Whether it’s gingerbread men or sugar plums that dance in your head around Christmas, everyone has a favorite treat to commemorate the holiday season.

For Andrea Tragos, a junior in the College of Business Administration, it’s her grandma’s pierogi that does jigs and backflips ­in her yuletide dreams.

“This recipe is straight out of my Polish grandmother’s cookbook,” Tragos said. “It’s a Tragos tradition.”

A pierogi is a European dumpling that can be prepared as a dessert or appetizer, depending on the filling used.

For those with a predisposition for Italian delicacies, Cameron Tieuli, a sophomore in the College of Communication, suggests his mother’s Italian trifle cake, a layered confection of pudding, cookies, and whipped cream.

“My mom makes it every Christmas,” Tieuli said. “It’s great because it doesn’t require baking, but is still delicious.”

If you’re looking for a Milwaukee-based treat, try these traditional butter cookies from the vintage 1959 Wisconsin Electric Company Christmas Cookie Book. These annual Cookie Books have been a part of Milwaukee’s history for decades, providing cookie recipes for families to enjoy during the Christmas season.

Have a holiday recipe you want to share? Post it as a comment on this story at www.marquettetribune.org.

Pierogi

Cheese filling

• 1 cup dry cottage cheese
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
• A dash of salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

1. Mix well with beater in medium bowl — the drier the filling, the easier it is to use.

Pierogi dough

• 3 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cold mashed potatoes
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup milk

1. Sift flour into a mixing bowl, measure and re-sift with salt.

2. Add mashed potatoes.

3. Combine melted butter and egg yolk and stir into a flour mixture.

4. Add milk gradually, stirring until well mixed.

5. Shape into a ball and knead until soft and pliable.

6. Roll out on floured cloth to 1/8-inch thickness and cut with a 2-inch round biscuit cutter.

7. Place 1 teaspoon cheese filling on one side of each dough round and fold the edges and seal by pinching with fingers or pressing together with a fork.

8. Drop pierogi into 3 quarts of boiling water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Simmer gently 5 minutes or until the pierogi rises to the top.

9. Lift out and drain, then brush with butter.

Italian Trifle Cake

• Rectangular glass pan
• 2 packages Stella Dora sponge cookies
• 1/2 cup rum
• 6 and 3/4 ounces of chocolate pudding
• 6 and 3/4 ounces vanilla pudding
• Walnuts
• Maraschino cherries
• Cool Whip

1. Cut cookies in half the long way and layer the bottom of pan.

2. Pour 1/4 cup rum over cookies evenly.

3. Pour cooked chocolate pudding over cookies and sprinkle with nuts.

4. Repeat previous three steps, except using vanilla pudding instead. Top with cherries.

5. Cover with Saran wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours.

6. Spread cool whip all over it and serve.

Old-fashioned butter cookies

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 and 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

1. Cream the butter and the sugar with a beater.

2. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract, and beat well.

3. Add flour and salt and beat well.

4. Drop teaspoon-sized balls of dough on a cookie sheet.

5. Dunk a fork in sugar (so it doesn’t stick) and press it down lightly on each cookie.

6. Sprinkle red and green sugars on the cookies for holiday cheer.

7. Bake for about eight minutes at 400 degrees.

This makes about six dozen bite-sized cookies.