Holiday Cookie Recipes From Our Cookie Table Bake-Off

We recently gathered professional and at-home bakers for a holiday cookie table bake-off at Mansions on Fifth. The crowd voted for their favorites. Chef Kevin Hermann and Editor-in-Chief Keith Recker tasted and savored as a two-person panel of professional judges, as well. The conclusion: every cookie crumbled with some kind of deliciousness and it was hard to pick winners.

A woman holds a plate with two cookies on them.

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Cookie tables are quintessentially Pittsburgh, although technically their territory stretches from the Steel City to Youngstown, Ohio. It’s part potluck, part sugar frenzy. This sweet tradition likely emerged from a blend of Italian, Greek, and Eastern European immigrant influences. While the precise origins have faded with time, it’s difficult to imagine our region without this sweet, communal tradition. We see it gracing the banquet halls and tented backyards of Rust Belt weddings, baby showers, and holiday gatherings.

A man smiles as he bites into a holiday cookie.

In an effort to uphold the custom, TABLE’s holiday bake-off brought together both professional and amateur bakers to build a Cookie Table Crunch Off extravaganza that flowed through the historic Mansions on Fifth like a decadent river of confection.

Covering All Types of Cookies

Two people pick at their plates filled with holiday cookies.

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The array of cookies spanned a spectrum of flavors and appearances, from Maria Athanas’s honey-drenched Baklava to Lori Willis’s show-stopping Peschi Dolci (Italian Peach Cookies). Many bakers paid homage to family members, such as the sister duo Ashley Miller and Alyssa Blair, whose Lady Locks honored their late mother, fondly remembered as the “cookie table chair” of family festivities. Teresa Talkowski, the Nonna of the night, arrived with six dozen Italian Wedding Cookies, just a mere fraction of the two rooms filled with cookie tables she tells us graced her daughter’s wedding!

A couple in red holiday clothes sip on drinks.

A man smiles as he looks over a bar of holiday cookies.

Selecting a favorite wasn’t easy, as attendees and a panel of TABLE judges, including local chef Kevin Hermann, deliberated over the entries. Ultimately, both the judges and the people’s choice agreed on third and second place: both amateur bakers, Gretchen Jenkins’s Lemon Bars claimed third, while Alane Lovic’s Cuccidati (Sicilian fig cookies) secured second. The judges’ top pick for first place was Chef Rachel Walton’s Italian Rainbow Cookies, head pastry chef at DiAnoia’s, while in the eyes of the attendees, they were tied with Chef Selina Progar’s Ube White Chocolate Chips from Eleven Contemporary Kitchen.