Every Pittsburgh family has its cookie-tray traditions. They swear by the best lady locks or gush about an aunt’s pizzelle recipe. But, the city’s small bakers have their own traditions, and a few interesting departures from them. This season, there’s anise-sugar thumbprints inspired by a mother’s Italian recipes, eggnog sandwich cookies from a Pittsburgh chef and gingerbread made with a decade-old sourdough starter, among other delicious cookies.

Here are seven local places to find your holiday cookies this year, whether you need a whole tray or just a few to sneak into the house before the guests arrive.

Where to Order Holiday Cookie Trays in Pittsburgh

Cookie Cookie Ice Cream

Connie, the owner of Cookie Cookie Ice Cream in McKees Rocks, says that Christmas still tastes like her mother’s baking. Growing up, she remembers a house filled with cookies and relatives gathering on Christmas Eve. After her mother died, Connie carried on the tradition through her bakery.

Connie remembers coming home from school to find every available table covered in freshly baked treats. By Christmas Eve, friends and relatives would gather at what became known as “the Christmas house,” leaving with cookies tucked away for their own celebrations. “For my mom, baking was her love language,” Connie says.

After her mother died, Connie carried on the recipes. Some customers have been ordering her holiday trays since the bakery’s first Christmas.

Expect a formidable Italian-American assortment: pizzelles, lady locks, pecan tarts, butterballs, peanut butter bonbons, nut horns, ricciarelli and coconut dulce de leche macaroons. The larger trays contain 12 to 15 varieties. This year’s addition is an anise-sugar thumbprint with anise icing, a little licorice-like kick among the old favorites.

How to Order: Trays are listed at $40.19 for four dozen, $60.05 for six dozen and $80.14 for eight dozen. Order through the website or visit 1815 McKees Rocks Road.

Sour Power Bakery

Food scientist Mingzhen is putting a decade-old sourdough starter to work at Highland Park’s Sour Power Bakery. The dough ferments at room temperature for 12 hours, then spends two more days in the refrigerator. That fermentation lends the cookies a slight tang beneath their sweetness. Mingzhen also uses European butter, Belgian chocolate and Madagascar vanilla beans, aiming for crisp edges and soft, gooey centers.

The holiday lineup includes molasses-rich gingerbread with warm spices, Black Forest cherry with Belgian dark chocolate and chocolate peppermint with white and semisweet chocolate.

How to Order: Six-cookie boxes cost $36, with eight- and 12-cookie boxes also available. Order through the website. Highland Park pickup and nationwide shipping begin December 14.

Thyme + Season

Personal chef Hunter McCarthy grew up baking Christmas cookies with his mother and siblings. Now he brings a chef’s touch to those traditions.

McCarthy is turning out holiday boxes through Thyme + Season, with brown butter chocolate chip cookies, chewy gingerbread men, butter cookie wreaths, peppermint meringue bites and good old-fashioned sprinkle cookies. The newest experiment is an eggnog sandwich cookie, which sounds easier to serve at a party than an actual punch bowl of eggnog.

How to Order: Order through the website. 

SugarxButter

For anyone who loves the traditional Pittsburgh assortment, SugarxButter offers a pleasing mix of familiar favorites. Sisters Meredith and Christine Galloway offer a listed holiday assortment of decorated sugar cookies, tea cookies, chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter kisses, a solid selection that is perfect to enjoy with coffee, after a big holiday meal.

Their three-pound box takes care of several cookie-tray staples at once. Customers can also inquire about additional flavors and custom assortments.

How to Order: Contact SugarxButter at info@sugarxbutter.com or 412-398-7559 for availability and pickup arrangements.

Under the Walnut Tree

Kimberly Puskar’s Wexford bakery proves that beloved holiday flavors don’t have to rely on butter or eggs.

At Under the Walnut Tree, her home bakery in Wexford, everything is vegan. Holiday offerings include ginger molasses crackle cookies, sugar cookies and decorated shortbread, drawing on family recipes and the flavors Puskar remembers from childhood.

The bakery offers assorted trays with miniature cookies and boxes with standard-size cookies, plus gluten-free options, lthough Puskar uses shared equipment, so they’re not suitable for people with celiac disease or severe gluten sensitivities.

How to order: Mini-cookie trays cost $28, or $33 gluten-free. Standard-size boxes cost $53, or $58 gluten-free. Order through the website by December 13, or call 412-874-5876. Wexford-area pickup and shipping are available.

Lay’s Kitchen

At Lay’s Kitchen in Aspinwall, Lebanese-American influences meet classic American baking.

The licensed home bakery was founded by Lay, whose Lebanese-American upbringing also influences the broader menu. Among the cookie selections are cinnamon roll, mocha chip and peanut butter almond crunch, alongside traditional chocolate chip. For indecisive cookie shoppers, there’s an 18-cookie trio box. The bakery also accepts custom orders in different quantities, making it possible to put together an assortment without committing to a single flavor.

How to Order: Six-packs are listed at $18, while the 18-cookie trio box costs $36. Custom boxes are available in quantities of six, 12, 18 or 24. Visit the website to request an order, allowing at least five days for custom baking and one to two weeks for larger gatherings. Pickup is at 313 Freeport Road, Aspinwall.

Micah Made Cookies

Why have regular cookies when you can have sugar cookies that look like they belong in a vintage Christmas shop?

Micah Whitfield’s bakery, Micah Made Cookies, specializes in intricately decorated sugar cookies, from vintage-inspired Christmas trees and snow globes to stars and peppermint candies. The Allison Park baker developed her signature citrus-vanilla sugar cookie with her daughter, topping it with a marshmallow-like icing. The recipe later won the Showstopper category in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s holiday baking contest.

Baking began as a creative outlet while Whitfield was dealing with postpartum depression. Today, Micah Made Cookies operates from an inspected, licensed home kitchen, and Whitfield teaches decorating classes as well.

This year’s designs feature her signature sugar cookies and a returning favorite, vegan gingerbread. Her custom-order calendar is already full, but there’s another way to get your hands on them.

Where to Buy: Individual holiday cookies will be sold at both Wexford and Cranberry locations of Café Conmigo, while supplies last.

Looking for more ways to fill your holiday table? Check out our 50 side recipes for the holidays or 50 dessert recipes. Plus, find the perfect gift by shopping local for women, men, the home, or that hard to shop for person in your life.

Story by Aakanksha Agarwal
Featured Photo From Micah Made Cookies

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