Church’s cookie walk presents tasty holiday treats by the dozens
By Melissa Elsmo OUT OF MEL’S KITCHEN December 8, 2011 9:32AM
Luke Finn, a younger memeber of the United Luteran Church congregation, puts the finishing touches on gingerbread cookies. | Melissa Elsmo~for Sun-Times Media
Annette’s “Cookie Walk Classic”
Swedish Icebox Cookies
Event founder Annette Finn has been donating these cookies for 21 years.
2 cups butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, well beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups flour
Assorted sprinkles and/or colored sugar
Cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue creaming until light in color. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add flour, beating in a little at a time. Shape the dough into rolls (logs). Roll logs into colored sprinkles or sugars. Wrap in plastic and chill over night.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut dough into thin slices and place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 7-9 minutes.Transfer to racks and cool.
Article Extras
Updated: January 9, 2012 8:34AM
I bake, but only by osmosis.
When sharing the kitchen with a competent baker, I can turn out pies and cakes galore, but if I attempt to bake alone it inevitably ends in disaster. When it comes to transforming butter, sugar, flour and eggs into dreamy sweet confections, I have amassed a horribly embarrassing collection of gritty puddings, fallen cakes, and crumbly brownies.
What can I say? I have a limited skill set.
Sadly, this means my kids’ dreams of platters laden with an impressive assortment of pristine and decadent Christmas cookies remain an annual unrealized ideal. Sure, folks clamor to taste my savory Christmas dinner offerings, but no one wants to eat my Christmas cookies.
I need a cookie intervention. Enter the experts.
Annette Finn, a longtime member of Oak Park’s United Lutheran congregation, purchased an issue of Midwest Living magazine in 1990 that happened to contain an article about hosting a cookie walk. Intrigued by the unique idea, Finn took the magazine to her church and suggested they try hosting one of their own as a church fundraiser. In 1991, United Lutheran volunteers baked thousands of cookies, opened their doors and hosted their very first cookie walk. They sold every cookie they had in less than 20 minutes.
And thus an Oak Park holiday tradition was born.
“I never dreamed it would go on this long,” Finn says 21 years later. United Lutheran Church will host their 21st annual cookie walk Dec. 10.
Company Cookies?
Veteran committee member and perfectionist baker Helen Schmucker insists the cookies are not only delicious, but in many cases cost more to bake than they do to purchase, making them an excellent value for a dollar.
“There isn’t a cookie bakery in this town that can beat what comes out of this place!” Schmucker boasts.
Over the years, Sandy Williams has come a long way. A novice baker when she started volunteering her time, Williams remembers someone insisting that she bake “company cookies” for the walk. Perplexed, she went home, flipped open her cookbooks and tried desperately to find a recipe for “Company Cookies.”
“It never occurred to me that the woman was telling me to bake my very best cookies; cookies I would serve to company!” Williams giggles.
These days Williams is far savvier. These days her Spritz cookies are pretty enough for the most persnickety guests.
“Now I am a cookie engineer; I just crank them out,” Williams says.
United Lutheran’s pastor, the Rev. Jon Dumpys, never imagined cookies would become such a large part of his ministry, but he is more than ready for his fourth cookie walk and eager to produce dozens of complicated Sandbakkels for the crowds of eager patrons headed to his church on the 10th.
He uses his mother’s recipe and the buttery-almond cookies pay homage to United Lutheran’s Norwegian roots. His complicated cookies are a labor of love and even require special tins for baking. Pastor Jon’s Sandbakkels pair perfectly with milk or a cup of coffee and are always among the first cookies to sell out at the walk.
Cookie stories
Besides the crew of nearly 50 home bakers whipping up 30 dozen cookies each, church youth and local Girl Scouts get in on the cookie baking action. Under careful committee supervision (to check for the occasional three-headed gingerbread man), youngsters work in groups to turn pounds of homemade dough into nearly 50 dozen rolled and decorated cookies on the Sunday before the cookie walk.
Every cookie at the United Lutheran Cookie Walk has a story behind it and the combination of these church community efforts result in tables full of gorgeous handmade Christmas cookies. Lucky guests will enjoy a festively decorated environment, live music and extensive raffles as they mix and match their own assortment of holiday cookies for just $12 a box!
And yes, my kids will be happy to know I am planning to be at the front of the cookie walk line on Dec. 10. Their Christmas cookie dreams are going to become a bountiful reality this year because the United Lutheran cookie brigade has taught me that some things are best left to the experts!
Melissa Elsmo is an Oak Park mom, wife and chef/foodie. She speaks regularly about reclaiming the family dinner hour with nutritious meals. Check out her food blog at www.outofmelskitchen.blogspot.com.
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