“Who doesn’t love cookies?” Lisa Prolman, the assistant director at the Greenfield Public Library, asked me recently. The question was rhetorical because Prolman knew that my answer would be a resounding “No one!”
Last week, Prolman and her colleague Pamela McBride hosted the library’s second annual cookie exchange via Zoom. A small group of stalwart bakers convened online to discuss their favorite recipes and share tips about baking and giving holiday treats. The event was sponsored by the Friends of the Library.
I was supposed to be present merely as a reporter, but I couldn’t resist opining about topics like the relative advantages of different fats in cookie baking and the difficulties of mailing holiday treats.
In the end, I submitted my own favorite holiday cookie recipe to the library as well. We’re in the season of sharing, after all.
I asked Prolman what prompted the library to launch the cookie exchange last year.
“With the pandemic in full swing and people having to scale back their holiday celebrations, we wanted to see if we could use technology to, if not duplicate, offer something close to what folks might be [accustomed to] participating in,” she said.
“I used to attend a cookie swap at a friend’s home and loved talking with everyone about what they made and why, and we thought, why not do a virtual cookie swap?.
“The cookie swap program went so well, we did another one on comforting soups and stews in January and have done a few others over the past year as well.”
Prolman explained that she sees the cookie swap as a good fit for the overall mission of the library.
“One of the library’s purposes is providing programming for people of all ages,” she noted. “With the closure of our meeting rooms back in 2019, that has been a challenge, but the pandemic kind of surprisingly offered us an opportunity to do programming again with technology.
“We have always offered programs of various types—book discussions, writing groups, story times, lectures—but with technology, we have been able to get back to seeing people ‘face to face.’”
The cookie recipes the group discussed varied widely. A few were relatively healthy, emphasizing fruits and de-emphasizing fats. Several were decadent, typical Christmas cookies. There were also novelty cookies — like the Cool Whip cookies submitted by Francesca Passiglia.
“Trust me, these are delicious,” Passiglia wrote. (She was unable to attend the swap.)
I’m not a big fan of artificial whipped topping or cake mixes, the main ingredients in these treats, but I may try them. I have a feeling that their texture may be something special.
Some of the featured cookies came from family members, like Prolman’s Rugelach; she inherited this recipe from her grandmother. Others were adapted to suit their bakers’ needs. For example, McBride bakes a lot with coconut oil because her husband can’t eat butter.
I came away with a number of fun new recipes to try. Anyone who would like the whole list of recipes may request them by emailing librarian@greenfieldpubliclibrary.org.
Cookie fans are also welcome to come into the library to vote on their own favorite type of cookie, to get a list of cookie books available at local libraries, and to peruse the cookie books on display.
In short, the library is devoted to cookies, particularly in these uncertain times. McBride praised the baking skills of Marianne Snow, one of the cookie-recipe submitters and a Friend of the Library.
“She helped us get through parts of the pandemic with her cookies,” said McBride of Snow.
Here are three of the recipes featured in last week’s virtual cookie exchange. I’ll return next week with another … along with my own family’s favorite cookie.
Carol Foote sent in this basic sugar-cookie recipe and through her photographs showed participants how to combine cookies (with frosting) into a festive holiday tree. Foote used 3-inch, 4-pointed star cookie cutters.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup shortening (Foote likes part butter or margarine.)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions:
Thoroughly mix together the shortening, the sugar, the eggs, and the vanilla. Stir together the flour, the salt, and the baking powder.
Combine the two mixtures, and chill the dough for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured board. Cut it into shapes.
Place the cut dough on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the cookies are a delicate golden color. (Baking time will depend on the thickness and width of your cookies.)
Cool the cookies on a rack; then frost them and (if you want to) arrange them to make a tiered tree.
Foote didn’t specify a yield, but I would estimate that this recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies, more or less, depending on size.
I’m a sucker for a good snickerdoodle — there’s something about this cookie’s pillowlike consistency that speaks to me at a basic level — so I was intrigued by Pamela McBride’s maple version of this classic cookie.
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup softened butter (McBride substitutes a blend of coconut oil and vegetable oil here; I should think all vegetable shortening might also work very well.)
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) maple syrup
1/4 cup maple sugar
1 additional dash cinnamon (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together the flour, the baking powder, the baking soda, and the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1/2 cup of the white sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the maple syrup. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients until just mixed. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1/2 hour.
In a small dish, mix together the remaining sugar and the maple sugar; add a dash of cinnamon if desired. Roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls, and roll each ball in the sugar mixture.
Bake the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets for 8 to 10 minutes. The snickerdoodles should be crackly on top but look slightly wet. Cool them on racks before eating them. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Francesca Passiglia adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com.
Ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 eggs
1 (18.25-ounce) cake mix, any flavor; Passiglia like strawberry but says that lemon and chocolate are good, too.
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheets or line them with parchment paper
Beat together the whipped topping and the eggs. Add the cake mix and the flour and continue to mix. The dough will be thick. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes.
Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls into a bowl of confectioners’ sugar and roll the cookies to coat them. Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. The cookies won’t quite look done, but they will harden up as they sit on cookie sheets and cool down.
Passiglia didn’t note the yield, but according to allrecipes the original recipe served 18.
Tinky Weisblat is the award-winning author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook,” “Pulling Taffy,” and “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb.” Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.