Vaccarros. Unfortunately, the closest shops are in Baltimore. I was a great place to stop for a quick hostess gift when they still had their stall in Union Station.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the OP Of this thread last year. Just wanted to post an update - both the Swiss Bakery in Springfield VA and Potomac Sweets in Kensington had exactly what I needed -- delicious!

Wow, OP, you’re hard core if you hit both sides of the beltway!

It was a busy errand day! I'm so happy now.

Potomac Sweets was half the price of the Swiss Bakery but both made beautiful cookies. The Swiss Bakery has spritz cookies that taste exactly like the ones I used to make, but look prettier. Potomac Sweets spritz have a light crunch to them, and a flavor of hazelnut in them, which was different, but I like it too.

Anonymous wrote:The DC area is lacking in old school bakeries. There are so many recipes online for the cookies you mentioned and they are much better homemade anyway.

I agree - I would LOVE to buy or have someone give me a plate of homemade cookies, but I can't bake them myself anymore.

When I was growing up, our Girl Scout troop would bake homemade cookies as a fundraiser. We made tons of money.
We got together at each other's houses and did a huge cookie marathon. Let's see, we made:

spritz
Mexican wedding? snowball? cookies -- the ones with almonds
cookie cutter sugar cookies with icing
those braided candy cane cookies
peanut butter blossoms
gingerbread men
anginetti
raspberry thumbprints
and I swear we made rum balls, too... but we couldn't have, could we? Maybe one of the moms made those for us.

We sold them by the dozen in bags.