In 2009, the first Little Free Library was built in Hudson, Wisconsin. In 2021, my friend, Seattle artist Stacy Milrany, created the country’s first Free Little Art Gallery. And Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood is home to what is believed to be the country’s first Little Free Bakery, where home-baked treats are loaded into a sidewalk box for neighbors to enjoy. Whoever said “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” obviously never made a midday meal out of a free tiramisu cupcake with mascarpone buttercream from Little Free Bakery Ballard!
🍋 Subscriber exclusive: Nosh newsletter subscribers received Little Free Bakery Ballard's recipe for Soft & Chewy Lemon Cookies with this week's edition. For more recipes, plus our Taste of the Town Q&A with a prominent local person, subscribe now.
On a recent episode of The Nosh, I introduced you to Lanne Rosebrook Stauffer and Jill Lightner, friends of 30 years and home bakers who give away cookies, muffins, pastries, miniature pies and slices of cake every week, to bring joy and connect with their communities. Jill is also a recipe developer and food writer, so the project relieves her husband of eating dozens and dozens of her sweet experiments!
From left to right, Rachel Belle, Jill Lightner and Lanne Rosebrook Stauffer eat Jill’s lemon cookies.
In the episode, we make Jill’s Soft & Chewy Lemon Cookies, which Lanne describes as “more tender than my heart.” Having eaten 10 of them during filming, I can confirm: so pillowy soft, so bright and lemony! Since we filmed the episode, Lanne and Jill have secured a Little Free Bakery cookbook deal! But Jill was kind enough to share her cookie recipe with us ahead of publication. Newsletter subscribers: If you make them, let me know what you think! And maybe take a cue from Lanne and Jill and share a batch with your neighbors.
Have a food- or drink-related question (Need a restaurant rec? Have a mystery that needs solving?) Send me a note: rachel.belle@cascadepbs.org
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XO
Rachel Belle
