From Leslie’s Desk: Creating Olivia’s Cookie

Olivia's Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the best things about creating a new recipe is naming it. I generally like to keep the names simple and descriptive, but sometimes you just have to have fun with it. A personal favorite of mine is Olivia’s Old-Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookies, affectionately named after my daughter.

When my daughter was still in her stroller, we would often pass an afternoon by going on an adventure. We toured our neighborhood looking at flowers, pointing out all the different colors we saw, and observing the other children. Halfway through our strolls we would stop for a juice and a cookie. We had some pretty good cookies together, but I had trouble finding just the right one. I wanted Olivia to know the kind of cookie my mom used to make, still warm, bursting with oozing chocolate chips.

The truth was that at the time we didn’t even make a cookie like that at Macrina. We had plenty of great cookies, but not the simple classic I was craving. So, using the basic Toll House recipe as a starting point, we came up with a winner. The name selection was easy and the cookie quickly became our biggest seller. As an added bonus, I now have the pleasure of hearing customers say, “I’ll have an Olivia’s.”

You can recreate this all-star cookie at home with our new Olivia’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix available in our cafés. Just add butter, shortening and eggs and we’ll take care of the rest! Before you preheat the oven though, take a look at our tips for baking perfect cookies.