Author: Cara

You asked…we answered!

On May 22nd, we posed a question to our Facebook fans: “If you could ask Pacific Cookie Company one question (anything from ingredient questions, to questions about our retail bakery, etc.), what would it be?” Thank you to everyone who contributed! We received some great questions, and hope that our answers satisfy your curiosity!

1. Will you serve gluten free in all flavors?

Red House bakery does not make all the flavors Pacific Cookie has but we would love your feedback on your favorites!

2. Exactly what time are the cookies taken out of the oven? I’d like to purchase them at that exact moment.

We bake all day long so our cookies are fresh and the aroma fills the streets of downtown. You can always call or come by to see what will be coming out soon!

3. Why can’t I find bags of Almond Joe’s at local grocery stores? Deluxe Foods and Shopper’s Corner carry everything BUT Almond Joe’s. (or should I ask them this question?)

We only package our best sellers in the bags you’ll find at your local grocery store. But you can always find them fresh-baked at our retail bakery in downtown Santa Cruz.

4. Can you please make a new cookie with dark chocolate and orange zest?

That sounds delicious. Are you thinking a dark chocolate cookie base like Dr. Midnight with orange zest? What would you recommend on top of the cookie to know it has orange flavor? If you have a recipe we can take a look. Send an email to office@pacificcookie.com with your suggestions.

5. Why are your cookies so freaking good?!?

It’s a secret.

6. The oven temp. 😛

Hmm…another secret.

7. Can I get the recipe? 🙂

If we did you probably would not have the same result as our dough makers who have been mixing dough at Pacific Cookie Company for over 15 years!

8. Why did you stop making oatmeal chocolate chip with walnuts…they were my favorite (back when you sold them for 25 cents each!)?

Unfortunately, no one bought them. 🙁

9. Can you please make a vegan cookie?

In fact, we have tried to make a vegan cookie in the past, but without much success. Our classic flavors with butter and eggs are our specialty.

10. How would I go about getting the BIG cookies—the ones you don’t sell at the store?? The chocolate chip cookies are the best!

Call our wholesale office! And ask for 3-oz cookies (831) 429-9709.

11. Peanut butter cookie, can you please add whole peanuts to your batter? Please.

We use a chunky peanut butter. Some cookie lovers don’t like nuts, some like more. Our peanut butter is the perfect in between.

12. Will you open a store in Columbia, Missouri?

If you are interested just call me up, cousin. 😉

13. What’s the secret to getting cookies so soft?

Use a higher than normal baking temp to get a crunchy exterior and soft interior. Yum!

14. Temp? Size of scoop? What is the name of the products you use? 

Secrets…

15. In the lemon cookie…lemon oil…lemon zest…lemon juice? Cake flour…bread flour…AP…what what spit it out!!!

Hmm…more secrets… 🙂

 

And there you have it folks! Your questions answered. If you have another question, but missed the opportunity with this post, please feel free to ask us on Facebook and we’ll be sure to get back to you. Thanks so much for all your support.

Sugar Cookie Fun for the Holidays!

My girls (Lily, 6 and Mila, 3) woke up early on Sunday eagerly awaiting the annual decorating of our Christmas tree that stood freshly cut and bare in the living room.  It was a stormy day so we were happy to have a joyful activity to fill the morning hours. We slowly trimmed the tree, listening to holiday tunes and answering the many questions they had about where each ornament came from as the tree came to life.

The rain kept falling and we were in need of something fun to do. Making cookies is always a popular activity in our house and I had a fun sugar cookie project in the queue. The girls love to roll out dough,  cut it into shapes, and decorate. This Christmas light bulb sugar cookies craft I found on Foxy Fawni’s blog about Christmas crafts was sure to be a hit.

What you need:

  • Sugar cookie ingredients (see recipe below)
  • Vanilla frosting (I had a container of pre-made vanilla buttercream frosting I picked up at the store from The Frosting Queens.)
  • 3 cups M&M Mini chocolate candies (check the M&M website for store locator)
  • Drinking straw
  • Christmas light shaped cookie cutter (I ordered one from Etsy but also call your local bakery supply store)
  • Rolling pin(s)
  • Optional- 4 strands of licorice laces

We used the Holiday Sugar Cookie recipe from one of my favorite baking cookbooks- Flour by Joanne Chang. Joanne Chang is the owner of Flour bakeries in Boston, Ma. She has her B.A. in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard and soon after graduating realized that she loved baking cookies more than anything else. Her recipes are delightful (never too sweet) and I have never been able to mess any of them up!

 

 

 

Holiday Sugar Cookies by Joanne Chang

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Cream sugar and butter for 5 min until light and fluffy (I used a hand-mixer but a wooden spoon will work, although it may take longer to cream). Beat in eggs and vanilla on medium speed for 2-3 min until combined.

In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder & salt until well mixed. On low speed, slowly blend the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture and them mix just until the flour mixture is totally incorporated and the dough evenly mixed. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour until firm enough to roll out.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

(Great time to get the kids working!) separate different colors of mini M&M’s into 6  different bowls. 

Put on your aprons- it is about to get messy! Lightly flour your work surface, place dough on the surface and flour the dough and rolling pin. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick and make your Christmas Light Bulb cut outs. Transfer to a baking sheet and using a drinking straw press a hole at the top of each cookie.

Bake 12-15 min until cookies are golden brown on the edges and pale in the center. Cool completely. Decorate by first adding a smooth layer of vanilla butter cream frosting and then add the M&M minis one color per cookie (see the above photo). Loop a ribbon or licorice rope through the holes.

