Meet the bakers behind the 2024 Star Tribune Holiday Cookie Contest winners

One of our favorite parts about the annual holiday cookie contest is telling the stories of the winning bakers. This year, the stories are as compelling as ever.

Two bakers took favorite childhood memories and traditions and reimagined them as cookies; one tinkered with recipes to embrace the science and precision of baking, and another enjoys trying new things, so why not baking? Lastly, we have our youngest contest finalist — 9 years old! — ensuring that the future of baking is in very good hands.

All these submitted recipes belong on your cookie tray and are delicious additions to our Cookie Finder. Find their recipes — and all the other past winners — at startribune.com/cookies.

WINNER

The baker: Heather Pfeiffer, Chaska

The scoop: A ribbon-winning cookie kicked up a notch with the Star Tribune’s contest in mind.

A blue-ribbon baker: Pfeiffer started entering her baked goods in the Minnesota State Fair in 2021 and says she has done “pretty well.” (She’s won 16 ribbons, 10 of them blue.) After a lime curd thumbprint cookie earned a third-place ribbon this year, the wheels started to turn.

“I really like the combination of lime and cranberry. You see it a lot in mocktails and cocktails, and thought it’d be really fun to bring that together.” Not wanting to combine the flavors in one thumbprint, she thought of smaller “elf-sized“ thumbprints. ”So I used my little tool and dug some holes and filled them up and baked them. And I was just like ‘oh my god, these are so good.’"

It runs in the family: Talk about full circle: Pfeiffer’s mother won a Star Tribune reader recipe contest in the 1980s — second place in the salad category — and Pfeiffer vividly remembers going with her to the event, also held at Southdale. “She was a great cook, but did not like to bake at all,” Pfeiffer said. “But I think it’s really cool to carry on the tradition.” It is such a treasured memory that it’s the one she chose to share at her mother’s funeral earlier this year, and the prize — a marble rolling pin — sits on Pfeiffer’s window sill.

Not too sweet: “The only baker growing up in my house was Betty Crocker, with the exception of Christmas sugar cookies,” she said. “So I did associate the holidays with baking.” Her mom was more of a savory-spicy person. “She would always say she didn’t want dessert because she didn’t want to ruin the taste in her mouth. She just did not want sweets. If I wanted a treat, it was like a Hostess Ding-Dong or something.”

Like mother, like daughter: Pfeiffer doesn’t like her sweets too sweet, either. “I like a little pop of sour,” she said. When baking, she likes to play with flavors both savory and sweet. One of her State Fair-winning recipes was onion and black pepper scones.

What baking brings to the table: “I like to take things on that kind of scare me,” she said. “Baking was always a little intimidating, it’s a science and an art. And I think that’s what I like about it, because I’m analytical, but also creative. And the contest inspired me to get more creative and do something different.”

On being crowned the winner: “I’m so excited — it’s ridiculous how excited I am. I feel like I’ve just won the Nobel Prize."

Judges' comments: “THAT is a good cookie” was repeated often during the tasting. Judges loved the crisp and buttery cookie, noting that the acidity of the lime and cranberry curds is a nice change of pace. The retro look is very appealing on a tray, too.

Baker’s tips: Pfeiffer uses the extra curd on everything from toast to ice cream or layering with cookies in a parfait. The recipe is very kid-friendly, too, as one tester with a toddler can verify. “They might make a mess,” Pfeiffer said, “but it’s just a really fun project.”

Find the Elf Thumbprint cookie recipe here.

FINALIST

Baker: Patricia Britt, Eagan

The scoop: A cherished family tradition reimagined in a new form.

The year without pie: Britt’s mother clipped her prized Raspberry Ribbon Pie recipe out of Good Housekeeping magazine, but the dish would soon become forever linked with Christmas at their house. “We would all go to midnight mass. I remember it being bitterly cold, all these kids piled in the car. I remember coming home [from church] one year my mother tried to make another recipe and it didn’t really work. After that my brother would always refer to it as the Christmas Without Pie.” There would never be another C.W.P. After their mother passed away, Britt baked and couriered their mother’s raspberry ribbon pie to her brother’s door — more than two hours away.

Sweet and sour cookie lessons: This isn’t the first time Britt has entered the Star Tribune’s cookie contest. Last year, she was one of several bakers who sent us pickle cookies. After missing the finals, she went back to the drawing board to find a way to make something much more personal.

Don’t overdo, or risk losing merriment: The frosting should just be flecked with the pink from the dehydrated berries to get that festive red and white color combo. (It will darken as it sits.)

Judges’ comments: The first bites led to a continuous chorus of “I’ve never had this pie, but I know this pie. I can’t believe it’s in a cookie!” It really does taste like eating a piece of pie. Mission accomplished.

Baker’s tip: Make it your own! This cookie also would be great with strawberries, or use almonds for the nuts in the base of the cookie.

Find the Raspberry Ribbon Cookie recipe here.

FINALIST

Baker: Zia McNeal, Maple Grove

The scoop: A baker’s attempt to bridge cultures and childhood nostalgia through one sweet treat. These cookies are inspired by the Indian treat Kaju Katli, a fudgy confection covered in edible silver leaf.

Can a cookie cross political divides? McNeal created her recipe ahead of the presidential election with the expectation that no matter who won, Americans would likely be exposed to more Indian culture. “Kamala Harris is half Indian and vice president-elect J.D. Vance’s wife is Indian [American].” She adapted it to use easy-to-find ingredients, like unsalted butter instead of ghee.

