Her third-place cookie combines two favorites
Marianne Baseheart of Milwaukee, a regular in the Holiday Cookie Contest, is proof that experience counts. Her contest cookies were chosen for publication (but didn’t place) at least three times before she took third place overall last year and also had a runner-up cookie. This year, she placed third again with her Gingerbread-Vanilla Duo cookies, which won the Gingerbread-Inspired category.
Question: Tell me how you came up with your winning cookie.
Answer: I love both gingersnaps and snickerdoodles. To combine the two could only make life better! My daughter Marissa suggested I use the orange and ginger to complement the flavors.
Q: What do you think makes it so special?
A: The “bite” of the ginger in one and the cream of tartar in the other really work together. For me, the aroma of ginger, oranges and pecans brings back pleasant memories of Christmas as a child.
Q: Is there any trick to making it?
A: As far as temperature, know your oven. I always use flat aluminum insulated cookie sheets. Lining with foil or parchment paper cuts down on breakage, especially with delicate shortbreads.
Q: Do you do a lot of baking? What are your specialties?
A: Yes I do. My specialties/favorites are shortbread cookies. Also any cookie that allows me to use my homemade raspberry rhubarb jam!
Q: Who taught you to bake/or, how did you learn?
A: My German grandmother, and my mother as well, were amazing bakers.
Although most of their creations were a pinch of this and a handful of that, I did learn the subtle little tricks, like not overworking the dough, folding in, and most of the things cooks did before the KitchenAid mixer. My sister Linda and I would delight in spending the days before Christmas decorating sugar cookies.
I still have some cookie cutters dating back to the ’50s.
Q: How many kinds of cookies do you make at the holidays, and do you keep them for parties and family gatherings, do you give them as gifts — or both?
A: I make about 14 different kinds. Our four children, including their spouses, each have their favorites. And I make them all.
Every year I send cookies to older relatives who don’t bake anymore but love cookies. Making cookies for people who are going through a loss or an illness brings me joy.
Q: Do you enter a lot of recipe/ cooking contests?
A: This is actually the only one I have entered.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
A: I have two amazing granddaughters, Annie, 1, and Aoife, 9 months. I can’t wait to decorate cookies with them for many Christmases to come!