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[Intro Music]
[Woman's voice-over] L"ike a lot of people, Carol Goldman's favorite
cookie recipe is something she's had for years
Oh she's made a few changes here and there
But basically, these are the same cookies she's been baking since she was a young girl"
[Carol] "Oh I love baking cookies
And all of us, I have two sisters, we're all good bakers...
But you know how you like to taste the cookie dough
It was a thrill for us bake cookies and I just happened to be the one who liked to bake
the cookies"
[Woman] "Her cookie business started out as like more
than a kitchen hobby some 20 years ago
Since then, she's gone from making a few dozen to making as many as 72 dozen at a time
All those cookies no longer fit in her home oven
So, Carol's Cookies are now made at her big whole sale bakery outside Chicago"
[Carol] "If you like crispy cookies, you get a touch
And if you like chewy cookies, you get a touch of that"
[Woman] "Carol took her big cookies to the big time
entirely by accident
She was raising a family and selling the cookies while working at a health club snack bar
She'd often urge her exercise classmates to eat one, then burn it off
Friends from the exercise studio suggested she sell her cookies to a local gourmet food
store"
[Carol] "I didn't have like a business plan
I didn't plan to go into business
It was a hobby at first, baking cookies
I just love to bake"
[Woman] "She baked several dozen and took them, along
with some samples, to the store just a few miles from her house
The cookies sold out almost immediately"
[Carol] "I had put some extra dozens, thanks to my
husband, in my trunk of my car
So when they sold out, the deli manager said, "Well you better go home and start baking"
And I said, "Well gee, I have a few more in my trunk...a few more dozen!"
I brought them in and we sold out right away"
[Woman] "Carol took the deli manager's advice and
started A LOT of baking
Sometimes for days at a time"
[Carol] "It took me hours to decide on the name
All of a sudden, I said "Why we don't we just call it Carol's Cookies?"
You know, it just goes together so well and I think it helps"
[Woman] "Then, a big break:
A fan sent her cookies to People Magazine, which was searching out the best cookies in
the nation
This picture of Carol's face in a box of cookies combined with rave reviews in the magazine
gave her small business quite a boost"
[Carol] "We had refrigerators down in the basement
and we had trays of cookies all over the dining room
The cookies just took up the whole house at the time
And it was a lot of fun!"
[Woman] "Carol's son Jeff is now in the cookie business
with her; helping to design the 4800 square foot bakery
Though he remembers the early years of Mom . Kitchen was great bonding!"
[Jeff] "I made a lot of sports teams because of them
Because I would bring cookies and they'd be like "Oh okay Jeff, you can come play with
us!"
[Woman] "Carol's Cookies are sold in about 60 stores
throughout Chicago and other cities across the U.S.
They ship out about 500 dozen in an average week
Still, nothing will ever replace his mom's "hands-on" approach"
[Jeff] "You can tell a store-bought machine driven
cookie vs a handmade cookie
And we do everything by hand here, so that's the uniqueness of the cookies"
[Woman] "The usual thing about them, of course, is
the size
Almost an entire handful of dough is used to shape each one
Baker Lynn Zermemba knows from experience these cookie balls require some muscle
She's worked at Carol's Cookies for six years"
[Lynn] "After a while, it's like making a snow ball
You really get used to picking them up and laying them down"
[Woman] "Carol's original chocolate chip receipe expanded
to include nine different varieties"
[Carol] "Sometime I walk in here when it's my day
off and everyone's gone and I'm just like, "Oh my god..."
I look around and say, "Oh how did this ever happen?"
See, I could cry now!"
[Woman] "Sales come from word of mouth, spurred along
by the same kind of in-store demos that helped get the business going some 20 years ago"
[Customer] "The texture, the taste, everything about
them....
I mean you bite into it and it just melts in your mouth
It's just so delicious
And the ingredients are so fresh
That's what I love"
[Woman] "You can find out how to order any of the
cookies you've seen today by logging on to our website, foodnetwork.com
Or you can call the vendors directly
Carol and Jeff enjoy their cookies at a small Mexican restaurant in Northbrook, IL known
for gigantic deserts
Starting with a Carol's Cookie that's been warmed in the microwave then ice cream, wiped
cream, and chocolate sauce
To order Carol's Cookies call (847) 831-4500"