With the holiday season just around the corner, bakers all throughout Lick-Wilmerding High School (LWHS) are sharpening their cookie cutters and polishing their Kitchen AidⓇ stand mixers in preparation for season-long holiday baking bonanzas. While most home bakers’ recipes are closely guarded secrets, some of them have been generous enough to share their deliciously festive recipes with the rest of us!
Molly’s White Christmas Cookies and Christmas Frosting
Molly French, LWHS’s beloved receptionist and administrative assistant, grew up baking and decorating these delectably simplistic cookies with her whole family every year. “Especially in my family, we celebrate everything with a meal,” she said. “[These traditions] are just kind of those things that you hang on to, the memories of stuff that happens in your family every single year.” If you’re feeling adventurous, consider throwing a dinner party to share these with all your friends and family!
For the cookies:
Yield: about eight dozen 2½-inch cookies.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
4 cups sifted flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
Procedure:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350℉. Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar thoroughly. Add eggs, singly, beating well after each addition.
Step 2
Sift flour and spices together. Gradually add to creamed mixture, blending after each addition.
Step 3
Chill.
Step 4
Roll dough, a little at a time, on well-floured surface to ⅛ inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with Christmas cutters.
Step 5
Place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 350℉ for ten to twelve minutes or until lightly browned.
For white frosting:
Ingredients:
1 egg white
⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cup sifted powdered sugar
Optional: gel food coloring
Procedure:
Step 1
Beat all ingredients together in small bowl until foamy.
Step 2
Separate into individual bowls and color as desired.
Nola’s Best Homemade Rugelach
For Nola Kra-Caskey ’26, winter holidays with her family always include baking traditional Jewish cookies known as rugelach, rolled and filled with swirled cherry jam and chocolate chips or apricot jam and chopped walnuts. “It’s always a really fun time to do that with my family… it really brings us together,” she said. Swap these fillings for orange, raisins, or even Nutella for a new spin on these old favorites.
Ingredients:
Dough
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup unsalted butter
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups (sift into the cup and level off) bleached all-purpose flour
Salt to taste
Filling
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ cup golden raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
½ cup apricot preserves
Topping
¼ cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the dough:
Step 1
Soften the cream cheese and butter. In a mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter until blended. Beat in the sugar and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in the flour and the optional salt until incorporated.
Step 2
Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and press it together to form a ball. Divide the dough into 4 portions and cover each with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Filling:
Step 1
In a medium bowl, combine the sugars, cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts and stir with a spatula or fork until well mixed.
Step 2
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit on the counter for about fifteen minutes or until it is malleable enough to roll.
Step 3
Place 2 oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
Step 4
Using a floured rolling pin, on a lightly floured cutting board, roll out each dough portion into a rectangular shape measuring nine by seven inches. Flip it over, remove the bottom sheet of plastic wrap, and dust off any excess flour. Spread the dough evenly with two tablespoons of the apricot preserves. Sprinkle about ½ cup of the raisin-walnut filling over the preserves. Press the filling firmly and evenly over the dough.
Step 5
Use a thin knife, if necessary, to loosen the rectangles from the board. Roll each portion of the dough into a log and then cut into 12 individual pieces. Place the rugelach, seam underneath, about 1 ½ inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Step 6
Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 30 minutes or until firm.
Step 7
Preheat oven to 350℉. For the topping, brush the rugelach with milk. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle the rugelach with it.
Step 8
Bake for eighteen to twenty minutes, or until lightly browned. For even baking, flip the cookie sheets from top row to bottom row and rotate from front to back halfway through the baking period.
Step 13
Once cooked, transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely. These cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the freezer.
Kathleen’s “Mrs. Andy’s Apricot Cookies”
A veteran chef of over 40 years, graduate from Le Cordon Bleu, and LWHS’s Director of Food Services, Kathleen Fazio knows good food. Her favorite holiday recipe is not one one learned in a classroom, but one that originated in the kitchen of her childhood neighbor, Mrs. Andy. “These jam cookies are a delicate pastry… and just so perfect for the holidays and all different times of the year,” Fazio said. These cookies might first appear to be a challenge, but they will wow you with their simplicity and pure perfection. Try making your own apricot jam during the late summer and fall for even more seasonal fun!
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 sticks of butter
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
Apricot jam
Method:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 375℉. Use a pastry cutter to combine flour and butter together as if forming pie dough, then add cottage cheese and roughly pull the dough together.
