c is for “cookie table”
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my buddy Frank is getting married. The wedding is now just a few days away, which meant that it was time to bake.
Weddings in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania in general have a pretty rad tradition: the cookie table. The cookie table is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a table piled high with cookies. The New York Times wrote about it, which officially makes it Serious Business. Traditionally, the cookies are made by friends and family members, though sometimes this task is outsourced to a bakery. Frank had asked me some time ago if I would be willing to contribute to the cookie table. I was honored and put myself down for about 30 dozen cookies.
Now, I could have done all of this baking myself, but I would have had to have started a while ago just to manage that much output from my tiny kitchen, so I was worried about freezing cookies for that long and having them taste not that swell. So, I got the idea to recruit my baking partner-in-crime, Mary, for an epic baking session much closer to the wedding.
Friday evening, Mary picked me up from work and we stopped at my house to grab my Kitchen Aid and some baking tools before heading to Costco to get our ingredients. Saturday morning, we woke up early and got right to work.
Behold…The Butter
We spent the next 8 hours churning out batch after batch, stopping only for quick bites to eat and sips of water. It was an extremely efficient operation.
The whole house smelled absolutely HEAVENLY. We had a really hard time containing ourselves in the midst of so much deliciousness.
Drool
When it was all said and done, we made somewhere in the neighborhood of 375 cookies: Mexican Chocolate Cookies, Chai Butter Cookies, and Snickerdoodles. We were going to make Pomegranate Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies, but in planning the recipes, I totally forgot that late September isn’t yet pomegranate time. So we replaced those with Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and experimented with a small batch of Salted Dulce de Leche Cookies just to see how hard or easy they were to make. (Verdict: making the dulce de leche is a little tricky, but the results are so delicious that I don’t even care.) On Friday, I’m taking the day off of work to go to the dentist and to finish baking some of the other cookies that I felt were too delicate to freeze, namely the Salted Dulce de Leche Cookies and Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing.
It didn’t hurt that the weather was pitch-perfect autumn weather…perfect for baking. I’ve really missed baking over the summer and can’t wait to do more of it.
All bagged up and ready to go.
September 27th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Awesomesauce. And thanks for linking to the recipes!
September 28th, 2010 at 11:56 am
@Andrea, no problem! Mary will have to provide us with the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I’m not sure where it’s from, though I’m sure you can find plenty of variations all over the place.
September 27th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
FUCK YEAH COOKIES.
I will epic bake with you any time. 🙂
September 28th, 2010 at 11:56 am
@Mary, DEAL
September 27th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
what an awesome idea!
i’ve also made snickerdoodles and chai butter cookies before… SO good.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:57 am
@elle, the chai butter cookies might be my new favorite.
September 27th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude you are Western Pennsylvania hardcore for voluntarily signing up to help stock a cookie table. Wow. Also, I am going to have to borrow those salted dulce de leche cookies. They look divine!
September 28th, 2010 at 11:57 am
@jess, they’re wonderful!
September 27th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
The butter shot is the hottest food porn Ive seen in a while…
September 28th, 2010 at 11:57 am
@Andy Stowell, seriously. Once we had all the butter out and softening, we kept looking at it and groaning in delight.
September 27th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I’d never actually heard of a cookie table at a wedding before. What and awesome tradition!
September 28th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
@Danielle, it is awesome. and most weddings provide to-go containers so that the guests can take a bunch home with them to have with their coffee the next morning!
September 27th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
500 Pittsburgh points to kdiddy, for contributing to a matrimonial cookie table.
Honestly, my one regret about my wedding (besides the whole “married in a house of god” thing) is that I didn’t have a cookie table. FOR SHAME!
September 28th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@jive turkey, 500 points!?!? Do I win Pittsburgh?
September 27th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Now that I’m aware that you are a Goddess of Cookies, I am going to harass you endlessly to make sure you show up for the cookie swap thing the BurghMom dork-types (like me!) do every November. HARASS HARASS HARASS.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@burghbaby, definitely! I just, uh, need a ride out there.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
@kdiddy, That part is the easy part. Seriously.
September 27th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Holy! I love the tradition of a cookie table… neat idea. So there are cookies AND a wedding cake? You guys aren’t kidding around.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
@Sara, yep, cookies AND cake. we take desserts pretty seriously.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:20 am
THE BUTTER!
That picture made my mouth water.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
@girlvaughn, every time one of us would say, “Okay, I need four sticks of butter!” we would start giggling. SO FUN.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:58 am
What is that fancy piece of electronica in between the porny jealousy-inducing mixers? Recipe Reader? Kindley ereader thingee? Cookie bomb?
Man, now I want to make about a thousand cookies. Yum!
September 28th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
@Kizz, it’s a Demy and it is indeed a neat little gadget.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Mmmm…. delicious buttery goodness…
I’d kill someone – hell, anyone – for some of those Chai Butter cookies, man.
September 30th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
this. is. awesome. the amount of butter is astoundingly beautiful! I’m so impressed.
October 1st, 2010 at 7:04 am
O.M.D. Pumpkin cookies….
October 1st, 2010 at 6:39 pm
My husband is from Pitt. I have never heard of the cookie table.
October 5th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
[…] c is for “cookie table” […]
March 5th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
We did this for our daughter’s wedding. I made dough for months, rolled it into tubes and froze it. The day before the wedding we sliced and baked. We hired a Barista to serve fancy coffees. They guest loved it and it was definitely cheaper than a reception meal at 8pm…