Tips

1. I like to make a double batch of cookie dough and freeze the second portion for rainy days.

2. Make sure your light bulb dough cutouts are 1/4 inch or thinner. When we made them too thick they spread too much in the oven and looked like blobs.

3. Have a wonderful holiday!

Team G Bake Sale

Team G Bake Sale FLYER

In August, a friend of mine called to tell me she wanted to put on a HUGE county-wide Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale in September and hoped that Pacific Cookie Company and I would get involved. Kristin Cosner is the loving mother of Gabriella, a sweet 4 year old girl diagnosed just this past March with a cancer by the name of Rhabdomyosarcoma. Kristin and I met in May while filming a touching video of local cancer mamas talking about their experiences and how important it is to spread awareness of pediatric cancer. This video was shown at Mama’s Night Out on May 12, 2012.

How and why would I say no to Kristin’s request? Here is a mother that, in the midst of going through radiation treatment with her little girl 5 days a week for 6 weeks, wanted to make a difference. She wanted to draw attention to the fact that pediatric cancer is The Kids Who Inspire Usunderfunded while raising precious dollars to help to change that. Now that was a woman that I wanted to work with and be inspired by. I was immediately on board.

Kristin built an amazing team of other locals from parents that had children with cancer, to friends, family and people simply inspired by the cause. Soon, four locations in Santa Cruz County agreed to host the Sunday bake sale. The Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote a wonderful article about Kristin and Gabriella and the bake sales called Sweetness in the Middle of Difficulty. The community was touched by the story and inspired to bake sweets for the event and volunteer in any way they could.

On the Saturday before the big day, Pacific Cookie Company was the headquarters for people dropping off baked goods, volunteers picking up pre-orders of cookies and cupcakes, and a team of people organizing all the bake sale items and “making them pretty”. Over 40 volunteers, along with the local Girl Scouts, came out to make it happen. Local home bakers of all ages were lined up out the door to drop off their beautiful cookies, brownies, cupcakes, bars and sweets, all lovingly made in honor of Team G and the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale.

Sunday was magical. People from all over Santa Cruz County and beyond came to the 4 bake sale locations to support the cause. Over $22,000 was raised.

I was so honored to be a part of Kristin’s vision and I am so impressed by the outpouring of support from our loving community. Events like these really make a difference.

To keep up with Kristin and Gabriella’s Story you can follow her blog: www.gabriellacosner.blogspot.com.

Sweet treats even more sweetly gift wrapped

Organization of all donations was a BIG job, but an essential one.

Delicious Cookies + Happy Volunteers = Bakesale Success

Team G Decorated Cookies
The Scotts Valley Bake Sale

 

Cookie Monster and Cupcake Woman supporting the Scotts Valley Bake Sale!

The Aptos Bake Sale

Delicious cupcakes at the Capitola Bake Sale

The Skillet Cookie

We came across Rebecca’s Blog, “The Cherry On Top” and just HAD to share her post about the Skillet Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie, a recipe she got from Martha Stewart Living. But we didn’t stop there – curiosity got the better of us, and we decided to test it out. Our VP, Cara Pearson, tested out the recipe for her husband’s birthday…read below for her story!

 

I know this may sound funny but even though I am surrounded by baking all day long, I still LOVE to bake at home. The joy of baking was not something that was handed down to me from my mom or grandmother, it began when I had my first little girl. As a toddler, Lily became very interested in the kitchen and the process of cooking. When we baked cookies together for the first time, I loved watching her smile as she moved her hands through the flour, giggle as we cracked eggs together, oooh and awww as it became a ball of gooey cookie dough and then sit directly in front of the oven until the timer went off. Till this day I am not sure if it is the process of making the desserts, licking the spoon or anxiously awaiting the final product that she loves the most, but I know for sure that she LOVES to bake too. Now that there are three of us (including her little sister Mila) it has become quite cozy in our kitchen as they wiggle around while standing on chairs trying to get in the best position for their turn to measure. I like to tell people that baking with kids is good parenting because they learn how to count, it is a great lesson in patience, and it takes team work; but the fact is, having fresh baked goods in the house ROCKS.

This is why when Emily posted about the Skillet Cookie on our Facebook page the other day, I just could not resist. A cookie cake baked in a skillet? The girls would love that. Better yet their Daddy’s, James’, birthday was coming up and we were planning a fun family night at home for the occasion. We put on our aprons, they climbed up on the chairs and we got to baking. The dough came together in no time but the best part was squishing the dough down into the skillet with our hands. We put it in to bake when we sat down to dinner and once we were finished it was cookie time! The skillet kept the cookie warm as we cut up a slice and paired it with plain ol’ vanilla ice cream. It was thick and gooey, perfect.

Here are a few tips when following the below recipe:

  1. You can add peanut butter cups chopped up for an extra layer of flavor.
  2. Don’t let the dough in the skillet sit out of the fridge for too long before baking
  3. Watch the baking time – our skillet was done in 32 minutes and could have probably come out before (since we like the gooey middle part).
  4. Enjoy!!

 

Skillet-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie

What You Need:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (about 9 oz) semisweet chocolate chips (or a mix of milk chocolate and semi sweet chips)

What You Need to Do:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Add the egg and vanilla extract, mixing until well incorporated.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and beat just until combined.  Finally, add the chocolate chips and mix to distribute.

Transfer the dough to a 10-inch ovenproof (e.g. cast-iron) skillet, and press to flatten in an even layer on the bottom of the pan.  Bake until the edges of the cookie are brown and the top is golden, about 40-45 minutes.  Don’t overbake; it will continue to cook a few minutes out of the oven. If using a smaller or larger skillet, adjust cooking time accordingly. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

 

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