Step 2
Form into a loose rectangle and wrap airtight. Refrigerate for two hours or overnight.
Step 3
If refrigerated overnight, let dough temper out for 30 minutes before rolling out.
Step 4
Roll out dough thinly and cut into 1½ – 2 inch squares.
Step 5
Spread ¼ to ½ teaspoon of good quality apricot jam in the center of each square, being careful not to overfill.
Step 6
Pinch 2 corners together and fold over in the center over the jam. The dough may need a dab of water to help stick together.
Step 7
Move to parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 375℉ for ten to twelve minutes. Oven temperature can vary broadly, so adjust time and temperature as needed and watch carefully.
Charlotte’s Santa Face Cookies
Charlotte Kennedy ’26 spends her holidays with her extended family as they bake and decorate Santa Claus sugar cookies using a recipe handed down from her grandmother. “We [the cousins] would bake the cookies, then we would decorate them, and then the uncles would come in and try to eat everything,” she said with a laugh. “Baking is a universal thing, something everyone can enjoy together.” Make this recipe with your friends, family, or anyone who wants a tasty and tempting treat!
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 medium egg
½ cup sugar
⅓ cup shortening
⅓ teaspoon baking soda
⅙ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
⅙ teaspoon lemon or almond extract
Method:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350℉. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda.
Step 2
Cream together sugar, shortening, egg, vanilla extract, and lemon or almond extract.
Step 3
Mix together wet and dry ingredients until fully combined.
Step 4
Chill dough, being careful not to let it freeze.
Step 5
Form into rolls and slice into round cookies, then bake on cookie sheets.
Step 6
Bake for ten to twelve minutes, until lightly browned but still soft.
Step 7
Decorate!
Ms. Sebastian’s Holiday Gingersnaps
“I love ginger snaps because my family just loves the aroma when they’re baking,” said Christine Sebastian, executive assistant to LWHS’s Head of School, of her favorite holiday recipe. She loves to see her baked goods enjoyed by both her large family and anyone else who would like a taste. “I love to bring [my baking] in, and then I share it with people. And that, to me, is the best thing,” she said. Her gingersnap recipe is sure to bring an enticing scent to your home and a smile to the face of everyone around you.
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar, divided
¼ cup lightly packed light brown sugar
⅓ cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
½ teaspoon fine salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Method:
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to beat the butter,
3/4 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the
molasses and egg and beat until combined. Add in the salt, baking soda, ginger,
cinnamon, cloves, and flour, and beat until combined.
Step 3
Place the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a shallow dish. Scoop the dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon
balls and roll in the sugar before placing on the baking sheet, leaving plenty of room for
spread. Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are spread and the surface looks crackled.
Step 4
Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool
completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.
Mr. Kleindolph’s Advisory Cookies
While Andrew Kleindolph spends a lot of his time in LWHS’s shops teaching students of all ages how to create intricate speakers and functional lamps, during the holidays he can be found in his kitchen, bent over his classic copy of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. He loves making unique cookies for his advisees and family, most recently sugar cookies in the shape of his name. “I 3D-printed my name and then cut [the cookies] out and brought them to advising,” he said, but even if you don’t have a 3D printer at your fingertips, you can still bake these yummy sugar cookies at home!
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, plus some for greasing the baking sheets
1 cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus some for dusting the work surface
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:
Step 1
Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar together until light; beat in the egg.
Step 2
Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture, adding a little milk at a time as necessary. Stir in the vanilla.
Step 3
Shape the dough into a disk (for rolled cookies) or a log (for sliced cookies), and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or as long as 2 days (or wrap very well, and freeze indefinitely).
Step 4
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the dough disk in half. Lightly flour a work surface and a rolling pin and roll gently until about ½ inch thick, adding flour as necessary and turning the dough to prevent stick-ing. Cut with any cookie cutter. (To slice, simply cut slices from the log, about ½ inch thick.)
Step 5
Bake on lightly greased baking sheets until the edges are lightly brown and the center set, 6 to 10 minutes. Let rest on the sheets for a minute or two before removing with a spatula and cooling on a rack.
Store in a covered container at room temperature for no more than a day or two.
With the help of a little sugar, butter, and eggs, these bakers truly make it the sweetest time of the year here at LWHS! Try these recipes yourself, or with your family and friends, and have a very happy holidays!
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