How did we begin?
Good question.
We are pancake loving people. I love to cook and I got incredibly involved in the many varieties of pancake recipes out there. We were even considering a restaurant here in SB, but rents are way too high. One night a family friend was visiting and we got to talking about pancakes and moved on to talking about cookies. He wanted to make a funny fortune cookie company or a company that makes shaped sugar cookies. Siobhan and I said why not? As it turns out, fortune cookies are more expensive to make than you would think. Same goes for those shaped sugar cookies.
So…
With the pancake background (think lemon raspberry, chocolate caramel, banana peanut butter chocolate chip) Siobhan and I decided that traditional cookies were a better idea. Our family friend wanted to keep his original idea, so we parted ways.
We rent space from a commercial kitchen here on the Central Coast; the Goodland Kitchen
www.goodlandkitchen.com. It has been a real pleasure working with the folks at the Kitchen! They are available to answer questions and are genuinely great restaurant people.
We started small. Our very first vendor was and is Local Harvest www.localharvestdelivery.com. They are a local CSA that delivers farm fresh foods and local goods right to your door.
Siobhan and I started making cookies like crazy. We booked a space at the Summer Solstice Celebration in 2017 as an intro for our business. We got trademarks and business licenses and health permits.
Siobhan produces all of the artwork for the company. We choose names from local landmarks, street names and hot spots.
We still make cookies like crazy and are expanding our vendor client base. We love making cookies!
What you should know:
We are a traditional company. We understand the need for specific foods for special diets. There are some amazing people making those foods – and doing it really well. Our space in the cookie world is old school traditional cookies.
We tend towards slow food and like real ingredients.
Diane has a thing about chickens. (You read that right) We use organic free range eggs. You can get more information on treating our critters right by clicking on this link certifiedhumane.org/know-chickens-eggs/. We know that humanely raised foods are more expensive. We really feel like it’s worth it.
What you should bake today:
Molasses Cookies!
San Miguel Molasses Cookies
3/4 C Butter Softened
1 C Brown Sugar (packed)
1 Egg
1/2 C Molasses - we use Grandma's www.grandmasmolasses.com
2 1/2 C All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Ground Allspice
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
Remember! No tough cookies here! Combine the ingredients but don't over mix.
In a stand mixer cream the butter until it becomes light and fluffy. Beat in the brown sugar. Add the molasses and egg and mix.
Whisk flour with salt, soda and spices.
Fold dry ingredients into butter sugar mixture until fully incorporated.
You should have a medium stiff dough.
Chill the dough for 1 to 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350.
Scoop out dough using a cookie scoop. We use the Oxo medium cookies scoop. You get evenly sized cookies. That helps the cookies bake well and look good. www.oxo.com/medium-cookie-scoop-661.html
Sprinkle with sanding sugar. We use plain, white sanding sugar for these cookies. You can buy it at Nuts.com. They are a favorite site for a lot of our baking needs.
(If you want to color your sugar we highly recommend www.colorkitchenfoods.com)
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes turning the baking sheet halfway through cooking time. We use silpats for easy clean up. If you don't use them, lightly grease your baking sheet. Let the cookies cool slightly on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.