Pint Size Bakery’s Alexis Pereira and Emma Hankins on traditions old and new

This past summer, Emma Hankins and Alexis Pereira bought Pint Size Bakery from founders Christy Augustin and Nancy Boehm. The beloved bakery’s new owners have vowed to honor its traditions while adding their own touches. Although Pereira spent five years with Pint Size prior to taking it over, this marks her and Hankins’ first holiday season at the helm, prompting some reflection on their own traditions, as well as the ones they’d like to continue and build on at the bakery.

You had a history with Pint Size before you bought it from former owners Christy Augustin and Nancy Boehm. How did you come to know the bakery?

Alexis Pereira: I met Christy and Nancy at Le Cordon Bleu; they were instructors, and I went there to study pastry. After graduation, I started decorating cakes at Schnucks and a couple of different places. When I was 21, I saw that Pint Size was hiring and became their decorator and kitchen manager for five years. This year, Emma and I started doing our own thing and were getting ready to open our own place, Bedeviled Bakery. Christy saw it and told me that she wanted us to buy Pint Size.

Emma Hankins: We were days away from signing a lease on a building, which would have meant having to build everything from the ground up. The timing and opportunity could not have been better.

How have things been going with the transition?

EH: Everyone has been really supportive. We spent this year getting used to everything, and we hope that in the new year we can start adding our own little touches. 

AP: We are proud to be carrying on their recipes. They have always been my bakery family—Pint Size has been my favorite bakery for a while. We have such a great group here and couldn’t do it without them. This neighborhood and all of our customers have been really great too. It’s been nice getting to know all of the people and do our part to keep the place going.

I know a lot of people come in to get what they need for the holidays from you, but it’s also true that home baking is such an important part of the holidays. What are some of your favorite holiday baking memories?

EH: I’ve always been very into bread since I was young. My grandpa was a breadmaker, and watching the bread rise and the smell of the yeast in the kitchen is such a core memory any time of year. This time of year, cookies will bring back childhood memories, too. I am Jewish, so getting to do rugelach is always special. Making them reminds me of Hanukkah dinners when I was growing up.

AP: I used to watch the Food Channel with my grandma when I was a teenager, which is what got me into wanting to make beautiful cakes and pastries for people. This time of year reminds me of baking with her and my mom. We’d always do pecan balls, which some people call Russian tea cakes, snowballs or Mexican wedding cookies. Her secret is underbaking them, and sometimes, we would just eat the dough before she could even get them into the oven.

Are you offering anything special at Pint Size for the holidays? What are your favorites?

EH: We have a brown butter brandy cherry tart, sammies by the dozen—we just started doing a chocolate peppermint version that is really good. For me, my favorite is our soft gingerbread cookie and anything that combines chocolate and orange flavors. My dad would always put one of those chocolate oranges in our stockings every year, so that flavor combination always brings back memories.

AP: We have a Christmas cookie box, and my favorite one in there is the oatmeal chocolate walnut. We also do cookie cake wreaths, mini versions of our brookies. So many things. Our site is up, and we are taking orders until the end of the day on Wednesday, December 18. Pastry-wise, I love the pastel de nata, which is a puff pastry shell with lemon, cinnamon and vanilla custard. My background is Portuguese, and I go there around this time of year to visit family. Every bakery in there has them. I wasn’t sure how they would do here, but people love them and they have been selling out. It’s exciting to make something new here and bring a little bit ourselves to the bakery. 

Photography courtesy of Pint Size Bakery

Photography courtesy of Pint Size Bakery

RECIPE: Pint Size Bakery’s Snowballs

When Pereira was growing up, her grandmother called them pecan balls, though Pereira acknowledges that you can call them a variety of names. She’s heard them referred to as Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cookies, or, as she and her partner Emma Hankins call them during this time of year, Snowballs. No matter what you call these buttery, pecan-studded beauties, Pereira says the secret, which she learned from her grandma, is to slightly underbake them—or you can do what she and her family used to do when she was a child. “Sometimes, we couldn’t even get them in the oven and just at the dough,” Pereira recalls. Whether they make it into your oven or not, these easy and delicious cookies will make for a delicious treat for your holiday sweets spread.

Ingredients:

• 16 tbsp butter (two sticks)
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup toasted pecans

Instructions:

1. Cream butter, powdered sugar and salt on second speed until light and fluffy. Scrape your bowl down.
2. Add all-purpose flour on first speed just until combined. Scrape your bowl.
3. Add your vanilla extract.
4. Mix in your cooled, toasted pecans.
5. Use a #60 cookie scoop and bake at 325 degrees for 15min, rotating halfway through.
6. Let cool for 10 minutes and while slightly warm roll in powdered sugar. 
7. You can leave them in the powdered sugar for a while to get a good coating.