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WILKES-BARRE — If you ask 96-year-old William Cordy what makes his church’s Welsh cookies so tasty, he’ll tell you it’s the sweet dried fruit you’ll find in each flat biscuit.

“Raisins are a lot cheaper,” he said matter-of-factly. “But we use currants.”

No doubt currants are important, but other special ingredients seem to be at work here, too. It’s not just flour and sugar, but the patience and camaraderie of dozens of volunteers who gather several times a year to make cookies at Bennett-Derr United Methodist Church.

Church members are taking orders until May 18 for cookies that will be ready for pick-up on May 21.

“They’re not overly sweet, but they do have a nice taste,” said long-time volunteer Duane Sadvary, whose brothers Stephen and Daniel Lee Sadvary worked with him during a cookie-preparation session earlier this year.

Also pitching in was Duane’s wife, Amy, who “had no idea what a Welsh cookie is” before the met Duane and married into the tradition.

“To me,” Amy Sadvary said, “a cookie was something chocolatey that comes out of an oven.”

Welsh cookies aren’t chocolate and they don’t come from an oven. They’re often spiced with nutmeg, but some of their unique flavor comes from being heated on griddles until they’re golden brown.

Volunteers Diane Gayton, 73, and Barbara Peggs, 86, who both live near the church and said they enjoy getting together to tend those griddles, perhaps watching over 18 cookies at a time and flipping them when necessary.

“I’ve been coming here since I was a second-grader at Mackin School,” Gayton reminisced. “I’d come and help serve turkey dinners.”

“My husband loves these,” said volunteer Theresa Lyons of Wilkes-Barre as the finished cookies piled up.

Another fan is retired Coughlin High School math teacher Olin Evans, who stopped the church hall during the last cookie-making session to pick up a few dozen. “They are delicious,” he confirmed.

Volunteering for the church’s cookie fund-raiser several times a year is rewarding, Duane Sadvary said, because it helps pay church expenses such as the heating bill.

It’s satisfying in other ways, too, Amy Sadvary said. “Rather than come to church for an hour and then leave, this way, you get to be a community.”

D.L. Sadvary flips Welsh cookies on a griddle during a Saturday morning cookie-making session at Bennett-Derr United Methodist Church in Wilkes-Barre earlier this year.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_welshcookies01.jpg.optimal.jpgD.L. Sadvary flips Welsh cookies on a griddle during a Saturday morning cookie-making session at Bennett-Derr United Methodist Church in Wilkes-Barre earlier this year. Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader

Welsh cookies on a cooling rack at Bennett-Derr United Methodist Church in Wilkes-Barre.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_welshcookies02.jpg.optimal.jpgWelsh cookies on a cooling rack at Bennett-Derr United Methodist Church in Wilkes-Barre. Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader

By Mary Therese Biebel

[email protected]

COOKIE SALE

What: Welsh cookies

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 21

Where: Bennett-Derr United Methodist Church, Chapel and New Grant streets, East End, Wilkes-Barre.

Cost: $4 dozen, pre-paid

Orders: 570-823-1469, [email protected].

Deadline: May 18.

Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT