VANCOUVER — A local family has gathered for decades to bake and bond over a beloved festive Italian cookie. Amid boisterous banter, they turn out more than 2,500 cookies in a single day.
For nearly 90 years, the Corso family has gathered on the first Saturday of December to create the traditional holiday favorite, an Italian fig-stuffed cookie served at Christmas time. This year was the first time the extended family was able to come together since the start of the pandemic.
Longtime host Paul Corso turned 80; and he and his two brothers, Jim and Doug Corso, made it their final year before hanging up their aprons and passing the tradition to the next generation.
The Corso Family Cookie Day is carefully orchestrated to produce thousands of a single special cookie: the cuccidati. The traditional Sicilian cookie is comprised of a pastry dough stuffed with a soft, fragrant mix of dried figs, raisins, nuts and warm spices and topped with a snowy white glaze and colorful sprinkles.
The shopping list includes 13 pounds of walnuts, 5 pounds of hazelnuts, 4 pounds of almonds, 23 pounds of raisins, 5 pounds of figs, a large bottle of red wine and half a bottle of whiskey. The dough-maker works more than 60 pounds of flour into multiple batches of dough. One crew forms the cookies by hand and another runs the ovens, frosts and sprinkles. Runners place warm cookies on tables to cool, wash cookie trays and put them back into circulation. Of course, there are a few wandering “taste-testers” who attempt to look busy.
“Cookie Day” began in Chicago in the 1930s. The brothers’ grandparents, Sicilian immigrants Vincenza and Salvatore Giunta, gathered a few family members to make cuccidati every holiday season. Following the Great Depression, the Giuntas moved to Portland, where the cookie-making continued, and family members carried on the tradition for decades. The Corso men’s late parents, Gus and Marie Corso, hosted “Cookie Day” for nearly four decades at their southeast Portland home.
Paul Corso and his wife, Judy, took over the tradition 21 years ago. They are ready to pass the baking sheets on to their children, nieces and nephews.
