Baking spirits bright
A dash of family and countless cups of love go into these recipes from Chronicle readers
Each year when we ask readers to share their favorite holiday cookie recipes, we get more than just a format for sweet treats.
This season, for example, we learned that Bessilyn Piazza’s sand tart cookies — her late mother’s recipe — were so good an astronaut asked they be sent up to the International Space Station on the next shuttle. That Olivia Wall’s mother, Rowena Compton, whose memory had faded in old age, was determined to make her cinnamon fingers even when she accidentally used Metamucil instead of ground spice. And that Christine Hawthorne’s molasses cookies, a recipe that has been in her family for more than 65 years, were baked for brothers serving in Vietnam.
Recipes came from men and women, old and young — shout-out to sixth-grader Sarah Lack — from cookbook authors, from a clown (hello, Joe Horton of Houston’s Cheerful Clown Alley) and from Houstonians who trace their family lines to Poland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden, France, Israel and Russia.
We thank the many who shared their beloved holiday cookie recipes. We pored over each one, tested recipes and settled on these to share with you. Our favorite, Mega Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies, submitted by Nina Morgan of Fulshear, at first tested our patience in the kitchen. We didn’t give up, though, and it ultimately prevailed as everyone’s top pick for its crunchychewy texture and overwhelming holiday flavor.
Which goes to show: You can’t judge a Christmas cookie by its cover. After all, oftentimes a cookie’s most important facets aren’t written on any recipe.
It’s invested with tradition and family remembrances, studded with once-a-year joys that last a lifetime.