A Christmas tradition which started 30 years ago for many Bella Vista families, the annual Highlands Church Cookie Walk, is a sweet way to start the holiday season.
On Saturday, Dec. 1, the doors open at 8 a.m. for an event that's become a church bazaar with cookies. There are crafts to buy, a candy shop with homemade Christmas candy, sticky buns, muffins and cinnamon rolls in the coffee shop, and hot soup to go. Then there are the cookies.
Highlands Church Annual Cookie Walk
371 Glasgow Road (two miles from the 549 Bypass)
Dec. 1, 2018
8:30 to 11 a.m. (doors open at 8 a.m.)
$12 per can
For more information, 479-855-2277
Rhodes Cinnamon Rolls with Ice Cream
1 bag (12 count) Rhode’s Cinnamon Rolls
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
Follow package instructions to allow rolls to rise. A 9x13 pan will hold nine rolls.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a saucepan on the stove combine ice cream, brown sugar and butter. Stir constantly and bring to a boil. Let boil, while stirring for 1 to 2 minutes or until it’s a nice caramel color. Feel free to taste test!
Pour caramel mixture over the rolls. Bake according to package instructions until rolls are golden brown.
Remove from oven and frost immediately with frosting package provided in the Rhodes package.
Best served warm … or cold … whatever.
Hundreds of cookies, ranging from Russian Tea Cakes to decorated sugar cookies are laid out on trays in the fellowship hall, event chair Sue LaHood explained. The public passes through, one group at a time, and chooses their own combinations.
For $12, each participant receives a clean Folgers can and a plastic glove to handle the cookies. The can will hold three dozen cookies, although with careful packing some people may get up to five dozen, LaHood said. She estimated that there will be 30 to 35 varieties of cookies.
Bakers are asked to keep their cookies small so they're easier to pack.
At the final stop, their plastic containers are covered in a handmade, reusable, Christmas bag.
The cookies are all homemade by members of the church, publicity chair Lori Pinkerton said, so are the crafts, sweets and soups that have become part of the event.
"It's grown into a holiday bazaar," Pinkerton said.
Last year, she met one woman who had been coming with her daughters for 25 years. The daughters are now adults but still coming to the cookie walk.
Every year they get calls from former residents begging for cookie shipments, but that's not possible, Pinkerton said. Only people who show up in person get cookies.
It's a nice way to open the holiday season, Pinkerton said.
Longtime volunteer Barbara Zillmann said some families have made a tradition out of photos by the giant gingerbread cookie that sits outside each year.
"It's a really nice spirit," Zillman said about the event, "Everyone is in a good mood."
General News on 11/21/2018