If you caught season four of TLC’s Next Great Baker, you’re undoubtedly a fan of Lia Holter and her Made. By Lia Craft Bakery (610 Rue Street, Florissant). Holter’s love of baking began with her family’s Christmas cookies, and so her new cookbook Made. by Lia’s Christmas Cookies features both childhood favorites as well as bakery staples.
Holter recently joined us to share how her baking journey began — and her favorite Christmas cookie.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get into baking?
I've been baking ever since I was a little kid. Christmas cookie day with my big Italian family is where I fell in love with the kitchen. We would make hundreds and hundreds of cookies with my great grandma, my grandma, my mom and my sisters. So that’s where I fell in love, and I knew that I wanted to find a job in the kitchen and be able to do something that I love doing every day. That's kind of why I wrote this Christmas cookie book, because that's really where it all began.
What was it like being on TLC’s Next Great Baker?
I lived in New Jersey, New York for like two months and we filmed every day. It was super exhausting and grueling. It was, like, 15 to 20 hour film days. But I kept winning each week, and I was like, “I actually have a chance to win.” And it just so happened that my team won.
That's really what helped get Made. by Lia started, because I started it in 2012 just as a little Facebook page for friends and family to order from. Then I won Next Great Baker in 2014 and Made. by Lia grew overnight. There were all these orders and I was baking out of my little tiny apartment. I didn't know how I was going to keep up with the demand. So in 2015, I moved to Central West End in the Cortex District. I was a brand ambassador for ABMauri, and they let me use their state-of-the-art baking facility. I couldn't have customers come in, but I was able to produce a lot of my products and still do catering and weddings. Then in 2019, in the middle of COVID, I opened up my first brick-and-mortar and we've been there for about three years now.
What made you decide to come out with a Christmas cookie cookbook?
I kind of woke up one morning early in November and was like, “I'm going to make a bunch of cookies today, take a bunch of pictures and then turn it into a cookbook.” I did it in under a week's time, which is kind of crazy. It was something I wanted to get out this year because on the back of the book it announces the coming of my actual baking book that will be launched next year. It will include a lot more of the pastries, breads and scones we have at the bakery, but also a lot of my family favorites and traditions.
How do you go about making your Christmas cookie box?
Our Christmas cookie boxes are super cute. We do hundreds and hundreds of them every year. There are a variety of 12 different cookies and we have a large box that basically gets two of each cookie, so it's 27 cookies in the large box and the small box is about 14 cookies. Everything we make here is completely from scratch so it's just really special and really yummy. They’re perfect for gifting.
What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
It’s an Italian sesame cookie, but we call it giuggiulena. It's kind of a take on a Scottie — you dip it in your coffee and just one taste of it brings me right back to being at my childhood home. There's a certain method of rolling them and dipping them in the sesame seeds and it just fills my heart with so much joy. Besides that one, it would be our ginger doodles. They're a really chewy kind of molasses and we dunk them in white chocolate. They're so good.
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