It’s that time of year where people are getting into the festive holiday spirit with nostalgic traditions like setting up the Christmas tree, wrapping presents, and baking lots of sweets, particularly Christmas sugar cookies.
In Leelanau County, classic Christmas sugar cookies are keeping bakers and pastry chefs as busy as ever this holiday season, and are one of the most popular varieties requested in cookie platters. Aside from sugar being the main ingredient and reason why people love the taste, the memories made while baking or decorating them keeps the classic sweet a sought after option time and time again.
“A lot of grandparents will come in who don’t want to bake but want to decorate with the grandkids, so it’s pretty popular that way,” said Rachel Fischer, who is working the front of the house at Chimoski Bakery in Suttons Bay this season. “I like the sugar cookies here because they’re not overly sweet and the (buttercream) frosting isn’t super sweet either, so it’s not like you’re totally sugared out.”
Just last week, Fischer said they had an order come in for seven dozen sugar cookies and three dozen for another, a sign that demand for the beloved soft and chewy cookies aren’t waning or slowing down. Chimoski’s sells other varieties, of course, like thumbprint, peanut butter, gingersnaps, snickerdoodles, and peppermint cookies, just to name a few. If you’re looking for plain sugar cookies to decorate yourself with the kids, they have that ready to sell by the dozen as well.
Brenda Bugai, the sole baker at Sweeties Homemade Baked Goods in Cedar, has been just as busy, if not more, keeping up with incoming holiday cookie orders before Christmas less than two weeks away. She sells her baked goods by weight, so customers are able to mix their orders with whatever they’re looking for. While her most popular requested option is frosted Christmas sugar cookies right now, people also love her Polish Chrusciki “Angel Wings,” lemon and molasses cookies, snowballs, and gluten-free coconut macaroons. Last week, Bugai said she made close to 20 dozen frosted sugar cookies alone, but is still accepting holiday baked good orders up until Dec. 22.
“As it gets closer, from mid-December right up till the holiday, it gets kind of crazy… It’s just me doing it all, and it’s all done in my own home kitchen,” Bugai said. “I used to do a little bit of everything, but now I’m just doing the favorites, and people love cookies and not a lot of people around do homemade cookies anymore. If someone wants an assortment platter of various cookies they’d rather have it out of someone’s kitchen.”
All of Bugai’s baked goods are fresh and made to order, with some varieties like Polish Kolaczki and Paczki made seasonally (unless there’s a special custom order). These orders are more time consuming, but Bugai will make some of the varieties like Chrusciki in large batches to match the high demand in the area.
“I do have one order I have to get ready by the end of December for a party where I’ll be making 200 of those (Kolaczki), as well as 200 Hungarian Kiffles, which is also a pastry type of sweet only they’re filled with nuts — They’re divine,” Bugai said. “Angel wings are always in demand — I spent about nine hours yesterday making a batch… It takes a whole day between making and kneading the dough, rolling it, cutting it, deep frying it, it’s a lot of steps.”
All events Bugai attends, from local craft shows and farmers markets, keeps her busy baking from her Cedar home. She said her loyal customers that discovered her sweets by word of mouth appreciate the fact that she uses quality ingredients and no preservatives in all of her homemade baked goods, including her delectable cookies.
“There are times when I completely sell out and I also do cinnamon twists and I take those to all my shows. People will buy those and freeze them,” Bugai said. “I bake with love and butter. I tweak my recipes to make it my own. I won’t even give my mom my recipes because it’s like ‘if you want my cookies, come and get my cookies.’ All of the recipes are kept secret.”
At 9 Bean Rows, holiday preorder options are abundant and currently being taken. Preorders include their Christmas sugar cookies, which are very popular during the holidays, as well as other sweets like Russian Tea Cakes, mint brownies, chocolate chip pistachio meringues, molasses cookies, and new this year, baklava.
Pastry Chef Lori Oliver said while butter and sugar are the key ingredients of making sugar cookies great, following some of their traditional recipes and improving the ones they have can also ensure the treats are tasty every time. The holiday cookie platters are made up of cookies that are popular and also what’s easiest for staff to produce in large quantities, making it desirable for the customers, but also convenient for the staff and their production schedule.
“We have some pretty staple recipes that we have been making for years now, but every year we try to improve and find better ones,” Oliver said. “We have our sugar cookies that go fast — and our molasses cookies fly off the shelf pretty quickly too — we also have a Russian tea cake, which is a pecan, kind of melt in your mouth powder sugar cookie, and they’re my personal favorite… Our pastry chef is also offering baklava this year. Hers is to die for, it’s the best i’ve ever had, and i’m not just saying that because i work here.”
Perfecting a tasty sugar cookie from scratch means to keep trying recipes and tasting what you have. Oliver said whenever you think your cookie is perfect, that’s when you know you’ve got a good recipe.
“Flavor is subjective and everyone will have their own opinion, but it’s just trial and error until you get it right,” Oliver said. “Sometimes the recipe isn’t going to give you that and you have to tweak things on your own, so eat everything and figure out what you like and don’t like.”
