Robinson man wins gaulette contest
McDONALD – Gaulettes are tasty, that’s for sure.
Sugary. Chewy. Filling. Golden brown. After you’ve nibbled on one, resisting another requires extraordinary reserves of willpower.
And, when it comes down to it, making gaulettes is such a labor-intensive undertaking that by the time gaulettes are ready to slide down your gullet, you more than deserve a couple.
“People in (McDonald) take gaulettes very seriously,” said Jaymie Oravetz, president of Barclay-Robinson-Phillips Ladies Auxiliary in the northern Washington County community. To underscore just how seriously McDonald takes the Belgian delicacy, the auxiliary hosted a gaulette contest Saturday, where residents were invited to cook them up and submit them to the discriminating palates of the auxiliary post’s visitors.
The winner was Daniel Machek, a Robinson Township resident.
“I’ve eaten them all my life,” Machek said. “My mother is Belgian, and it’s a Belgian cookie.”
This is the second year the auxiliary hosted a gaulette contest. Making them is not necessarily as easy as stirring up a bunch of ingredients and heating up the oven. First, a gaulette iron is needed. Then, among other things, a baker needs a pound of butter, six eggs, three cups of light brown sugar and seven cups of flour.
“It takes a lot of work,” Oravetz said.
But many find that the sweat is worth it, once the process is complete. Roberta Garn, the treasurer of the auxiliary, said her gaulettes once prompted a family feud over who would get them after she brought them to a funeral dinner in Braddock. Aside from the gustatory satisfaction they provide in the here-and-now, gaulettes are also suffused with nostalgia for many McDonald-area residents, as they summon times when parents and grandparents, who were themselves not too far removed from Belgium, made gaulettes.
In fact, when asked his secret when it comes to whipping up gaulettes, Machek explained “the secret is love.”
Oravetz echoed those sentiments.
“They’re made with love,” she said. “It’s a love offering. It’s all about the love that’s been put into it.”