This wedding season, love is in the air. But most importantly, so is the scent of one of Pittsburgh’s most beloved traditions: wedding cookie tables. So, how did a delicious confection become a matrimonial custom?
Background
Like many of humanity’s greatest creations, there isn’t much verifiable documentation of how cookie tables became a nuptial tradition. Our friend Rossilynne Skena Culgan — arts & culture editor at Time Out New York and former editor at recently defunct news site The Incline 😢 — wrote that there are records of cookie tables popping up at social gatherings as early as the 1900s, though they were not documented at weddings until the 1990s. But if you’re old enough to remember “the immaculate reception” or tamagotchis, you know that wedding cookie tables have been around long before then.
The most popular theory is that European immigrants arriving in the 20th century had their family and friends bake cookies as a gesture of support and to save money on wedding cakes, particularly during the Great Depression. Regardless of the source, the tradition stuck. There’s even been (unsuccessful) proposals to designate an official cookie for Pennsylvania.
Wedding-Appropriate Cookies
This is obviously subjective, as you can tell from wedding cookie discussions on Reddit. Chocolate chip and Oreo-style cookies are always a hit, along with classics like lady locks and pizzelles, but there’s certainly room for creativity — that’s the best part of baking.
And for those of us with an ongoing feud with ovens, there’s a plethora of Pittsburgh bakeries that will do the work for you.
If you want to skip the baking (no judgment), the City Cast Pittsburgh team has recommendations for store-bought wedding cookies, and how many you’re supposed to bring. Plus, some of our favorite at-home recipes, including the ones that, until recently, executive producer Mallory Falk colloquially called “boob cookies.”
Oh, and you should bookmark these five holiday cookie recipes — they’ll come in handy sooner than you think.
