When we think about the cookies of Christmas past, we often think about our own past. Some of us have happy memories of freshly baked sugar cookies with red and green frosting and lots of sprinkles. For others it might be Russian tea cookies or brownies or even baklava depending on how cookies were defined in their homes. On Christmas Eve, in a house with small children, you’ll likely even see cookies left out for Santa.
Cookies are an ancient treat, but the cookies of today have little in common with their distant ancestors. The very first cookies were neither soft nor sweet. In fact, they were popular precisely because they were hard and lasted for weeks without spoiling. Called biscuits, they “have existed for as long as baking is documented…but…were usually not sweet enough to be considered cookies by modern standards.” (source: Wikipedia)
The closest thing to a modern cookie first appeared in the late 14th century when “one could buy little filled wafers on the streets of Paris…Renaissance cookbooks were rich in cookie recipes, and by the 17th Century, cookies were common-place.”
The First Christmas Cookies
Those who would like to take credit for the invention of the Christmas cookie will have to arm wrestle the Germans for it. They believe that Weihnachtsplätzchen, a term that refers specifically to cookies and broadly to holiday treats, encompasses the origin of Christmas baking. The tradition goes back to the monasteries of the middle ages where monks had access to sugar and the spices we now associate with Christmas cookies: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and cardamom.
It’s interesting that the word “cookie” comes from the Dutch word “koeptje” because the Dutch brought the first Christmas cookies to the new world in the 1600s. Four hundred years later we live in a country that can’t imagine Christmas without cookies. In fact, cookies may have become popular at this time of year because, unlike pies and cakes, they can be stored for longer periods of time. Before refrigeration, it was possible for cookies to be baked in advance and kept on hand for visitors or given away as gifts.
Modern Christmas Cookies
In the average American household at the beginning of the 20th century, sugar was a luxury, iceboxes were used to keep food cold, and cooking was done on coal or wood stoves. As the gas range was introduced, cookies became more sophisticated because temperatures could be precisely maintained. Refrigeration allowed for the use of chilled doughs. When the Great Depression of the 1930s ended, buttery, sugary cookies took America by storm.
It was about this time that Great Grandma Irene Grebe began baking and selling her famous butterhorns. In 1941, when we moved into our first commercial bakery, cookies were on the menu. Our hand-decorated buttercream-iced sugar cookies are especially beautiful and have become a Milwaukee tradition during the Christmas season. Present your Christmas guests with a tray of our famous iced, tree-shaped cut out cookies, pecan fingers, and an assortment of our bite-sized holiday cookies. To get some in time for Santa, stop by our Lincoln Avenue bakery. We’re open 5am to 3pm this Christmas Eve.
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