OAK PARK – If you’re looking to make dazzling holiday cookies this year, make sure you start with quality ingredients. Add a dash of creativity, and a pinch of practice. And before you know it, you’ll be churning out gingerbread men that look like they came from an old-world bakery.
“Most of this is learned through experience,” said Stacey Monschein as she prepped for a cookie-making boot camp at Pilgrim Community Nursery School on Sunday. “People are afraid, but cooking is about experimenting. You might make mistakes, but you learn along the way.”
Monschein would know. A graduate from the Culinary Institute of America – Greystone, she’s an expert when it comes to baking and decorating. Especially around the holidays.
And it’s the patrons of Pilgrim School’s annual Cookie Walk – slated for 9-11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3 – who will reap the rewards of Monschein’s knowledge.
For 90 minutes, Monschein showed parents, teachers and former students how to turn basic sugar cookies into works of culinary art. Monschein said using quality ingredients – like French butter and fondant – makes all the difference.
“Using the best ingredients you can buy makes all the difference,” she said. “That’s the most important part.”
Each year, Pilgrim parents spend hours in their own kitchens, turning out thousands of cookies for the walk. Each family is expected to bake between eight- and 12-dozen cookies to be donated and sold for one of the schools largest fund raisers.
The cookies are then displayed on long rows of tables, and customers can fill and buy pastry boxes loaded with their favorites.
Expect the volunteer bakers who attended Monschein’s seminar to bring their A-games this year.
“I always want our cookie walk to the best in the area,” said Beth Matteotti, a Pilgrim parent and chairperson for this year’s Cookie Walk. “And I think we deliver. This year will be better than ever.”
The walk is held at the school, 460 Lake Street, Oak Park. For more information, visit the Pilgrim School website at www.pilgrimshcool.net.
Pilgrim Community Nursery School is a non-profit, secular pre-school serving Oak Park, River Forest, Chicago and surrounding communities since 1966. Pilgrim’s faculty average greater than 10 years of continuous service to the school; some have been on staff for more than 20 years.
