Cookie Barn serves up five varieties of warm, freshly-baked cookies. Get ‘em before they’re gone.
For six years, the irresistible aroma of freshly baked cookies has drawn crowds to one particular stand at the Florida Strawberry Festival. Behind the “sweet success” of the Cookie Barn is a mother-daughter duo with an unusual twist- only one of them knows the recipes.
Head baker Stacy McDowell has been crafting her signature cookies for years, which began with her tinkering with different strawberry cookie recipes. While her mother and stand manager Scharlene Gupton handles the sales and customer service, McDowell is the confectionary mastermind, guarding her secret recipes like a prized possession. “I don’t even know the recipe and I’m her mama,” joked Gupton.
Well, one other person, assistant baker Tonya White, has the recipes but she’s tight-lipped about them too.
Gupton doesn’t really mind that she doesn’t know what’s in them. What’s important is that people love them and she loves watching her daughter shine. Every day of the festival, Gupton and White crank out dozens and dozens of cookies, combining ingredients in a large commercial mixer then chilling the dough until its ready to be put in the hopper, which plops perfect mounds of cookie dough onto baking sheets that then get baked in the oven. “The secret to a good cookie is a chilled dough,” said McDowell.
The process is nonstop and as quickly as cookies are baked the warm treats are sold to eager customers and the process begins again. And again. And again. “We make 12 dozen cookies from one batch of dough and we made 11 batches on Saturday alone,” said McDowell, giving scope to the task.
The constant baking creates an assault on the senses, making it impossible to walk past the Cookie Barn without first smelling and then seeing the treats.
“People can’t resist the cookies, which are so fresh and served warm right out of the oven,” said Gupton. “A perfect pairing, we also sell Cool Cow milk in three flavors to go with them.”
The Cookie Barn, located underneath the bleachers of the Wish Farms Soundstage, offers five cookie varieties: strawberry, strawberry with white-chocolate chip, sugar, chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.
While they’re all best-sellers, one cookie reigns supreme. “Our best selling cookie is the strawberry with white chocolate chips,” said Gupton.
Because they don’t have a brick and mortar store and the cookies can only be purchased at the 11-day festival and at Christmas Lane, in December, customers have to get their fix when they’re available. A customer Saturday bought nine dozen cookies. “He actually brought a shopping bag with him, paid for the cookies and then came back in fifteen minutes when they were ready,” said Gupton.
