Garden Spot Village partnered with Fig Magazine to host A Sweet Life, a holiday cookie bake-off. Residents and team members submitted their favorite holiday cookie and bar recipes. Local food blogger Ann Fulton of Fountain Avenue Kitchen recruited a team of bakers who baked the submitted recipes. Then an army of taste testers offered tasty feedback on each recipe. The winning recipes appeared in the winter 2024 issue of Fig Magazine. Descriptions and links to the winning recipes are below.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. CEO Steve Lindsey elevates his chocolate chip cookie recipe with brown butter and a dusting of sea salt. The nutty brown butter and salty addition to the sweet cookie batter creates an unforgettable chocolate chip cookie. View the recipe here.
Ginger Snap Cookies. Garden Spot Village resident Ed Mills offers a classic ginger snap recipe. It’s an old tried-and-true family recipe, Ed says. His grandmother, a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer’s wife who was born in 1902, regularly made the cookies for Ed, who enjoyed running about the family farm in Frysville the 1940s. View the recipe here.
Root Beer Float Cookies. LPN Supervisor Tricia Trainer offers her Root Beer Float Cookies. Add this delicious icing cookie to your holiday platter and surprise your guests with a hint of summertime at your holiday party. A sprinkle of red or green sugar can add a holiday flair. View the recipe here.
Cherry Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies. Garden Spot Village resident Susan Ulrich offers a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe enhanced with bits of orange and cherry. Susan’s mom assigned baking these cookies during summer vacations to keep her busy; when she introduced them to her children years later, the recipe quickly became a family favorite. On a whim one day, she threw in dried cherries because she knew her daughter-in-law loved them. This variation quickly became the preferred recipe. View the recipe here.
Swedish Cookies. Garden Spot Village resident Bernie Collins offers this family-favorite recipe. Rolled into a log, refrigerated, sliced thin and baked to crispy perfection, these cookies are enhanced by the nut of your choice: walnuts, pecans or pistachios. View the recipe here.
Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies. Director of Media Experiences and Storytelling Juanita Fox offers this seasonally-inspired favorite. She and her best friend have a 30-year tradition of baking Christmas cookies to share with their friends and family. View the recipe here.
Slovak Kolache. LPN Supervisor Tricia Trainer also offers this family recipe. Her grandmother made these fruit-filled pastries at the holiday and always generously filled the ones she made for Tricia. Choose your favorite filling for these delicious cookies and start a new tradition! View the recipe here.
Holiday Raspberry Chocolate Bars. Barb Martin, associate director of mission advancement, offers this family recipe. In her family’s tradition, the ladies gathered to bake Christmas cookies. This recipe offers a long baking time so they always took a break for lunch when they popped these delicious, flavorful bars in the oven. View the recipe here.
