When my mother had an antique shop in Shelburne Falls, the Merry Lion, she and I loved what was then-called Moonlight Madness (now operating under the gentler name Moonlight Magic), the festive evening of the Friday after Thanksgiving.
We decorated the shop for Christmas that afternoon and then greeted people strolling through the village. We never sold very much that night, but we enjoyed being part of the larger Shelburne Falls community. I always made cookies to give out, just for fun.
I wasn’t the only one baking cookies. For a quarter of a century now, members of the Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club have set up the Cookie Shop at Moonlight Magic in the Village Information Center on Bridge Street.
Customers have the option of purchasing decorated containers with an assortment of cookies or just an individual cookie to nosh on, perhaps with some cider. The funds raised help support scholarships for local students.
This year, in honor of the Cookie Shop’s 25th anniversary and the club’s centenary, shoppers will have something new to buy: the beautiful, all-color “Centennial Cookie Book.”
The book highlights members’ favorite cookie recipes, some of them dating back nearly a century to a cookbook the club published in 1928.
The book was put together by a stellar team: photographer Amy Crosby (the daughter of club member Regina Purinton), graphic designer Sarah Jarman and artist Christin Couture.
I asked Christin how the book came together.
She explained that the images were generated at last year’s Cookie Shop, where Amy and Sarah “worked together staging and photographing an assortment of cookies … before Moonlight Magic.”
“Lucky for us that Leslie Taylor brought a wide variety of her delicious and photogenic cookies,” she said. “Using Amy’s gorgeous cookie ‘portrait’ photos as a guide, we solicited recipes from the members who baked them.
“Sarah arranged recipes and photos on the pages, adding colorful, warm elements such as a red checkered tablecloth and a vintage cookie jar, and even cookie recipe pages from the original 1928 cookbook.
“I wrote the text and collaborated on the cover and overall design,” she continued. “Keeping in mind the centennial theme, we noted that the club colors are lavender and white, and the club flower is the purple aster. Sarah and I had the best time working together on this project and are delighted by the results!”
I asked Christin the obvious question: Why a cookie book?
“Looking ahead to the centennial year 2025, our program group brainstormed some kind of special object besides offering public programs and having a Centennial Gala in May,” she recalled.
“We thought a cookie book would be the perfect thing — as a fundraiser, gift, tribute to the history of club women baking to raise funds for a good cause, etc.
“We also felt that a cookie, as object and symbol, offered pleasure and solace during rough times such as these.”
The book isn’t huge, but it’s stunningly illustrated and laid out. I wish I could afford Crosby to illustrate my next book! The book is reasonably priced at $10.
The book — and the cookies — will be available for purchase at the Village Information Center on the evening of Moonlight Magic, Friday, Nov. 28 from 4 to 9 p.m.
After that, it will be sold at Nancy Dole Books and Ephemera on State Street on the Buckland Side of Shelburne Falls (coincidentally, right where my mother’s antique shop was located; she was pleased when Nancy took over the space). It will also be available at Raven Used Books on Conway Street.
I asked Kay Berenson, the co-chair of the Cookie Shop, what the atmosphere is like each November when it pops up.
She replied that if she had to choose one word, it would be “heartwarming.”
According to Kay, since the Cookie Shop been continuing for 25 years, multiple generations of families show up. “We have a lot of mini-reunions going on,” she said with a smile.
She noted that strangers as well as regulars often stop in, charmed by the picturesque nature of the village on that special evening.
“A couple of years ago,” she laughed, “someone came in and asked if the snow was real. They said the whole town might have been a Hallmark movie.”
Not surprisingly, the Women’s Club is looking for help with the giant undertaking the Cookie Shop represents. Tasks include baking cookies, assembling tins of cookies, and of course working at Moonlight Magic.
To volunteer or to obtain more information, email sfmawomensclub@gmail.com or call or text Kay Berenson at 413-240-8058.
When I asked which cookie recipe I should highlight here, Christin Couture suggested the molasses-spice cookies from Leslie Taylor — partly because they are a quintessential holiday cookie and partly because Leslie is, according to Christin, the club’s “baking superstar.”
Happy Moonlight Magic … and happy cookie-eating.
Leslie Taylor’s Molasses-Spice Cookies
Leslie notes in the book that she adapted this recipe from one her mother started using more than half a century ago.
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
your favorite royal or sugar-cookie icing
Instructions:
In a large bowl, mix together the butter, the sugar, the egg, the vanilla, the molasses, and the lemon peel.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and the spices.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and then add the nuts.
Chill the dough for at least 2 hours. Then pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
On a well floured board, roll the dough out until it is 1/4-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to make shapes. (Leslie used a star and a Christmas tree.)
Bake the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes, or until no imprint remains when you lightly touch them with a finger.
Cool the cookies completely; then pipe a squiggle of icing on them or edge them with green dots inlaid with candy pearls. Let the icing set before storing the cookies in a tin.
The recipe doesn’t specify a yield, but I imagine it would make 4 dozen cookies, more or less, depending on size.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning food writer and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.