As the holiday season swings into high gear, I am hoping that you guys are finding at least a bit of time for wellness and self care. It’s getting to be time, at least in my house, to think about holiday baking. For the record, this is not going to be a post about how to turn your favorite cookie recipe into Paleo/Keto/vegan/gluten free cookies of awesome. There are people in internetland who can do that far better than I ever could. But as I was browsing through my recipes the other day, I came across one in particular that inspired this post.
The recipe in question is a recipe for a type of Italian American cookie. Nope, not pizzelles. Most Italian American families I know have a version of this cookie, but its name and some of the particulars are different family to family. Kind of like Sunday sauce. My dad remembers them fondly from his childhood and his family calls them Knots. My husband’s family calls them Tarellas. Basically, they are a simple sugar cookie shaped into various twists, covered with a glaze and colored sprinkles.
The particular recipe I have is courtesy of my husband’s grandmother, who made these cookies every year at Christmas and in abundance for celebration type occasions. In fact, for our wedding, she actually baked upwards of 20 pounds. These are a no brainer for me to bake this time of year because they are easy, the recipe makes a bunch, they keep well, and there are easy steps to get my son involved.
But as I looked at the recipe, it occurred to me that there are so many deeper reasons to make this cookie. First being creativity. I mentioned that some of the details of how these cookies are made differ from recipe to recipe. They can be shaped several different ways. Always fun to experiment with. They can be flavored differently. Traditionally they are usually vanilla, lemon, or anise. But given that they cookie itself and the glaze can be flavored separately, they sky is really the limit. And of course, sprinkles come in a ridiculous array of shapes, sizes, and colors.
Second, the actual process of making something by hand. So many times in our crazy lives we are searching for the 20 minute meal or the method that will have the least amount of clean up. Holiday cookie time is largely not that time. We get excited for the prospect of making something. And not minding the messes. Because there are memories in the messes.
Third, holiday baking exemplifies the spirit of giving. How many of us gift something that we have created in our own kitchens? I do. Every single year. Coworkers of mine from years past will tell stories about the chocolate chip toffee bars I used to gift. The giving of something we have made ourselves cannot be undersold in good vibes. For both the givers and receivers.
Lastly, and most importantly, holiday baking connects us to each other. Yes, through the act of giving as mentioned above, but in other deeper ways. Baking Christmas cookies always brings up memories of my mom chiding me to stop eating the raw peanut butter cookie dough. The background of that memory usually has my brother playing with his Linkin Logs in the room next door while holiday music blares from our stereo. And my Dad is rolling the butter balls (a.k.a Russian tea cookies or Mexican wedding cakes) in powdered sugar because he was the only one patient enough to do it without breaking them.
Most of us choose our holiday cookies based on those connections to the past. Those butter balls are a mainstay of Christmas for my family and we only make them at Christmas.
And this recipe of mine connects so many. It connects me back to my grandmother and the Knots she used to make for her family long before I was ever around. It connects my husband to generations of his family, every one of whom remembers his Nana and her Tarellas fondly. It brings my husband and I together in our shared heritage. And it is something we will pass down to our son.
I have called them Knots, I have called them Tarellas, but this year I will be calling them my Wellness Cookies. Because the connections that they show and that they have still to bring are many and good for the spirit.
