This year we will be breaking with a tradition of almost 3o years and holding our Annual Cookie Walk on the second Saturday in December rather than the first. We are shifting the sale to Saturday, December 14th to make it easier for our customers to save some their cookies to eat on the day itself. It will also that our wreaths, table decorations and greens will stay fresher for Christmas decorating.
Last week I wrote that the Cookie Walk was conceived by my wife Charlotte. Actually she shares the honor with John I. Kohler II who, until shortly before his death in 1998, was the immensely talented “Peck’s Bad Boy” of the parish.
Jack and Charlotte made a great duo, constantly thinking of ways to have fun and raise money for projects. It was Jack who actually coined the name Cookie Walk. Charlotte had suggested we should have some sort of Christmas sale, but observed that the word “bazaar” was tired and overworked.
“We should hold a Cookie Walk,” said Jack.
“What on earth is a Cookie Walk?” asked Charlotte.
“It would be a sort of cake walk but with cookies,” replied Jack, “We’ll ask every family in the parish to back five or ten pounds of cookies, lay ’em out on tables and people can walk round and take their pick. We’ll charge ‘em by the pound on the way out.”
By no means everybody on the Parish Life Committee immediately took to the notion. “Nobody has ever heard of a Cook Walk. Nobody will know what it is,” was the main complaint. But Jack and Charlotte would not be gainsayed.
“All the better if they’ve never heard of such a thing,” explained Jack. “They’ll be so intrigued by the name, they’ll come just to find s Cookie walk is.”
How right he was! Today—irritatingly perhaps—several churches in the area hold Cookie Walks. (Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.) Not only that, the concept has spread far and wide. Cookie Walks have sprung up all over the place including Delaware and the Mid-West.
Jack has left St Stephen’s with a number of enduring legacies, not least the Parish Life Committee which chaired for a number of years.
Under his leadership the “Every Member Canvass” was not simply a matter of increasing pledges. He maintained it was a parishioner’s obligation to support the church in more ways than financial. The slogan for his campaign was: “Time, talents and treasure.”
Surprisingly, perhaps, for such a tall, strapping individual, he had a remarkably deft hand when it came to flower arrangement. St. Stephen’s most dramatic Christmas decorations—the huge wreathes that grace the East Wall and the box wood backdrop to the altar cross—stand as eloquent testimony to his artistry.
Jack maintained that it is never too early to start baking because a successful Cookie Walk depends entirely scrumptious, home-made cookies. So to provide you with inspiration, here is one of our favorite recipes to try.
Hermits are a traditional American cookie/ They are also particularly flavorsome in the winter, though they can be appreciated at any time of the year. They freeze well and taste better if they are aged a bit before This makes them ideal for early baking.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1 & 1/2 cups of unsifted all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each of cloves and allspice
1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, hickory nuts, filberts or almonds
1/2 to 1 cup raisins
Always a favorite, most old recipes used sour cream in these cookies, although in the Deep South molasses is often the liquid ingredient. All recipes, however, use some spice and always dried fruit – raisins or figs or dates, sometimes dried prunes cut into small pieces—and always nutmeats. Undoubtedly the choice of fruit in the old cookbooks depended upon availability.
Cream the butter, cream in the sugar well, beat in the egg, and stir in the sour cream. Add the sifted dry ingredients, then the nuts and raisins. Stir to lightly mix. Grease a teaspoon, dip up about a slightly rounded spoon of batter, and push with the back of another greased teaspoon onto a well-oiled cookie sheet or pan.
Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 8-12 minutes or until a delicate brown. Loosen from the pan while still hot. Cool on a rack to room temperature and store in airtight containers. These cookies freeze well and are better in flavor if aged several days before eating. GPH✠
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