing or sprinkles, and here in Fairfield, some bakers take cookie decorating to a whole new level.
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Fairfield’s Kathy Leverty has been making exquisitely decorated sugar cut-out cookies for friends and family for years, especially around the holidays. Her favorite shapes are traditional Christmas trees and ornaments, decorated in reds and greens. “I love making these because each one can be unique,” she states. However, she also likes to decorate some winter-themed cookies in the trendy color schemes of the season. Last year, she made platters of mitten- and stocking-shaped cookies decorated in blues and browns, which proved to be very popular. Kathy does the baking (“usually while watching something like Dancing with the Stars,” she jokes), but decorating is definitely a family effort. “I’m always admiring how my seven-year-old is so creative and diligent with using the icing…she loves it!”
Alexis Harrison, a life-long Fairfield resident, is also no stranger to baking. Although her family doesn’t have many ethnic holiday recipes, she’s adopted the American classics as tradition in her house. Each year she uses her grandmother’s recipes to make dozens of elaborately decorated gingerbread and sugar cut-out cookies, which she gives as gifts to family and friends. Gingerbread men with little sweaters and coats, and Christmas trees beautifully iced in greens and browns (“very Williams-Sonoma!” she states) are her specialties. When asked why she loves to bake, she explains, “it just makes people happy and creates memories!”
While everyone loves an all-American classic, many area families have strong ethnic traditions at Christmastime. MaryAnn Petrone’s family has lived in Fairfield since the 1930s, when there was a very large Hungarian population, especially in the Holland Hill area. Each year, her family makes kifli (pronounced KEY-flee), which are stuffed cookies that somewhat resemble Italian cannoli. The recipe was brought to the United States from Hungary by MaryAnn’s maternal grandparents. They married during the Depression and couldn’t afford the special fluted, rolling tool needed for the dough. One day, MaryAnn’s grandfather, who worked in a machine shop, surprised his wife with his own version of the tool. “It became a very special piece to my grandmother and is still in our family today,” she adds.
“You learn more in this recipe by observing and trial and error than you do from reading a cookbook,” MaryAnn continues. She’s been watching her grandmother and mother make these holiday cookies since she was a child. She began as the designated “egg washer” and in time graduated to “filler.” Now, that she is an adult, MaryAnn is finally allowed to be a “dough roller,” but her mother still won’t let her make the cookies alone. “I think that she likes the help, the socializing, and talking about the background,” she says of her mother. “However, I learn something new each time we bake. It’s been a great time for the women in the family to bond together.”