Have you heard of The Dublin Cookie Company? Elaine Cohalan and Jenny Synnott are the owners of a new business here in the Liberties. It is called The Dublin Cookie Company and is situated in Thomas Street; in walking distance from Guinness Storehouse, Teeling Whiskey Distillery and soon to open, Pearse Lyons Distillery.
Elaine agreed to talk to us about their new shop and cookie company. Her partner and co-owner of The Dublin Cookie Company, Jenny, is American and was born and raised in Melrose, Massachusetts. Elaine is from Kilmichael, County Cork and was raised on a dairy and beef farm there.
Elaine and Jenny met while playing rugby. The couple eventually became business partners and now steer the company as a team that does everything from baking, serving customers and scrumming up new recipes.
The Dublin Cookie Company started doing business in 2014. Based in Smithfield, they would take their cookies to the Smithfield Market and Fair and eventually decided to moved into the premises on Thomas Street on the 5th of March 2016.
Elaine and Jenny have always been into making food and baking. “Jenny had all these great recipes and she always made cookies for everybody.” Elaine tells us a bit about why they decided to make and sell cookies.
They thought it would be a great idea try selling Jenny’s cookies and took it to a market in the GAA Hall in Malahide, “Our very first customers were mothers of GAA kids and kids who were walking around this market buying cookies.”
After that, they started selling their cookies at the Saturday market just off the Ha’Penny Bridge. The Grand Social has a flea market there every Saturday and they used to sell their cookies outside the entrance of the Grand Social, catching the attention of bypassers and tourists.
“We also started doing regular markets; lunchtime markets around the city. And they were in Eastpoint Business Park, Sandyford Business Park and Merrion Square, so all the regular people who used to go to those markets for their lunch would pick up a sweet snack on their way out.”
Elaine and Jenny decided to open their very first shop here in Dublin 8 and says about their reasons for moving to the Liberties with The Dublin Cookie Company, “We love the area, first of all, it’s just full of culture, and inspiration, and art and just all the great things about the city – a mixture of old parts of the city and new and evolving parts.
The Liberties is kinda of where Dublin was started and because we are a Dublin Cookie Company, this area of the city just kinda of really called to us; it felt like it was the right place for us to be. We want to be known as a truly Dublin company; right in the heart of where Dublin all started.”
“It’s also a great up and coming area. There are colleges around here, the Digital Hall, the Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC), all the students accommodation that’s going in. You know, we feel like this is a wave that is rising in this area, and we want to be part of that.”
The Dublin Cookie Company sells American style cookies made with real Irish ingredients. Elaine’s father owns a dairy farm, but unfortunately they can’t use his produce, as Cork is too far away and he sells raw milk only. If they ever did decide to open another Cookie Company in Cork, they certainly would though, Elaine confesses.
So what makes a cookie American style? Elaine explains, “We call them American style cookies, and basically what that means to us is that they are soft not hard, that they are chewy not crunchy, you know in term vs. a biscuit.”
And they have succeeded at this, their cookies melt away in your mouth, you definitely do not have to do much chewing. I tried the Carrot Sandwich Cookie and it is the most delish cookie I have ever had, I give it a 10 out of 10.
The Dublin Cookie Company has been interviewed and reviewed by dozens of newspapers and magazines in their short time of selling cookies. They take their cookies with them wherever they go, to festivals like the Dublin Food Porn Festival, The Taste of Dublin Festival and the Christmas Market at St. Stephen’s Green.
They are really getting their product out there and are growing in popularity. So far they have enjoyed only positive feedback and they are loved by the many food critics and journalists who have interviewed them.
They have been interviewed by the Irish Mirror, Irish Independent, Nationwide, Food&Wine Magazine, Dublin Drinks Coffee, Lovin Dublin, Failte Ireland Listings, Taste of Dublin, The Recommended, Buzz.ie, Purity Belle, Woman’s Way, The Taste.ie Magazine, Today FM’s Sunday Business Show, Teeling Times, Dublin’s 98FM, Spin 1038, and many more.
Do they think of themselves as famous now that almost everyone in Dublin has heard of The Dublin Cookie Company’s real homemade American style cookies?
“We both love being known, that is one of the reasons we started our own company. We wanted to be known for producing great products and having a great company. Being famous? I don’t really know if we are really famous, we don’t strive to be famous, or want to be TV personalities, or anything like that, but we like being known for what we do, and we like doing it well.”
Jenny is in charge of the kitchen, both share all the duties, she loves being stuck in the kitchen while Elaine likes serving behind the counter. Cookies are their main offerings, but they also do proper leave teas, really strong artisan coffee, cookie dough and different flavoured cookie milks.
They strive to sell a product of the highest quality and that is certainly reflected in the taste of their cookies. They do not sell any food, this is a cookie company only, but drinks that compliment cookies are on the menu for those who get thirsty after a cookie.
The cookie milks have real cookie bits in it, but you can sip it through a straw. They do small size biscuits, and you can get great deals like a Small Cookie Box for 15 euro, or Medium, Large or Extra Large Cookie Boxes. They also cater for events and parties.
There is a variation of flavoured cookies to choose from and they are always busy trying out new recipes. They do a wide range of different flavoured cookies like Sea Salt Caramel and Toasted Pecan, Carrot Cake Sandwich, Classic Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate and Cranberry, Banoffee Sandwich, Oatmeal Raisin, The Irish Cookie Sandwich, Heart Shaped Shortbread, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip, Rhubarb and Custard, Rainbow Sugar Cookie and Rosewater Kisses.
Why so many flavours, “It is to help people try different flavours and see that a cookie can taste like nothing you have ever tasted before.”
Designing the winning cookie seem to be something they are well able to do. In 2015 they won the Great Taste 2015 Award for their Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwich and they were finalists in The Irish Food Awards for their Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie, they were shortlisted for this award.
In 2016 they won the Great Taste Award 2016 for their White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookie Dough. The Dublin Cookie Company was also listed as one of the top 5 sweet treats in Dublin at this year’s Taste of Dublin Festival.
The cookie shop is on the corner of Thomas Street, next to St Catherines Church. Inside there is only one table, a very big table, where a whole rugby team can easily sit down for a coffee and a cookie; or if you prefer a cookie flavoured glass of milk.
The kitchen is open and you get to watch Jenny bake and roll out her cookie dough from behind the counter while you place your order. The shop is decorated in a very basic and simplistic style, but homely and has a warm atmosphere.
They are going places very quickly. Will there be a recipe book next? “Maybe someday, we will love love to someday, it’s not on our agenda right now, but in the future we would love to do that.”
Do they have anything in store for the future? They are thinking of opening another shop in Dublin, a kiosk or a small unit. They are also re-launching their cookie dough. They are selling cookie dough in SuperValu and tested it for a year with basic packaging to see how it goes. The new range will have a new design and new packaging and if customers like it they will start marketing it in other shops too.
“We just got a Great Taste Award for one of our cookie doughs, our White Chocolate and Cranberry, and we have been nominated as a finalist for Blossom and Herring for a Peanut Butter one, so we relaunching those, hopefully in the next months or so into supermarkets so that people can bake their own cookies at home.”
Try out a cookie and see for yourself, they might look small, but they are dangerously big on taste! Like they say dynamite comes in small packages.
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