Winning Holiday Cookies

By Carolyn Malcoun, November/December 2009

We tested and tasted hundreds of cookies to find 6 winners worthy of passing down through the generations

2009 Cookie Contest Finalists:
Double Nut & Date Tassies
Orange Spice Molasses Cookies
Almond Cherry Bites
Chocolate Coconut Meringues
Fig ’n’ Flax Thumbprint Cookies
Double Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chewies

Shyla Huber, who is our youngest finalist at age 21, grew up in a family who gave cookies as gifts. “The cookie-baking tradition started with my grandmother, who sent out holiday boxes of canned and baked goods to friends and extended family as Christmas gifts,” she remembers. Her Orange Spice Molasses Cookies, fragrant with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and allspice, are a delicious addition to your holiday cookie tin.

And Amy Knapper, creator of Fig ’n’ Flax Thumbprint Cookies, spent many days baking with her family. “My mom would use baking and the skill of following a recipe to teach us things like counting and fractions,” she said. We think her cookie is a great one to bake with little ones, who can help make thumbprints in the dough. When you try this year’s winning cookies you may just decide to start a baking tradition in your own family.