Bonnie: One way I find products for the Bite of the Best team to test, with hopes of featuring, is by attending exhibits at various food shows and tasting the samples that are provided. (Yes, stomachaches are in order). Well, earlier this summer at the Fancy Food show in D.C., while walking up and down the aisles, I walked by the Barbara’s Hand-Made Cookies booth, took a sample of the Almond Raspberry Cookie Pie and kept walking.
But then I stopped in my tracks.
One bite of the rich, decadent, oh so buttery almond raspberry cookie that melted in my mouth and I turned around to go back to speak to Barbara. Yes, it was that tasty.
There at the booth was cherubic Barbara — chef’s hat slightly askew and covering one of her eyebrows — handing out samples of all her cookie pies. She smiled when I returned to the booth, asking about her cookie pies. She bubbled over with enthusiasm about her pies, homemade in small batches and hand decorated.
Barbara told me that her butter cookie dough has been handed down from her great grandmother. But her first experience with this dough was with her Nana, baking together in her apartment. That project was an all-day affair ending with the aroma of Nana’s fresh-baked butter cookies filtered through the apartment building so much so that her neighbors would knock on the door, knowing they’d be fortunate to get some.
That’s the butter cookie recipe that Barbara uses to make the butter crust for her cookies. Her creations look like a pie, but eat like more like a cookie!
BTW… This is great to keep on the shelf for unexpected company (yes in the pantry on the shelf) for up to six weeks, or frozen for a year.
Bryan: What would you think if you were told you’d be eating a “cookie pie?” Personally, I envisioned a chocolate chip cookie mixture, possibly with nuts, all baked into a pie crust. Or maybe a cheesecakey filling speckled with cookie dough chunks. Cookie pie wasn’t a term I’d heard before, so I was excited to see what it might be, no matter what. I mean, how can it go wrong? It’s freaking cookies and pie in some combo, right? In fact, I was too curious to wait for it. I wanted know; I needed to Google.
My search results included a Firefox extension called “cookiepie” that helps manage your browser cookies, a blog entry about Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria in Chicago that bakes cookies in ramekins, a plethora of recipes for chocolate chip cookie pies along my vision (I thought as much!), and Barbara’s Cookie Pies. Barbara’s was what was coming. Surrounded by chocolate chip cookie pie pictures, I entered Barbara’s website expecting to see something of the same. What I found was completely different.
It’s a cookie and it’s a pie, though I still don’t know if it’s a cookie pie. No matter, it’s delicious. Barbara’s doesn’t use a pie crust, it uses a butter cookie shaped like a pie dish. Then the company adds the filling, the pie filling. It’s just that the pie crust is actually a cookie. It’s more of a pie with a cookie crust, but cookie pie just flows. So cookie pie it is.
Each pie begins with a crust made from a butter cookie, the recipe passed down through generations of Barbara’s family. This buttery cookie dough layer is then topped with fresh fruit preserves, peanut butter, coconut, apple, butter cream, caramel, chocolate and dozen other fantastic fillings. The 7-inch pie is the perfect sized dessert to bring to any dinner party, serving 2-12 depending on your particular level of Type II Diabetes.
Barbara’s small-batch baked goods have no added preservatives and only fresh ingredients, but they will stay fresh at room temperature for up to six weeks and can be frozen for up to a year.
The selection includes: Almond Joyful, Almond Raspberry, Apple Caramel, Caramel Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Cinnamon Crumble, Double Cranberry, Key Lime, Macadamia, Oatmeal Raisin, Oreo Creme, Peanut Butter Cup, Peppermint Patty, Raspberry Chocolate, Rocky Road, and Toffee Almond. If one of those hasn’t piqued your interest, I don’t know where to begin asking what’s wrong with you.
Eric: “It’s as easy as pie” should be Barbara’s tagline — combining the art of pie with her love of butter cookie is a sinfully decadent way to make a mark on the world of foodies. With flavors to select ranging from Caramel Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cup and, of course Raspberry Almond, there is cookie pie designed for every age…
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