Artisan baker spreads Christmas joy with Old World cookies
by Sara Schafer | sschafer@ruralmissouri.coop
Christmas is all about traditions. Some are passed down through generations; others are made fresh each year. For Christy Hollingsworth, her favorite one combines flour, anise and a recipe that traces its roots to 14th-century southwestern Germany.
In the weeks leading up to the holiday season, you’ll find Christy whipping up endless batches of springerle, a cookie that features embossed designs made by pressing the dough into wooden or resin molds. Springerles are showstoppers, with their intricate designs and details.
“People eat with their eyes,” says Christy, owner of Turquoise Door Bakery in Lexington. “Both sides of my family are of German heritage, but no one ever made these. Although, I do have my grandmother’s handwritten recipes, and there is one for these types of cookies.”
Christy began making these traditional Christmas cookies — and many other sweet treats — when she opened her bakery in 2022. Before becoming a baker, she taught family and consumer sciences in Lone Jack. Then she moved to the Jefferson City area, where she became a supervisor for family and consumer sciences education for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Christy rounded out her education career by managing competitive events for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, the national career and technical student organization for those studying family and consumer sciences in high school.
In 2011, she and her husband, Charles, and their children moved back to the couple’s hometown of Lexington. They wanted to be near her parents and their family business, Rasa Orchards. Before long, Christy had the itch to put her lifetime love of baking to use and opened the bakery, which is named after the bright turquoise door in her home kitchen. “This was not my career of choice,” she says. “This was my hobby turned into a business.”
For the springerles, Christy offers four flavors: anise, lemon, orange anise and peppermint. “These cookies are a three-day process,” she says. “You make the dough, which you let rest overnight. Then you press the dough into the molds, and you let those dry for a day. Then you finally bake them.”
Historically, springerles were baked for religious holidays and occasions throughout the year. Now the cookies are commonly linked to the Christmas season, even though you can find molds that feature designs for just about any special event.
Like other traditional German cookies, springerles are best if they age for a few weeks or even a few months. Authentic springerle are made with eggs, sugar, flour, baker’s ammonia, salt and anise. They “ripen over time,” Christy says, meaning their flavor and texture develop with each passing day. They have a crispy texture with a slightly chewy center and are perfect dunked in a hot beverage.
Christy’s recipe does include butter, as she says it helps the taste and texture. “These old recipes are just like chocolate chip cookies — everybody has their favorite recipe,” she says.
Christmastime for Christy involves much more than just springerles. Her weeks are full of baking everything from cinnamon rolls to cookies to sweetbreads to pies. She’ll also toss in some savory treats such as snack mixes, biscuits and pimento cheese. “Everything is from scratch, and I use recipes that either I’ve honed over the years or are family-type recipes,” she says.
For the holidays, Christy makes paint-your-own cookies and DIY cookie kits. She sells many other cookie options, including chocolate chip, peanut butter monster, snickerdoodles and bourbon pecan chocolate chunk. Christy teaches sugar cookie decorating classes at her bakery and often has booths at area holiday markets. This year she’ll be at the Christmas Bazaar in Lexington on Dec. 6 and the Christkindlesmarkt in Concordia on Dec. 12-13.
Christy’s decorated sugar cookies are a work of art. Even though some of Christy’s recipes are centuries old, her bakery is incredibly high-tech. She uses a 3D printer to make cookie cutters. She also has a specialized printer that lets her ice sugar cookies with intricate designs, fun fonts, company logos and more. She’s made sugar cookies with icing designs featuring everything from Fourth of July hot dogs to graduation caps to the Kansas City Chiefs. She also makes custom designs for birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers and more.
“I love designing and decorating cookies,” she says. “During the holidays, I’m making anywhere between 7 and 21 pounds of royal icing at a time.”
From the historic springerles to her favorite chocolate chip cookies, Christy is a true artist. With every treat that leaves her oven, she shares a little sweetness, a little history and a lot of Christmas joy.
Turquoise Door Bakery is open Fridays and Saturdays and located at 2502 Main in Lexington. You can learn more at www.turquoisedoorbakery.com or by calling 660-215-1513.