TheBolt

It started as a demo and grew into a store favorite. Abt has been serving freshly baked chocolate chip cookies every Saturday and Sunday for over 4 years now. Originally, the cookies were baked to showcase different ovens the store sold. Now, the cookies are baked to feed hundreds of customers every weekend. Most people walk up to the Cookie Counter and joke about how they “Would love to have this job,” but being a “Cookie Girl” is harder than someone might think.

Cookie Girls normally arrive at the store around 10:30 in the morning to prepare for the upcoming day. They first start by cleaning up the kitchen and making sure everything is nice, neat, and sanitary. They then preheat the ovens. Cookie Girls have had to learn how to use over 6 different ovens, and each girl has had their own favorite. While the ovens heat up, the girls are busy preparing the trays full of cookie dough. They then pop the trays in the oven and make coffee.

When you watch the girls work, it’s almost like they are performing a perfectly choreographed routine. There are sometimes 3 people squeezed in the small space, but they all seem to fit and do their jobs properly without bumping into each other. On an average weekend, the girls bake over 3,000 cookies. Due to the high demand, we do not make our own cookie dough. Abt purchases the dough from a company in Chicago. Every week, they deliver around 20-25 boxes of packaged cookie dough for us to use. For our special sales, the Girls normally bake around 10,500 cookies within a 7 hour period. A customer was once so impressed with the girls baking skills and the taste of the cookies, she took them home to a party and served them!

On top of baking, The Girls must know how to use and demo all the ovens, and make coffee for the customers. And you thought baking cookies was easy! – By Megan B.