Welcome to Country Cupboard Cookies!
I realized I had a passion for cookies during my college years in the late 70’s. Living in a dorm away from the farmhouse kitchen I’d spent many afternoons baking from the age of 7, I was instead eating meals in the BC cafeteria, taking a bus to Cleveland Circle in Boston for take-out and calling for pizza delivery.
My cravings began to grow for homemade cooking, especially desserts. The sweet cravings led to obsession, and I began planning the delicious cookies I would bake when it was time to fly home to Pittsburgh for the holidays. I was particularly stuck on blockbusters, a chocolate layer of fudge brownies, fluffy marshmallow creme, topped with milk chocolate buttercream and finished with a sprinkling of roasted pecans. But I also daydreamed of baking peanut butter cookies, applesauce cookies with browned butter frosting and of course, chocolate chip cookies. Classic and easy comfort food!
When semester break arrived for Christmas that year, I had a list of holiday cookies ready. My Mom, sister and I baked 17 flavors! I know, that’s a random number, but the one that I remember.
Our festive and ambitious list included classic recipes such as chocolate chip, chocolate crinkles, peanut butter blossoms, lemon bars, gobs, nut rolls, cut-out sugar, russian teacakes, chocolate marshmallow buttercups, blockbusters, gingerbread cookies, spritz, date pinwheels, candy cane swirls, brown sugar butter, 7-layer bars, and snickerdoodles.
The holiday cookies were carefully wrapped and stored in a deep chest freezer we kept in the basement. It was raided on a regular basis by my Dad and 4 brothers, though we tried our best to “save” some for Christmas morning. I continued to bake those simple family cookie recipes through the years, adding many more along the way. I moved on to marriage, a career in nursing, 2 lovely daughters and a house in the suburbs. I learned to bake more cookies from lots of cookbooks, but I’ve always come back to the classic, handmade cookies I baked in our rustic farmhouse in Pennsylvania.
Our small business, Country Cupboard Cookies, was started in our home in 1988 while I was working as an RN in ICU at Childrens Hospital in Pittsburgh and raising our 2 daughters. The cookie business grew, I retired from nursing, our daughters helped in the business, then grew up to explore their own passions. My husband and I moved our small business to a commercial property, the internet allowed us to ship our cookies nationwide and we evolved into a cookie gift company.
Whew! It’s been quite a journey. In 2015, we closed the bakery and decided to spend more time with family and friends, traveling and baking at home. Running a business does not leave a lot of time for any of the above. It’s been a rich, wonderful experience, one I hope to share both the ups and downs, the positives and the negatives, the good and the bad and maybe even the ugly (very little) in my new blog.
This space is part of the transition from my online cookie bakery to new baking adventures. I will truly miss all of my customers, I feel as though so many of you have become my friends as I’ve baked for you and your family, friends and business associates. Our family bakery decorated special cookies with your personalized messages for the Holidays, Birthdays, Get Well, Thank you’s and Happy Anniversary! I know a lot of your stories and many of you know some of mine.
I hope to continue to share my love for cookies by including in this blog both my own recipes and those of others I admire. I plan to offer baking from scratch tips, cookie recipes (Country Cupboard Cookies classic recipes scaled down for baking in your own kitchen including some of my personal favorites), and sweet ideas for gifting cookies so you can not only bake a delicious dozen but also beautifully package and ship to your friends and relatives!
I hope you will stay in touch with me by subscribing to my blog posts & following me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Judy Wittig
Contact us: CountryCupboardCookies [at] gmail.com