The Sweet Specialist Blog - Every Cookie Tells a Story

Customizing cookies for events is a lot like individualizing nutritional careplans—define then capture the moment. Thus, it was for “Noah’s Ark”.

The moment? A Baby shower celebrating the approaching birth of Noah. Party theme? Noah’s Ark, of course. The plan? Make an ark surrounded by 60 favor bags filled with six (6) ½” size Honey Cookies—Noah’s critters, of course—tied with blue raffia. What else better to take home with Noah’s Tea?

Attempts I and II were a wash out. With version I, I made a cardboard hull for a frame and draped gingerbread slabs over it. Version I did not make it out of the oven. Version II did better. It made it out of the oven and was well on its way to drying in place when I left the shop. However, when I came in the next day, the ark had fallen in on itself,...

As a child, I always made my Gramma Klein’s oatmeal cookies with her whenever she came to visit. There was (and is) no one as special as Gramma Klein—and there is no more marvelous an oatmeal cookie as hers. Huge, heavy and dense, loaded with raisins, chocolate chips, and walnuts—that’s how I remember them—that’s how I make them (mostly).

She would tell me, “D, you know just the right sticky. Other people don’t, you know. I try to get them to get it,” rubbing her fingers together with some exasperation, “but I can’t—it’s something that can’t be measured. You just have to know.”

It wasn’t until I opened my cookie biz, making cookies 24/7, that I really understood, really “felt” what she was saying. I have always contended that it takes three...

 If only I knew then what I know now, I probably would not have opened my business. (As I have mentioned before, I own a small cookie shop here in southern Maine). I understand, however, from two experienced business professionals that this is a common refrain often heard from small business owners, many of whom are quite successful.

Although my business has been successful in some ways, there is plenty of room for improvement and growth. But being human, I am neither omniscient nor omnipotent; improvement and growth come through trial and error. “Make no mistakes, you make nothing”, so I’ve read. But for those of you considering opening your own business, there are three things that I would do differently:

1.  I would double the amount of funds I sought from the bank for financing a new enterprise. The number one...

The history behind foods and desserts are as varied and checkered as the people who made that history. Recently the Way Back Machine took me to the year 1395 when the Medieval Crusaders returned to Europe with the exotic spices and ingredients for gingerbread in tote. The English Medieval gingerbread, served at holidays and festivals, was a cooked and thickened dough (not baked at all) made on elaborately carved “cookie boards”. The molded cookies were then brightly colored and gilted (covered with a thin layer of gold).

Traveling through time and the European continent, gingerbread began to change form. The Dutch made Speculass. In Germany, it was known as Specualass, and then Lebkuchen which was made with honey. The French made pain d’epices or “spice bread”, and the Italians, panforte, so dense and rich that it was almost candy-like...