A 100-Year Cookie Tradition

This post is part of the Vocal Cooks Collaborate series. Click Here for an index of all the recipe posts. The latest recipes are Judey Kalchik's 'Holy Fierce Salted Caramel Cheesecake, Batman!' and Jessica Conaway's 'Cookies Make Everything Better.'

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Bierberg Bakery was started by my great-great-grandmother, Theresa in 1913. She baked traditional German Christmas cookies and desserts to support her family when my great-great-grandfather fell ill. After 58 years of popularity, they moved to the German Village location in Columbus, OH that so many people visited each year and grew to love.

Whenever I have to do one of those icebreakers that asks “What’s one interesting fact about you?” I answer with, “My family used to own a bakery.” The people who haven’t heard of Bierberg Bakery think it’s cool and move on. However, the people who have heard of us go on and on about how much they miss it, how it was their family’s tradition, and ask if I’ll make them cookies for Christmas this year.

Sometimes I forget that my family created a 100-year-long tradition for hundreds of other families. Sometimes I wonder if they miss it as much as I do.

In recent years, Christmas hasn’t felt as much like Christmas to me. Without the sounds of giant dough mixers, dinging shop bells, and clanging tins, or the promise of Springle right out of the oven, Christmas just isn’t the same. I grew up in a playpen next to dedicated cookie makers and survived on winter lunches of Hamel cookies and hard-boiled eggs.

The building wasn’t heated, so my hands were never colder than when I separated egg whites and yolks and the refrigerated goo stuck to them; they were never warmer than when I toasted them in the oven afterward.

When it was time to take a break, I ventured into the loft where it was warmer because heat rose from the oven. There, I used crayons to color pictures of Jasmine and Aladdin flying on their magic carpet and imagined that the high-up loft was a carpet of my own.

As I said, Christmas just isn’t the same without a loft to climb up to — without green sugar-stained hands, dinging shop bells, and October through January diets of broken cookies.

I’m sharing a fan-favorite recipe (hernschen or the almond crescent cookies) so that, while the bakery is closed, the tradition can keep on going. No one will ever have to live another Christmas without Bierberg cookies again, which is just how it should be.

Genießen!

Enjoy!

HERNSCHEN

2 lb Margarine

4tsp Vanilla

1 ¼ lb Granulated Sugar

2 lb Flour

1 ½ lb Ground Almonds

½ lb Pecan Meal

Mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs. Mix in other ingredients.

Put some flour on your hands. Take a ball of dough and roll it into a "snake" about 3 inches long. Bend into a crescent shape.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. Sugar when hot or dip one half in melted milk, dark or white chocolate when cool.

Disclaimer: While we have our recipes written down, there are many instances where we just “know” what to do. One example of this is how long to bake the cookies and pastries. If you ask anyone in our family how long to bake a cookie, we say, “Until they’re done!” This always means keeping an eye on them until golden brown.

I’ve tried my best to document the instructions for this cookie.

The recipe is also written as a large batch that we made in our industrial mixers and large pizza oven in the bakery kitchen. I can’t promise they’ll be exactly what you remember if you break them down into smaller batches. However, we have made hernschen in particular several times in a home kitchen and broken down and that one seems to work!