 Buttery and crumbly with notes of toffee, Alice’s Stick Cookies are welcome to the party. Photography by Katharine Pollak | THE NIBBLE.
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KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE.
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August 2010
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Alice’s Stick Cookies
Elegant Butter Cookies
CAPSULE REPORT: For years, friends and acquaintances who tasted Alice’s Stick Cookies had been asking for this recipe. Alice never shared it, feeling that one day she would start a cookie business. She did—at the age of 70—and the very buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookies have been flying off the shelves ever since.
Overview
It’s never too late to start a business. Alice Larse was a 70-year-old grandmother when she turned her recipe for stick cookies into an artisan cookie business. Her son brought samples of the cookies to Draeger’s Market, a leading specialty food store in the San Francisco Bay area where people go to find the newest and best. The bakery manager loved them, and Alice opened a key account.
Eleven years later, Alice is still as busy as a [cookie-baking] beaver—and has picked up major awards along the way. Alice’s Stick Cookies were awarded the prize for Best Cookie in both 2004 and 2006 at the specialty food industry’s largest trade show.
As you’ve no doubt gleaned from the photos, stick cookies are not cookies-on-a-stick. They are long and slender like sticks—about 5-1/2 inches long by one inch wide. They may resemble biscotti; like biscotti, they are baked in a loaf and sliced. But the resemblance ends there. Biscotti are baked again after they’re sliced to create a very hard, low-moisture cookie. Alice’s Stick Cookies are very buttery, crumbly and rich.
The stick cookies are free of allergens, such as eggs, nuts and nut oil. The recipe is familiar: bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, butter, sugar, cane sugar syrup, baking soda and vanilla.
Cookie Flavors
Alice’s Stick Cookies are very buttery and soft, and they melt in your mouth. All of the flavors are delicious, although we have two favorites:
- Original Vanilla. Tied for the favorite because of the toffee flavor—a function of that comes from the cane syrup used instead of granulated sugar.
- Cinnamon Ginger. Lots of butter flavor with hints of ginger and cinnamon.
- Lemon. Lemony, buttery and elegant.
- Orange-Chocolate Chip. Perhaps our favorite. Buttery orange flavor and semisweet chocolate chips make this cookie a champion in our eyes.
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Original Vanilla, one of our favorites, is a great treat with a glass of milk. |
While the cookies are available at numerous specialty retailers, the easiest path may be to order them online. The case price, at $6.00/box, is a good deal. If you have an active social life, the cookies will be gone in no time, devoured by happy guests or gift recipients.
ALICE’s STICK COOKIES
Butter Cookies In Cinnamon Ginger, Lemon, Orange & Original (Vanilla)
- Eight-Ounce Box
$9.95
- 12-Box Case
$72.00 ($6.00/Box)
Purchase online* at
AlicesStickCookies.com
*Prices and product availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. Shipping is additional. These items are offered by a third party and THE NIBBLE has no relationship with them. This link to purchase is provided as a reader convenience.
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Elegant “tote” boxes have a charming presentation.
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