Lady Locks

            I am the pickiest 28 year old eater you will ever meet. If I could live off of Starbucks, Chik Fil A, and cupcakes life would be perfect. When I started looking at the list of suggested foods for this assignment I think I said “ewww” out loud to the vast majority of them.

            I began thinking about other options. I started to think about foods synonymous with Pittsburgh. The first thing that comes to mind is a Primanti’s sandwich. Unfortunately, the only thing I have ever had from Primanti’s is the chicken tenders so it probably wasn’t my best choice.  Plus, it would be tricky and expensive to get 40 Primanti’s sandwiches to class for the pot luck. The next thing that came to mind was cookie tables. Pittsburgh and cookie tables go together like peanut butter and jelly. They have been written about in the New York Times and Bon Appetit. It used to be primarily a wedding tradition, but in more recent years it has become a tradition at bridal showers, baby showers, Christmas parties, and graduation parties. I had a cookie table at my high school graduation party!

            The exact origin of the Pittsburgh cookie table is not known. Most people give credit to Italians and Eastern Europeans who created the tradition out of necessity. The amount of sugar and flower needed to make a wedding cake to serve a large crowd was much more expensive than the amount of sugar and flour needed to bake cookies. Also, it allowed other family members to be involved with a part of the wedding. Mothers, grandmothers, and aunts could all bake their special cookies for the occasion. Today, it is no longer done out of necessity, but to carry on the tradition started years ago.

            Many cookie tables include a variety of Italian cookie recipes like Pesche Dolci, Gravioli, Nacatole, and Pizzelles. The cookie tables I grew up with are full of more common cookies like Chocolate Chip, Thumbprints, Peanut Butter cookies, Buckeyes, and Wedding Cake Cookies. Since it would be impossible for me to write about every cookie included in a traditional Pittsburgh cookie table I am going to talk about my absolute favorite cookie of all time, the lady lock. For those not familiar with this sweet treat, they are a delicious, light, flaky pastry style cookie filled with whipped cream. I could easily eat a dozen at one sitting. It is one of my favorite wastes of calories!

            Lady Locks are also sometimes called clothespin cookies or cream horns. They originated in Eastern European countries like Poland and Germany. They have become a very popular cookie in the western Pennsylvania area because so many people from Poland and Germany emigrated to southwestern Pennsylvania.  Lady locks are sometimes compared to the popular Italian pastry called a cannoli, but they are two very different desserts with different recipes. cannolis remind me of cream filled donuts;  a Lady Lock is most definitely a cookie. They were originally baked using wooden clothespins as forms, but over the ears different methods have developed.

Though the dough is relative easy to make (recipes vary, but generally 5 – 8 ingredients), the process from start to finish is labor intensive. They have to be baked either around a special metal form you can purchase from a kitchen supply store like Sur La Table, wooden clothespins wrapped in tin foil, or just tin foil shaped into a small rod-like shape. After you roll out the dough, you cut it into strips and wrap it around the form method of your choice from the list above. Then you bake them, let them cool, and fill them with homemade buttercream icing. My mother makes these cookies every year for Christmas. It is an all-day event.

Below is my mother’s recipe:

Shells

1 lb. can of regular  Crisco

3 cups of flour

2 egg yolks

1 ½ cups of cold water

2 tbsp. of granulated sugar

A pinch of salt

Filling

1 cup of whole milk

½ cup of granulated sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter (softened)

1 cup of regular Crisco

1 ½ tsp. of Vanilla

2 cups of whipping cream

            The nutritional value of a lady lock is minimal.  They are a guilty pleasure associated with times of celebration and happiness.  You couldn’t live on lady locks, but they make special occasions, truly special.