Fairway’s Own has an elite group of new stars in town, and you won’t want to wait another minute to be introduced. Our four new Fairway’s Own Baked-fresh Cookies are divine and now available in our pastry case at our bakeries; pick up a Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie, Snickerdoodle, Kookiepazzo, or Oatmeal Raisin cookie. They’ll make your day. The mastermind behind these perfect gems is Fairway’s award-winning baker Rebecca Martin. The enthusiastic bakery artisan gives us the inside scoop. Read on...
Q: What makes these four amazing cookies worthy of being called Fairway’s Own? A: Because they are, to their core, Fairway’s Own! I developed each recipe specifically for Fairway, scrutinizing over every detail, taste, and ingredient for months - taste-testing, researching, sourcing the best ingredients from everywhere. For instance, finding the perfect chocolate for our Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie; it had to be unique, delicious, not too sweet and not too bitter. I finally found the perfect Callebaut chocolate.
Q: What else can you tell us about what makes the ingredients so special? A: Well, for all of them it came down to getting the best for the basic ingredients; the highest-quality butter and unbleached flour for instance. For our Kookiepazzo - "pazzo" means "crazy" in Italian, by the way - I basically took the best elements of the Dark Chocolate Chunk and the Oatmeal Raisin and put them together, added a little walnut for another dimension of flavor and texture, and the result was amazing. Next, for our Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, I had to have the right raisins...
Q: ...there’s a "right" raisin? A: Yes, there’s a "right" raisin. They had to be large; both black and golden. They had to have a deep flavor - none of those flat, one-dimensional flavored raisins that they try to make taste good by adding sugar to - they also had to be a good size, large, and with just the right amount of "chew" to them. Now, the Snickerdoodle is a classic. Working on this one took me back to my childhood. SO much tweaking was involved in getting this cookie just right. I finally achieved a Snickerdoodle where you can taste all the natural flavors as they work harmoniously together; the high-quality butter, the all-natural flour, the phenomenal vanilla taste - it’s really great. And the Dark Chocolate Chunk... well I already told you about scouring the globe for the perfect chocolate.
Q: What about the actual baking process - you were looking for perfection, but what does that mean to you? A: We wanted a cookie that would be perfectly baked for pretty much anyone, regardless of what kind of texture usually appeals to them. For ours, perfection came when we achieved a cookie that had crisp edges and a soft inside.
Q: What can our customers look forward to with this new line of Fairway’s Own cookies? A: I’ve got a couple ideas in the works. I think next will be a cookie with white chocolate and toasted cashews. Our customers can look out for this one in a few weeks. Then after that...a Triple...Chocolate.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add for the inside scoop for our customers? A: Listen, when I approached the team, my boss (the director of Kitchen and Bakery) told me very frankly that I could only do this if I was able to come up with a cookie that’s better than what Fairway already had. So I was up against a very high standard and tough critics, but the results were undeniable. We’ve been selling out of them at some of our stores!
Sample Fairway’s Own baked-fresh cookies at our Rock Star demos! CLICK HERE to see our list of events and where the Rock Stars are headed next!
