Natalie's Everyday Heroes: Bakers Make the Cookie Book Cut

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- We are less than two months away from the release of the 2025 We Energies Cookie Book. It's a year-long process to create the holiday classic.

CBS 58 has taken you along as the Cookie Book team picked the recipes and photographed the finalists. Tonight, we take you into the kitchen to hear the stories behind two of the cookies featured in this year's book.

"One cup of butter," said Mary Turner.

These cookies start the way many do. 

"One cup of sugar," she said, as her husband added it to the mixer.

Mixing together the wet ingredient, a little at a time, and adding the dry. 

But there are extra touches that set them apart. 

"You've got to have the cream cheese in there," she said.

These are Turner's peaches and cream cookies. 

"And when I bring them places, I never bring any home," Turner admits.

There's cream cheese in the dough. And cream cheese in the frosting.

"They're very good, very good," her husband, Jeff Turner, said.  

What sets them apart, though, isn't in the kitchen. 

It's the peach tree in the Turner's backyard. 

Jeff Turner uses those fresh peaches to make jam. 

"Dab it into the center," he said, back in the kitchen, adding it to the cookie.

And that jam inspired Mary's recipe. 

"So, I had lots of peach jam. So, I was like, here we go. Peaches and cream. Everybody likes that," she said.

That includes the We Energies Cookie Book team.

"Oh, it's very exciting because I didn't expect a call back," Turner said.

Neither did Alice Smith.

"And I thought, I'll just send it in. I'm sure it won't get in the book. But I'm going to send one anyways and I did," Turner said with a laugh.

She submitted a recipe she's been making for 40 years.

"Cherry nut slices," she said, as she sliced them into rounds.

The cookies are a mix of cherries, nuts and brown sugar. Sliced and baked to perfection. 

"It's a soft cookie and it's moist. And that's the kind of cookies I like," she said.

Her skill is born of experience. 

"I'm 97," she said.

 That's something she learned she has in common with the Cookie Book when she got a call from We Energies. 

"She said do you realize you were born the year that we started the cookie book and I said I had no idea," Smith said.

Both bakers are happy to be part of a tradition almost 100 years in the making. 

"I've always known about the cookie book because everybody has them in Wisconsin," Turner said.

Tried and true recipes making the holidays a little bit sweeter. 

"Kind of looks like a sunny side up egg. So, you can have them for breakfast if you want," Turner said.

Mary and Alice's cookies are two of about 37 recipes that made the final cut out of hundreds of submissions this year. 

You can look for both recipes in the We Energies Cookie Book when it's released on November 1st. For more information on where and when you can get yours for free, just visit 2025 Cookie Book distribution schedule | We Energies.

If you'd like to nominate an Everyday Hero, send Natalie a message at [email protected].