Thursday, September 23, 2010

Anatomy of the Perfect Cookie

What makes a cookie worth every indulgent bite?

We don't discriminate, there are many perfect cookies out there. To each cookie, its own - whether you are talking about a crumbly, dense, chewy, soft, crunchy or delicate cookie, each has its own merits. That said, when we make our cranberry white chocolate chip cookies, these are some of the qualities we hope to achieve:



- crispy golden edge -


- a crispy surface that gives way into a buttery tender bite -


- crinkles: cookie wrinkles where the crust meets the moist center -


- irridescent patches of intense chewy goodness -


- small pieces of smooth white chocolate morsels that peak through the crisp surface -


- flakes of nutty coconut -


- tart dried cranberries to contrast the sweetness of the cookie -


Post a reply to let us know what you look for in your perfect cookie - one post will be randomly chosen for a free sampler of our cookies!

Friday, September 3, 2010

How to get a good workout while eating freshly baked chocolate chip cookies: Our BFS Cookie Photo Shoot

I walked away with two things from our recent cookie photo shoot: beautiful images and…sore arms! Here’s a sneak peak at what went on behind the scenes at our photo shoot. It involved lots of wiping, adjusting and holding up lighting equipment very, very still (which explains the sore arms).

First, Erik (our photographer) had to prepare the lighting to make our sweet treats look their very best – hey, everyone benefits from good lighting.



Then, everything was wiped down. We couldn't shoot with dirty glasses, they are...disgusting and the camera catches every little smudge and speck. If you thought the camera adds 10 pounds, it also also adds like 10 fingerprints.


Then, about an hour of adjusting to get our Brown Butter Sea Salt Cookies looking as good as they taste!




Here's the progression of one of our product shots, described by why each frame was changed:

The set-up: Alexx (our de facto art director), carefully staging for the perfect shot

Take 1: Still not there...maybe it was the zoom

Take 2: Nope, not the zoom

Take 3: An all-white background...better, but something was missing

Take 4: Add a brownie..still not there.

Take 5: We should have known-- everything is better is more brownies! Almost there.

The final take: Adjust logo of Brown Butter Sea Salt Package, fix ribbon, and lighting..and our final shot:



My one regret - I wish we had more photos so we could share the whole experience, but we were too busy holding lighting materials and getting Butterscotch Blondies and Sweet Potato Whoopee Pies to balance on top of each other...ack, well lesson learned!



Photos: erikfischerphotography.com