October 15, 2009, 9:46 PM
The Name’s Cookie. Bobby Cookie.
A sampling of Bobby Cookie cookies, which come wrapped in glittered-covered tissue paper.
Erik Piepenburg/The New York Times
Does your musical need a cookie? Bobby Cookie thinks so.
Bobby Cookie is the brainchild (and nickname) of Bobby Wolf, who began baking after he was laid off from his job as a house manager for a downtown theater. He has another job in theater now, as house manager at Henry Miller’s Theater, but he is still baking. Mr. Wolf, who is 31, makes cookies, cakes and other sweets out of the kitchen of the apartment in Astoria, Queens, he shares with two roommates.
Since Mr. Wolf started his baking business last spring, he has become a go-to guy for theater-related treats, including a “Toxic Avenger” cookie and a“Mamma Mia!”-themed cake. Audiences at New York Theater Workshop can try his cookies. His specialty is oddball flavor combinations, like salty-mint and caramel-coconut.
His slogan? “Cookie is the new cupcake.”
“Cookies are so easy,” he says. “You can throw them in your purse, throw them in your bag. A cupcake, you can’t do that.”
Over a box of hand-sized chocolate pretzel-infused cookies, Mr. Wolf talked about growing up with batter on the brain and the demands of being a one-man bakery.
Q.
Where did the idea of Bobby Cookie come from?
Bobby Cookie
Erik Piepenburg/The New York Times
A.
My friends and I would get together and I’d make some cupcakes or cookies. Then my cookies started becoming a hit with all my friends. They started saying, “Have you had a Bobby cookie?” to everybody. They said I should start a business. I looked into it. It just came together.
Q.
You make your cookies in your apartment in Queens. What’s that like?
A.
The business hasn’t taken off to a point where I have to be baking in huge ovens. I’m able to do everything at home with a couple cookie sheets and bowls. I don’t have any fancy mixers. I do it all by hand. I’m a staff of one. I joke that my roommates are my director of marketing and director of operations. Which they are.
Q.
How did you come up with the idea for a “Toxic Avenger” cookie?
A.
I thought I would create something that looks toxic but tastes great and has a lot of different junk in it. I threw a lot of different sweet things into it: chocolate chips and toffee chips and Oreo cookies mushed up. They loved it. . . Since then the company manager will call me every now and then and order cookies for some event they might be having.
Q.
Where do you find the time to do all this baking?
A.
I haven’t gotten to a point where I’m making money on it as my official job. But I will take anything. If somebody says they need it in two days, I’ll do it. If someone says I need it in two hours. I’ll do it.
Q.
Do you have a favorite cookie shop in New York?
A.
I love City Bakery’s chocolate chip cookies. They’re crispy and oily in a way that mine aren’t. I use the same exact cookie batter for every single one but change the toppings.
Q.
How do you envision the future of Bobby Cookie?
A.
I want to brand Bobby Cookie. Eventually I want to have a Web site where you can go and click on what you like and it will say something like, “You make it, I bake it.”
Prices for Bobby Cookie cookies vary, depending on the ingredients, but are usually $35 for two dozen; $20 for one dozen and $12 for a half-dozen. More information and photos of some of Mr. Wolf’s creations are atBobbyCookie.com.
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