A wedding tradition where families bake hundreds of dozens of cookies for a vast communal dessert spread. Less a single dish than a Pittsburgh ritual rooted in Italian and Eastern European baking.

The cookie table is a uniquely Pittsburgh wedding custom with Italian and Eastern European roots, in which extended families bake dozens upon dozens of cookies (pizzelle, lady locks, thumbprints, kolache) for a sprawling reception spread that often rivals the cake. The tradition is strongest in the Mon Valley mill towns and is documented as a regional signature; bakeries like Prantl's and Gaby et Jules supply cookies when families want backup.

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Make it at home

Serves 402 hrAdvanced

Ingredients

  • Lady-lock cream-horn metal forms
  • 500g flour
  • 450g cold butter
  • 250ml cold water
  • 1 egg yolk
  • For the filling: 250g butter, 200g shortening, 300g icing sugar, 1 jar marshmallow creme

Method

  1. Make a quick laminated dough by cutting cold butter into the flour, adding water and yolk, then folding and chilling several times.
  2. Roll thin and cut into long strips.
  3. Wind each strip around a metal lady-lock form, overlapping slightly.
  4. Bake at 200C (400F) for 12 to 15 minutes until golden, then slide off the forms and cool.
  5. Beat the butter, shortening, icing sugar and marshmallow creme into a fluffy filling.
  6. Pipe the filling into each cooled pastry horn and dust with icing sugar.

Editor tip. Keep the dough and butter cold throughout; warm dough loses the flaky lamination that makes lady locks.

Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Nuts.