Ortonville- As co-owner of Papa Bella’s, Joe D’Anna spends a lot of time making pizzas, but one day a year, he turns his pizzeria at 425 Mill St. into a Christmas cookie bakery.
On Dec. 13, he and 13 friends and family members spent about four hours baking 1,437 cookies, including 220 chocolate chip, 227 peanut butter, 480 Italian almond, and 510 lemon cut-outs (also frosted).
‘I like doing quality control the best,? laughs D’Anna the day after the event. ‘Somebody’s gotta sacrifice himself.?
The D’Anna family has hosted a Christmas cookie baking event at the pizzeria for more than 20 years now, taking advantage of the large pizza ovens, a 60-quart Hobart mixer, and about 70 feet of table space to make short work of what would take the average home baker days to produce.
To make this year’s cookies, participants chipped in $140 to purchase 40 pounds of flour, 15 pounds of sugar, nine pounds of regular shortening, five pounds of butter-flavor shortening, seven dozen eggs, four pounds of lard, five 12-ounce bags of chocolate chips, five pounds of peanut butter, four pounds of confectioner’s sugar, 10 ounces of lemon extract, six ounces of vanilla extract, and six ounces of almond extract.
They have an assembly line of rolling cookies, cutting them into shapes including trees, Santas, snowmen, stars and snowflakes, and after baking, cooling and icing them.
‘We got tired of trashing Mom’s kitchen,? said D’Anna of the start of the tradition. ‘It’s a family day and as friends move on, we extend the invitation to some new friends.?
The number of people participating dictates the number of cookies they are able to bake, as well as how big the cookies are.
They divide the yield up between six or seven families and then share with neighbors and friends, and of course, Santa.