Crazy Lady cookies, with ground coffee beans, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, marshmallows, and Rice Krispies, are one of the newest flavors at Victory love + cookies.
We are proud to contribute to our vibrant community and partner with other local businesses. Over the last few months, we have been sharing guest posts from a variety of people in our community. Today’s post is from Kristy Greenwood, the baker behind Victory love + cookies. Kristy imagines amazing flavors and bakes uniquely delicious cookies, using the best ingredients, including NestFresh Eggs.
I don’t remember how old I was when I baked my first cookie but I do remember purchasing my first cookbook. I was twelve years old and I bought the Betty Crocker Cookie Book. At that point I had already been doing a lot of cookie baking and the book ended up getting butter stained from use. At one point my brother actually gifted me a book on cooking with wine with a note included that said something to the effect of get out of your cookie head and start “really cooking”. It also spurred my interest in cookbooks. In fact for a number of years in high school my parents’ friends would teasingly call me “Cookbook Kristy”. At this point, my collection puts my local library’s to shame.
Today I am blessed to own and operate my very own one person cookie business but there are times that I imagine my alternate reality of being a cookbook editor or owning a cookbook-centric bookstore or something/somehow where I can justify the hours and dollars that I spend on my obsession. I guess the cookies are enough of a reward. What I read ends up being digested, assimilated, and then eventually, maybe even years later, transforming into a delectable edible.
At Victory love + cookies I get to “play” for work. I imagine flavors and combinations and then I buy the best ingredients I can get my hands on and the experiments begin. The best Belgian chocolate meets the richest butter, the most aromatic of spices, the freshest of eggs. I am often reminded of another pastry chef who says that she loves being on the sweet side of the kitchen because at the end of the day she goes home smelling like chocolate and spice rather than onions and garlic. I so agree. My workplace is a wonderland of amazing smells, delicious flavors.
This time of year is especially delightful. As the trees turn color and a bit of frost touches the windows, I am enveloped in the warmth of the ovens, chasing the flavors that my heart has already tasted but my brain and hands strive to bring forth. If I am somehow lacking in inspiration I turn to one – or a dozen – of my favorite cookbooks, pour a cup of tea, and happily trip through the pages. Then it’s back to the mixer, creaming, chopping, toasting, creating, adding, subtracting, baking until my taste buds tell me that I have a match. I’ve done it! Woo Hoo!!! These moments are so satisfying that I am barely done crafting one new recipe before I am off in search of the next.
I just recently developed Crazy Lady Oat and Mom’s Addiction. You can read about both flavors on the website. If you’d like to read about future cookie creations, you are also welcome to sign up for my monthly newsletter.
Happy holidays, joyful baking, and inspired reading to you all,
Kristy
We would like to thank Kristy for this great post. It is clear she truly loves what she does. And we do too! We are lucky that she shares her love of baking with us.