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Throughout the enclave of Victorian homes, many residents are busy gathering their classic Christmas cookie recipes for the Arborteum Cookie Walk for 2008 Tours de Noel, which will be held from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.
Two evenings this week, neighbors will meet at Collingwood Presbyterian Church to bake and socialize. "We have a mass baking experience," says Chris Illenden.
Participants intend to have thousands of holiday cookies to sell at the Arboretum Cookie Walk at the Gift Boutique at Park Lane Luxury Apartments.
Proceeds of the cookie sale benefit the Agnes Reynolds Jackson Arborteum. (The two-acre park, at Robinwood and Delaware Avenues, is the former site of St. Luke's Hospital.)
Tours de Noel features tours of five beautifully decorated homes and a tour of the Park Lane Luxury Apartments. Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral will be open for an Advent Lessons & Carols service between 3 and 4 p.m.
There will be at least 20 to 30 varieties of holiday cookies at the Cookie Walk. They will be sold by the cookie (50 cents), or by the box: $5 for a small box, $12 for medium, and $20 for the large size. "You can stuff the box as much as you can," says Mrs. Illenden.
"Sometimes we don't know until the event happens how many we'll have," says her husband, Kent Illenden, the organizer of the Arboretum Cookie Walk and chairman of the arboretum.
Also to be sold are specialty cookies, many of which are supersized. These will cost $1.50 each -- and every bite is worth the price.
Mrs. Illenden makes 3-inch-square Triple Chocolate Brownies made with unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate chips, and semisweet chocolate chips. When the brownies are baked, she measures each with a ruler to a perfect size. (Her husband gladly eats the brownie pieces as she cuts away to make her perfect squares.) She makes a Mint Chocolate Glaze to cover the brownies.
Amy Stein will make fresh marshmallows and pack them in special boxes. Her Giant Ginger Cookies are each placed in a plastic bag and tied with a ribbon.
Carol Kutsche's specialty is angel wings or chrusciki "like I remember as a child", she said. "These angel wings are large and remind me of the Daylight Bakery (which was on Junction Street in central Toledo)." Although the recipe she has from the Polish Heritage Cookery cookbook by Robert & Maria Strybel calls for lard, she uses canola oil to fry the confection. That's the only difference in the recipe from yesteryear.
"I always make three cookies," says Mrs. Kutsche. Besides the chruschiki, she makes a Russian tea cake and a sugar cookie.
The sugar cookie has a buttercream frosting made with half-and-half and she decorates each cookie with colored frostings. "They are a very soft dough and you can add a little more flour," she says. For coloring the frosting with the "old-fashioned look" she recommends McCormick or Durkee food coloring in the little squeeze bottles.
"This is the old-fashioned cookies," she says. "It's the way you remember it when you were growing up."
Toni Moore, who is the chairperson and one of the founders of the Tours de Noel, was the first to do the specialty cookie according to her neighbors and friends. She intends to make 200 Ruth Ann Mary Elizabeth's Double Peanut Butter Cookies. "This delicious cookie recipe was given to me many years ago from my wonder friend Ruth McGuire," says Mrs. Moore. "I have made them for over 20 years as Christmas presents and birthday presents.
This cookie is so popular that she sells them by the box (10 in a box for $15) or individually.
The two layer cookie is filled with peanut butter and topped with a chocolate kiss.
She mixes up two discs of homemade dough (one is 2 inches in diameter and the other is 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter); each disc is wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated. When cold, the discs are sliced in 1/8 to 1/4 -inch pieces. The smaller slice is topped with creamy Jif Peanut Butter using a pastry bag. Then it is topped with the larger disc and the edges are sealed with a fork. Immediately after baking, a chocolate kiss is placed in the middle of each cookie.
"You need a gallon of milk to drink with these," she says.
These Old West End neighbors have shared some of their recipes. "Part of the fun of the holidays is that we have so many kinds of cookies," says Mrs. Illendun.
* * *
2008 Tours de Noel sponsored by the Women of the Old West End is noon to 7 p.m. Sunday Dec. 7. It includes Home tours, holiday decorations, Holiday Gift Boutique with gifts for sale and a cookie walk. There is a complimentary shuttle to each tour location.
Prices are $15 per person or $3 per single ticket. Children age 13 and under are free with an adult. For tickets call 419-244-4921 or www.womenoftheoldwestendinc.com [ http://www.womenoftheoldwestendinc.com]
. Visit the website for list of homes and vendors at the Gift Boutique.
Contact Kathie Smith at: food@theblade.com or 419-724-6155.
To see more of The Blade, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.toledoblade.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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