We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leah McCrary. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leah below.
Alright, Leah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
Cookies are hardly a new endeavor. In fact, the competition in the “luxury cookies” space is fierce, compounded by the fact that everyone has an opinion about cookies: a favorite flavor, style, and even brand of cookie. My philosophy is based on the idea that a really good cookie is so much more than just a cookie. Rocket Doodle Cookies are created with the strong belief that food, comfort, and love are closely intertwined. Cookies have the unique ability to connect us to cherished memories, to people and places. The role of texture, smell and flavor engages the senses, stirs our emotions, and leaves a lasting impression. Rocket Doodle Cookies are made by hand, in small batches. They are about connecting with people, speaking a language through the craft of baking that communicates love, appreciation, kindness, and gratitude.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My cookie journey began a long time ago, with a Nestle Toll House recipe and very young baker’s determination for an afternoon treat. My eight-year-old self was completely dazzled by the ability to create something delicious with fairly simple kitchen staples. I was hooked. Over the years, I tried countless recipes to find my perfect favorite dessert. During Covid, like so many of us, I found myself with way too much time on my hands, and a full house with hungry kids at home 24 hours a day. I abandoned all recipes and instead leaned on years of baking experience and the willing but harsh critics, my children. After countless trials and taste tests, my very own recipe was born.
These cookies came to be a welcome treat for neighbors, friends, and family. As life slowly returned to normal and kids went back to school and college, the cookies became a frequent request for care packages, hostess gifts, and dinner parties.
Baking cookies has been a lifelong passion, and the product a love letter to the people nearest and dearest to me. I never set out to start a business, but encouragement from my family and a strong nudge from some persuasive friends allowed me to find the courage to step outside of my comfort zone and take a giant leap of faith.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Like so many people, COVID created challenges and obstacles, but it also forced me to stop and evaluate where I was in life. My oldest child was in college, my youngest in high school. I would soon be an empty nester. I had long given up my career in non-profit management to “work” at home, raising our young boys. I was and am grateful to have the opportunity and gift to be present in their lives during their formative middle and high school years. I had no idea what I would do with my time, my energy, or my sanity once they were both out of the house. But beginning in March, 2020 they were both in the house – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I spent a lot of time in the kitchen during those endless COVID months. I returned to baking and found that joy and comfort brought into even clearer focus. It didn’t hurt that I had a captive audience to critique, enjoy, and eventually devour the products of my COVID project.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
Cookies are my passion, my favorite dessert, a treat I cannot resist. And yet, I am not a cookie monster. In other words, I won’t eat a cookie just to eat a cookie. It must be worth the calories, worth my attention. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was doing market research long before I had a cookie company. I found that many national brands or mass-produced luxury cookies lacked depth of flavor, had a chemical aftertaste, were too crispy, were too doughy, or too cakey. I found one cookie that surpassed all others: beautiful crispy edges but soft and chewy in the middle; just the right density, just the right balance of flavor. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was not near my home. So, I decided I would try to reverse engineer the recipe to recreate it. After several failed attempts, I realized I didn’t need to copy that cookie, I simply needed to create my own version of the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
And so it began: butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and chocolate. And a spreadsheet to keep track of my work in progress. And some books by Shirley Corriher on food chemistry. (I should note here that chemistry – and all of science – were my worst subjects in school, so this was an added degree of difficulty for me). However, I wanted and needed to understand what was going on with my ingredients. I learned that not all butter is created equal. The higher the butterfat, the better the baked good. I learned that chocolate chips are coated with stabilizers, so they keep their shape during the baking process. That is an added chemical I didn’t want in my cookies, so I was liberated to try artisanal chocolate in bar form that I chopped into chunks. I learned that different brands of flour can have different protein content which impacts the gluten which affects the “pull” and “chew” of a cookie, and the color of an egg’s yolk is important. Temperature impacts spread which impacts texture. I found that higher quality ingredients meant fewer ingredients, allowing them to shine, made for a better product, and one without chemicals or additives. There was a lot of trial and even more error along the way, but the result is an exceptional cookie.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.rocketdoodlecookies.com
- Instagram: Rocketdoodlecookies
- Facebook: Rocketdoodlecookies
