I’ve always liked to bake and I tend to do it when I’m at my
most stressed out. The control I exert
over flour and sugar and butter will calm me in ways nothing else can. I don’t know what it is exactly, but there’s
something very Zen about cookie dough.
My Aunt Catherine was a baker as well. At the holidays there were dozens of treats
in her house, many of them traditional Italian cookies. Struffoli, anise drops, and pizzelle were my
favorites and when I was writing my Christmas novella, This Christmas, my heroine Sabrina’s mother, Enza, also infused
their home with Italian Christmas treats.
Over the past few years, I’ve been learning the art behind
some of the Italian cookies my aunt used to bake. First, I bought a pizzelle iron. It took quite a number of batches to get the
temperature and batter consistency correct, but my daughters and I finally did
it. This year I conquered anise cookies.
Next year I think the Struffoli, or honey balls, will be next. Each time something new is brought into my
baking repertoire, I not only feel wonderfully happy, but I feel like I’ve kept
a piece of my heritage, which is becoming diluted as years pass, from slipping
away.
It was important to me to keep these Christmas traditions
alive for myself and for my family. We
have our own traditions, like Christmas Day brunch and cinnamon rolls on
holiday mornings, but I’ve been feeling the need to reconnect with different
parts of my heritage.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older. Maybe it’s because the
people who introduced me to these traditions are no longer around and I want to
keep them with me. Whatever it is,
Christmas has become a little warmer, and less about things, since I started
introducing these treats.
I don’t fully understand it,
but maybe there really is magic in cookie dough.
Jeannie Moon has always been a romantic. When she’s not spinning
tales of her own, Jeannie works as a school librarian, thankful she has a
job that allows her to immerse herself in books and call it work. Married to
her high school sweetheart, Jeannie has three kids, three lovable dogs and
lives in her hometown on Long Island, NY. If she’s more than
ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets
twitchy. Visit Jeannie’s website at www.jeanniemoon.com
4 comments:
I believe there may be magic in those treats, baked with love and steeped in tradition. Thanks for sharing, Jeannie.
Thanks for commenting, my friend. xoxo
I am also trying to add to my baking at Christmas. With my mom and grandma both passed away, I rely heavily on their recipe boxes to teach my teen daughters how to make the sweet treats from my childhood. It helps bring about great memories, both new and old. ingmankidsmom (at) gmail dot com
I love pizzelles!
Denise
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