Sinterklaas Cookies

Post-Thanksgiving. November revenue: $29,100. TWENTY-NINE THOUSAND. The biggest month. The month that broke every record. The month where Sarah's Table went from "promising" to "established." The math of the storefront's first year (projected, through December): approximately $240,000. Not the $250,000 I projected, but close. Close enough. Close enough that the distance between the projection and the reality is: a rounding error. A rounding error that smells like cornbread.

The year-end realization: I am a restaurant owner. Not a dental hygienist who caters on weekends. Not a woman with a side hustle and a napkin. A RESTAURANT OWNER. The identity has shifted. The title has changed. When people ask what I do, I say: "I own a restaurant." Not "I have a catering business" or "I cook on the side." I own a restaurant. The words are: heavy. The words are: light. The words are: exactly what Earline started and Lorraine predicted and Chloe assumed and Terrence named. I own a restaurant. The church has a pastor. The pastor is me.

Kevin's wedding is in four months. April 2024. The planning is finalizing. Sarah's Table is the caterer. The menu is locked: Earline's fried chicken, cornbread, collard greens, mac and cheese, Chloe's pecan pie. Fifty people. Kevin and Donna. The Mitchell wedding that represents: the cycle breaking, the choosing, the staying, the calm that Donna brings and the peace that Kevin found. The food at the wedding will be the food of the family, served by the family, eaten by the community that watched Kevin fall apart and put himself back together one casserole at a time. The wedding will be delicious.

December. Christmas orders. The restaurant's first full Christmas season. Forty-eight Christmas dinner orders at $95 each: $4,560. Plus regular service. Plus catering. December projection: $30,000+. The biggest month is about to be beaten by the next biggest month. The trajectory is: still up. Always up. The direction that Earline's skillet points when it hangs on the wall: up. Toward the light. The sunflower direction.

I made the annual gingerbread — Earline's recipe, the December tradition, the loaf that means: December is here, Christmas is coming, and the food is ready. I made it at the restaurant and I made it at home because the two kitchens that merged in June are now one kitchen in two locations and the food is the same in both because the food doesn't know about addresses. The food only knows about hands. My hands. Earline's hands. The same hands. Different years. Same gingerbread. Same love. Same table.

The gingerbread was already cooling on the rack at the restaurant when I started the second batch at home, and somewhere in between the two kitchens I understood something: the December tradition doesn’t care about square footage. These Sinterklaas cookies — all warm spice and quiet sweetness — remind me of exactly that. They’re the kind of cookie that carries a season in a single bite, the kind Earline would have recognized even if she’d never heard the name, because she understood that December food is really just love pressed into a shape and handed across a table. This year, with the restaurant’s first full Christmas season underway and Kevin’s wedding four months out, I needed something that felt like a tradition — and these delivered.

Prep Time: 20 minutes (plus 1 hour chill) | Cook Time: 13 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 33 minutes | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp fine salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp whole milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, white pepper, and salt until evenly combined. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and brown sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed for 2–3 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Add wet ingredients. Beat the egg, milk, and vanilla extract into the butter mixture until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Combine and form the dough. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed just until a cohesive dough forms. Do not overmix. Shape the dough into a flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or overnight).
Preheat and prep. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll and cut. On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into shapes with your preferred cookie cutters — stars, rounds, or traditional windmill shapes all work beautifully. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.
Bake. Bake for 12–14 minutes, until the edges are just set and the bottoms are lightly golden. The centers will look slightly underdone — they firm up as they cool. Let rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sinterklaas Cookies — The December Tradition That Lives in Two Kitchens and One Heart