Cardamom across continents: McNeal wanted to create a cookie with the flavors she loved that also would have broad appeal. Cardamom spice is such a distinctly Indian flavor, but it is also often found in Scandinavian desserts.

Nostalgic inspo: McNeal can still remember her first taste of Kaju Katli as a 10-year-old on a family trip to India. “My father had taken my sister and I to a dessert shop — like a French pâtisserie, but it was filled with Indian sweets. He had come for a cream-filled pastry from this specific shop. While he was looking for that, I saw these — they looked so fancy! The Indian version of Kaju Katli is coated in silver foil. Mine only have a little bit because I’m not good at putting silver foil on.” She convinced her father to buy that fancy treat and it was love at first bite. “It’s my favorite sweet of anything.”

Judges’ comments: The cookies’ unique diamond shape and shiny silver leaf made them stand out on the cookie tray. But the taste was what won them over: like shortbread in texture, but even richer and creamier. Testers used leftover cashew powder and pieces in smoothies, yogurt and ice cream.

Baker’s tip: Wait until the cookies are cooled all the way to apply the foil. “It just sticks better.” McNeal usually garnishes half the batch with foil and the other with chopped cashews.

Find the Kaju (Cashew) Cookies recipe here.

FINALIST

Baker: Zohar Sachs, Roseville

The scoop: An improvement on the campfire experience with a project cookie that involves making your own molasses graham crackers and chewy chocolate cookies, and sandwiching both with a marshmallow filling.

S’mores or anti-s’mores?: It might come as a surprise that Sachs doesn’t really like s’mores, at least not in their traditional form. “They’re too messy, the marshmallows are either to burnt or not melted enough. I thought the graham cracker could be better. The chocolate could be different. So inherent in the s’mores experience was that it was not good enough on its own.” No offense to die-hard s’mores lovers, she added. But Sachs got to thinking how she could take those flavors, which she loved individually, and put them together in a new way.

Designing a new graham cracker: Sachs had previously baked a s’mores tart and really liked the graham cracker crust. But she wanted to add more depth when she adapted that recipe to form her cookie’s crunchy base. “The breakthrough was realizing that I don’t like honey in a graham cracker, and molasses brings it that bitterness that makes it delicious,” she said. “That’s the thing about Christmas cookies, right? All those spices, flavors, it’s a little bit more complex.”

Holiday baking is for everyone: You don’t have to celebrate Christmas to love holiday baking. Sachs, who is originally from Israel, is Jewish. “I didn’t grow up making holiday cookies, but baking Christmas cookies has always sort of been one of those things I aspire to,” she said. “To me, Christmas is a time of celebration and indulgence and festivity. So I was in the mood for something special, and a little bit more elaborate.”

A scientist’s approach to baking: Sachs is a doctor and a scientist with a research lab that specializes in leukemia, which might have something to do with how she meticulously tested and wrote her recipe. “It’s a terrible illness, and I have very precise protocols for how to treat my patients, so I’m used to telling people very specifically, ‘Do this, don’t do that,’” she said. “It does carry over” into the kitchen, all in the pursuit of the perfect cookie. “That’s why I love to bake, because you can be precise and have terrific outcomes.”

Judges’ comments: Judges agreed that this cookie is the right amount of challenging for holiday baking, and while we would (and did) eat all the components separately, together they are a flavor powerhouse. It’s also the excuse you need to buy a kitchen torch.

Baker’s tip: You can bake the chocolate cookies right away, but Sachs prefers letting the dough chill in the refrigerator for several hours up to several days. “It improves the flavor and the texture,” she said.

Find the Holiday Time S’mores recipe here.

FINALIST

Baker: Abe Smith and Mia Wintheiser, Maplewood

The scoop: A 9-year-old (with the help of his mom) turns his favorite breakfast into a Snickerdoodle-type treat that pays homage to Northfield’s Malt-O-Meal and a steaming cup of chai.

“Very breakfast”: Abe Smith is a morning person. “I’m very breakfast,” he said. The 9-year-old likes cooking eggs for his family, and he loves to sip on a warm cup of chai in the winter. “Sometimes it just feels like a substitute for coffee,” said the fourth-grader. He was having Malt-O-Meal for breakfast when he got the idea to turn it into a cookie. “I was thinking, oatmeal is a breakfast cereal, so if we substituted it for another breakfast cereal, it might do good.”

The cookie contest’s youngest finalist: “I just feel like I’m really proud of myself,” Abe said. “We were just doing this for fun, mostly, but I don’t think we were expecting to win.”

Bonding in the kitchen: One of Mia’s sayings is “moms like to feed their babies,” and she enjoys cooking with all three of her sons. “It’s working with your hands to make good things. It’s relaxing. And you get to eat!” she said. It’s “hard to capture what it means to share that with your children.”

Judges' comments: Judges loved the addition of Malt-O-Meal, which hit a nostalgic note for the locals. The warming spices make this a cozy cookie one to have on hand all winter, and colorful sprinkles and sugars make it very festive, too.

Baker’s tip: To develop his recipe, Abe and his mom made one big batch of Malt-O-Meal dough and then divided it into four bowls. Then, they experimented by adding different amounts of all-purpose flour to the bowls and baked them till they found the perfect ratio.

Find the Malt-O-Mazing Holiday Cookies recipe here.