It’s been said time and time again, yet it still bears repeating: We really like food here at the Insider. We also really like Christmas. It’s pretty cool to meet and interact with new people, too.
Therefore, we absolutely had to check out Holiday Cookie Madness at the Heights Community Center last week.
And it wasn’t a disappointing trip.
The event, in which people got together to learn how to bake three types of cookies, was put on as part of Concord Parks and Recreation’s senior programming, and it was led by Program Coordinator Kari Inglis. It was open to any seniors who signed up, and a small group of baking enthusiasts showed up ready to get cookie crazy.
This was the first Holiday Cookie Madness event, but hopefully not the last, Inglis said.
Since I had never made cookies from scratch before, I decided to give it a go myself. What’s the worst that could happen, right? I’ve made the ones that come in a roll before, so how hard could it be?
I soon found out the answer: pretty hard.
Now sure, it’s not that hard to pour sugar, egg yolks, flour and other ingredients into a bowl – the mixing is where the challenge comes in.
I started off mixing my sugar cookies by hand using the whisk. I regretted the decision immediately, as the buttery, sugary, floury compound clogged the thing up and turned it into a club.
Luckily there was a power mixer nearby.
Another tricky part was separating the egg yolk from the white. Shirley Blad, who said she’s “pretty familiar” with baking cookies, employed the technique of pouring the contents of the egg from one half of the shell to the other. She held it over a cup so the unwanted egg white would drip neatly into it and not on the table.
This technique didn’t really work for me. For some reason, my egg shells didn’t want to stay together. I may have dropped my whole egg into the cup meant for the white, and Blad may have fished it out for me with her sturdier egg shell half.
Once that fiasco was over with and my mix was made into dough, I rolled it into balls and put them on a baking sheet before Inglis popped them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. They came out shockingly good for my first made-from-scratch cookies.
The second course was crackle top molasses cookies. These cookies called for all kinds of spices – cinnamon, clove, ginger – and, of course, molasses. The sticky syrup made for a slightly messy production, but it was worth it.
These cookies smelled fantastic while they were in the oven. In fact, the aroma was so strong that Parks and Rec Recreation Supervisor Laura Bryant popped in to see what was cooking.
“The whole place can smell them,” she said, and she meant that in a good way.
The last course was raspberry and almond shortbread thumbprints. Although these bad boys sounded delicious, I decided to sit out this round and let the paying customers have at it. (Parks and Rec was nice enough to let me in without paying the $5 for the class – thank you!)
Carol Forbush and Sue Edy did some good work making their thumbprints nice and deep to accommodate plenty of the raspberry filling. Forbush had such a good time that she even had an idea for the next time – if there is one.
“We should do meringues,” she suggested.
Inglis said she’d keep it in mind.
In the end, everyone left with three hefty batches of cookies, perfect for Christmas parties or just anytime eating.
I brought my batch into the newsroom – which has seen its fair share of cookies lately – and people actually enjoyed them. Who knew?
Now this Insider can add cookie baker to his ever-expanding resume.
