Cornmeal, Black Pepper & Rosemary Butter Cookies

Cornmeal, Black Pepper & Rosemary Cookies in Cookie Tin

After several weeks of nearly non-stop, high-intensity cookie baking, I present you with the final cookie of this year’s Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Starry Night bake-a-thon. TA DA!

In the kick off post, I set the stage for this completely new collection of cookies, most of which break rather dramatically from the traditional holiday cookies of my childhood. I really wanted to push my understanding of what makes a remarkable and thus memorable Christmas cookie. I wanted to try new and exciting flavor and texture combinations. I wanted to stretch myself as a baker. As I say in the Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Starry Night kick off post, I intended to throw tradition to the proverbial wind this holiday season.

Rhubarb Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

Rhubarb Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

Tea cakes, bundt cakes, coffee cakes, pudding cakes, and pound cakes were the kind of old-fashioned cake that my farm-raised, Mennonite grandmother always made. “Nothing fancy,” she would say, but fresh from the oven, fragrant, and utterly delicious with a pot of freshly brewed tea.

Aunt Elfred’s New Year’s Eve Corn Bread

Basket of Aunt Elfred's Corn Bread Muffins

Our dear friend Janet Stelzer’s Aunt Elfred must have been one magnificent cook because this cornbread is dynamite. I spent years testing dozens of promising cornbread recipes, never quite achieving the light, tender goodness of Aunt Elfred’s superlative version.