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| Before they snagged a product endorsement deal in the 1980s, the grandmothers of the Swedish Insitute in Minneapolis were known as the best cookie bakers in the USA. They still are. |
The Cookie Queens of Minneapolis
by Molly O'Neill
Before their product endorsement deal in the 1980s, the grandmothers of the Swedish Institute were known as the best cookie bakers in the USA. They still are.
Minneapolis is the southern province of Santa’s North Pole kingdom. The weather is not all that different. Minneapolis is cold and snowy enough to demand a warm, glowing, and long-running holiday. And the elders of the local Swedish community are serious about Christmas.
In fact, while Santa himself is still “making his list” the elders of the local Swedish community are already baking and singing and dancing to create a month-long celebration of light and song and sugar.
One grandmother estimates that nearly 100,000 traditional Scandinavian Christmas cookies are made by local grandmothers. They say they do it for their grand children. “To teach them our culture,” they say, “to show them how to carry on the traditions.” When pressed, however, the Grand Dames admit that they can’t help themselves. “Cookies and candles and evergreen trees seem to be coded into our DNA,” said Myrtle Baker, a retired elementary school teacher and one of the most revered Cookie Queens of Minneapolis.
In years gone by, a band of Cookie Queens gathered at the American Swedish Institute to bake up to 50,000 cookies to sell as a fundraiser. People lined up around the block, stamping their feet to ward off the cold, to get a taste of buttery spritz wreaths and trees, jam-filled shortbreads, and crisp gingerbread cookies. Now well into their seventh and eight decades, however, the Grand Dames of Swedish cookies say they now longer have the pep to bake enough to sate the cravings of a city full of cookie lovers.
Today, Cookie Queens Eva Lancello, Margit Schott, Birgit Johnson, Myrtle Baker, and Linda Gronvall concentrate on their home baking. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they bake up to five types of cookies each day and use them to ply visits from grandchildren. The Cookie Queens are all concerned about passing their secrets along.
Any Cookie Queen worthy of veneration has a life-long repertoire of about a hundred different types of Swedish cookies. But each is known as the gold standard of one particular cookie. It is this secret, this connection between the hands, the ingredients and the tradition, that each Cookie Queen hopes to pass on to at least one grandchild.
Some Queens came from generations of fine cookie bakers; others were self-taught. Here are their stories.
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