Mimi Council - Cookies for Everyone

MY NAME IS MIMI AND IVE NEVER MET A COOKIE I DIDNT LIKE. As far back as I can remember, Ive been sneaking, eating, snacking on, baking, and creating cookies. When I was growing up, cookies were a forbidden treat and thats probably why Ive always been so obsessedI never knew when Id get my next cookie fix. Even as Ive gotten older and know I can eat cookies daily (which I do), the little kid inside me is worried I might not get one. So I turned my passion and obsession into my business. I make sure everyone has the opportunity to get their cookie fix by stopping by my bakery, DessertD Organic Bake Shop.

I started baking cookies as soon as I was old enough to follow a recipe. To be honest, it was all part of my master plan to eat more cookies. My mom didnt allow a lot of sweets in our house, and there were strict rules about when we could and couldnt eat desserts. If we were hungry and it wasnt time for a meal, we were encouraged to eat healthy snacks like fruits and vegetables, string cheese, or a glass of milk. We always had healthy meals, and my mom cooked them from scratch every night. That means she was in the kitchen a lot. She encouraged us to help her cook, because she felt that if we were in the kitchen we were learning somethinglike how to read, how to follow instructions, and how to create something. Thats how I started baking cookies and eating cookies with high-quality ingredientsaccording to Mom. And so my obsession blossomed.

I continued to bake cookies throughout my teenage years, but when I was seventeen years old I graduated high school early to live in the mountains and snowboard every day in lieu of going to college. The day after graduation, I packed my car and moved cross-country from the Midwest to Mammoth Lakes, California. And I took my cookie recipes with me, in a small blue recipe box. Living at eight thousand feet made me quickly learn to adjust my recipes in order to bake them at high altitude so I could continue to enjoy freshly baked cookies.

As time passed, I stopped being a ski bum and got a real job at Roxy, an action-sports company, which took me to sea-level Huntington Beach, California. I was working in the industry that I loved, and I was making enough money to stock my kitchen with cookie-baking ingredients at all times. This was when my cookie baking really spiraled out of control. I quickly became known to my friends as Mimi Cookies, because I took them everywhere I went.

Then I was commissioned by a friend to bake cookies for her wedding. She was gluten-free and was having a hard time finding good options. I said yes immediately, even though I had never made gluten-free cookies before. But I thought, how hard could they be? I knew Id figure it out. I test baked a few batches and let her try them before we settled on a couple of flavors for her wedding. I soon realized I had other friends that were gluten-free as well, so gluten-free cookies became one of my specialties.

After five years of working at Roxy, I realized that although I loved action sports, it just wasnt my true passion. I really wanted to be spending my days baking. My boyfriend, Delaney, who came to Huntington Beach from Maui, was also ready for a change of scenery. This led us back to the quaint mountain town of Mammoth Lakes. Once we resettled there, it became clear that the town needed a place where locals could go to indulge in something sweet. It was the perfect time and place to open a bakery, the bakery that until now I had only dreamed about. My vision was to open a bakery that served nothing but cookies. Peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, coconut cookies, cookies with nuts, cookies without nuts, sweet and salty cookies, cookies with frosting, and many more. I shared my plan with a friend, not knowing that she and her husband would end up turning into my business partners. Their involvement gave me the extra capital I needed to make it all happen. Soon thereafter, DessertD Organic Bake Shop was born, and Kimmy and Chris Benchetler have been part owners ever since. Six crazy weeks later, our doors were open and, true to my dream, we served nothing but cookies! (And milk, of course.) Slowly our menu expanded from soft and chewy cookies only to include French macarons. Then we added shortbreads and sandwich cookies. Not long after that came cookie pies and Florentines. Sure, we mixed in some cakes, pies, and ice cream, but our main focus is, and always will be, cookies. As our bake shop continued to grow we brought on another couple, Matt and Thea Zobel, as investors.

I think part of growing and evolving is sharingsharing knowledge, lessons learned, and methods that work. Now that the bakery was doing so well, it made me think about what I should do next. And thats why I decided to write this book. I want to share with you my tried and true cookie recipes. Some are from that little blue recipe box Ive had with me since I was young. These are the ones I created for the people I love, like my dad, who inspired Dads Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies (), the cookie that started it all. It was the first cookie I learned to bake at high altitude. It was the cookie I baked for all my new friends in Mammoth when I moved away from home, the friends who became my family. It was the cookie I shared with Delaney and all my friends at Roxy. It was the cookie that, when my friends tasted it, they praised it and said I should open a bakery. And its still one of my favorite cookies today.