Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
She said she won a box of those giant cookies and tried a few others and thought she could make better ones. At that time, she was pregnant with her daughter, Journey, and no longer competing.
After coming up with a recipe for a buttery dough, she started making brownie stuffed chocolate chip cookies, Oreo truffle stuffed cookies and cream cookies and peanut butter ball stuffed chocolate chip cookies for her friends that were competing. She had great feedback, but then the pandemic happened and shows were halted.
Eric Liddic, the owner of Eric’s Pretzels and the father of her oldest son, encouraged her to start selling her cookies. Morris said she started by selling them via Facebook and now she does pop-up events. This year she has been scheduled every weekend from April 27 through mid June. She has temporarily stopped taking online orders to focus on events.
The secret to her cookies is in the dough. She said the butter and sugar must be creamed in a certain way to make sure the cookies aren’t too soft. She generally has 14 to 15 varieties with rotating seasonal flavors like the cheesecake stuffed strawberry cookies.
Customer favorites include the three original cookies she started with, as well as the cheesecake stuffed snickerdoodle cookie and the carrot cake sandwich cookie with cream cheese frosting.
When Morris isn’t at events, she is a stay-at-home-mom. Her 3-year-old daughter has congenital heart disease and had her first surgery at eight weeks old. Journey is expected to have another surgery this summer.
Morris still has a passion for exercise science and nutrition. She said she loves to work with people and lift them up, which translates into her cookie business.
“The mission statement for The Cookie Girl is to bring joy and that’s always been my thing work-related is I just want to bring joy to people,” Morris said.
In the future, Morris would love to start baking in a commercial kitchen, so she could expand her business into retail spaces.
Where to get cookies
The Cookie Girl will be in the Oregon District for Derby Day on Saturday, May 4 starting at noon until she sells outs. Her cookies are also available at the Eric’s Pretzels location inside Dot’s Market at Centerville’s Cross Pointe Center. For more information and updates, visit The Cookie Girl’s Facebook page (@thecookiegirlbakery1).
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