Have you heard?! We are just about 2 months into the craziest journey of our salt careers so far... opening a store in downtown Friday Harbor!
We are so lucky to be in an iconic spot-- the former home of Cafe Demeter, a locally adored bakery. We've stocked our shelves with every single product we make, as well our favorite items to stock our pantry with, other than salt-- everything from our go-to garlic chili crisp to the tastiest PNW-made chocolates. There's even a Bloom San Juan curated spot with super cute home goodies!
But the biggest surprise of all is that we've also dipped into a brand new game for us-- cookie making!
With the amazing work of our shop curator, Leah (who also happens to be Brady's awesome wife!) and our incredible shop manager, Beth, we've been churning out dozens and dozens of cookies each week! Our mainstay is our extra sweet-and-salty Salthouse Cookie, but we also love our Smokehouse Cookie-- made with Hot Cakes Smoked Chocolate Chips, our Madrona Smoked Sugar, and our Madrona Smoked Sea Salt! It's a crazy flavor journey that encompasses salty, smoky, chocolatey, and sweet! We've also experimented with some red-white-and-blue sprinkled sugar cookies for the 4th of July, and a famous coconut cookie recipe from Leah's grandma that was a farm-favorite.
Between summer wedding floristry, lots of cookie baking, and running around with Sawyer and June, Leah let us in on some of her process, how the last 2 months have been, and what her favorite part of the cookie-making has been!
Where did you get the inspiration to combine salty and sweet with the Salthouse Cookie? What about smoky, sweet, and salty with the Smokehouse Cookie?
Chocolate chip cookies are something that my family has been making since I was little. You just can't go wrong with it! As we began making salt, it seemed like a great idea to add a sprinkling of it to the cookies to really get that sweet and salty contrast. I don't like things too sweet, so finishing a sweet cookie bite with a little crunchy sea salt seemed like the best move! The Smokehouse Cookie idea was all Brady's idea. All of the inspiration I had for doing a Smokehouse was that I heated up a cookie over a campfire while camping in my twenties, and it was pretty good! Could have just been the Bud Light I had with it. :)
What's special about our chocolate chip cookie?
I think everyone thinks their mom's chocolate chip cookie is the best, right? And I am not different, so the credit really goes to the OG cookie baker, my mom "Mama Wymer." She taught me about baking a cookie with crunchy edges with a gooey center, and I think that that's what makes our cookie so good!
How have the last 2 months of being a head baker been?
I love it so much! It's the perfect job for someone like me who loves all things creative and cozy. It's really a peaceful kitchen where I get to work alone most of the time, and create something for someone to enjoy! The shop has really good energy, and I love making it smell like fresh baked cookies in the morning!
What's your favorite part of cookie-making?
It's been the best when my mom has come to help me! We are creating really great memories there. My great grandma was quite the baker, so getting to fill her shoes a bit is fun, plus I have some of her famous recipes that I get to try out. And getting to leave before the store opens is pretty nice too. I get in to work some cookie magic and then out before the morning rush!
What do you hope we can bake in the future?
That's a great question! I've got a whole list of secret family recipes that I love. I guess you'll just have to wait and find out!
Come on in to
80 Nichols St. to see it all in person! Beth will be ecstatic to show you around and let you in on our salt-making process, and you need to try one of our cookies... or a dozen!
Stay salty folks!
1 comment
Could you ship the cookies 🍪 they were absolutely delicious my family and I bought two of them the coconut and the chocolate chip when we came to the island today for a visit
Thank you
Michele Roth 🙂