Tag: Makeda’s

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Memphis’ Top 11 Cookies

When the Apple personal assistant Siri is asked the question, “what is zero divided by zero,” she responds with the answer: “Imagine that you have zero cookies and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? See? It doesn’t make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies, and you are sad that you have no friends.” — Wikipedia entry on Cookie Monster

There’s almost no problem that a cookie can’t solve. Hungry? How ‘bout a chocolate chip cookie? Depressed? Oatmeal raisin will cheer you right up. Tired? A protein-packed cookie will put pep in your step.

Memphis has plenty of great cookies, from the standard to the sublime, sprinkled all about town. Go grab you a dozen or two.

Did we miss your favorite? That’s how the cookie crumbles. But let us know in the comments.

And, now, in no particular order … the best 11 cookies in Memphis.

Oatmeal Cream Pie

A crowd pleaser, this cookie includes two perfect oatmeal cookies crushing on some super-sweet buttercream icing. It’s a take on Little Debbie’s oatmeal cream pie. From Muddy’s, which knows a thing or two about sweets. For your sweetest tooth.

Muddy’s Bake Shop, 5101 Sanderlin (683-8844)

Marranitos from La Espiga

You, a porch, temps in the 60s, a steaming cup of coffee, a marranito from La Espiga on Summer. This cookie, sweetened with molasses, has long been an obsession of ours. Will do for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

La Espiga, 3967 Summer (454-9220)

Butter Cookies

We could sing the praises of this cookie all day long — buttery and so rich as to knock you to your knees. Bring a tray of Makeda’s butter cookies to any event and you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Their peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies are excellent, too.

Makeda’s, 488 2nd (295-0901)

Lemon Blueberry Sugar Cookie

Large and bold. This cookie is no ordinary sugar cookie. This one has zing. The bite of the lemon is tempered by the sweet of the blueberry. It’s a beautiful thing and is available at Dessert Therapy, a relatively new sweets shop in East Memphis.

Dessert Therapy, 6645 Poplar, Carrefour Kirby Shopping Plaza (567-8837)

Peanut Butter

About as close to a Platonic ideal of a cookie as one can get. Crisp bottom, fluffy center — salty and peanut buttery. Terrific. From Lucy J. Bakery in the Crosstown Concourse. They pay their workers a living wage, which makes this cookie all the sweeter.

Lucy J Bakery,  1350 Concourse (257-9206)

Macarons

Pretty and delicate — in both taste and appearance. These dainties are for Memphis’ best ladies and gentlemen, mane. A real treat from 17 Berkshire.

17 Berkshire, 2094 Trimble Place (729-7916)

— Susan Ellis

Acorn Cookies

Nostalgia lovers might remember the home-made “acorn” cookies at the old Seessel’s grocery stores. They were acorn-shaped.cookies with raspberry filling dipped in chocolate with sprinkles. Milk Dessert Bar owner Sharon Cohn re-created the cookies from memory. As one who worked at Seessel’s for three years, I can say Cohn did a good job. They evoke those great days at Seessel’s, when children were given free ladyfingers when they passed by the store’s bakery with their parents.

Milk Dessert Bar, 1789 Kirby Parkway No. 10 (730-0893)

Gingerbread Men

Kay Bakery sells its gingerbread men all year ‘round, but the cookies are more popular during Christmas, says Queo Bautista, one of the owners. That’s when they sell “10 or 12 dozen daily,” he says. They still decorate them the way they were decorated back in the 1950s and they still use the same cookie cutters, he says.

Sugar Cookies

The sugar cookies in Halloween shapes of a ghost, pumpkins and a black cat with an arched back at Kay Bakery evoke Halloweens past, particularly for Baby Boomers. And, like the gingerbread men, these are the made from the same cookie cutters as the ones made decades ago.

Kay Bakery, 667 Avon (767-0780)

Butter Cookies

You might think of a butter cookie as something shaped like a daisy or just a thin beige cookie, but the butter cookies at Frost Bake Shop are thick, white cookies with yellow rivulets. If you’re into texture along with great taste, these are for you.

Frost, 394 Grove Park, Laurelwood Shopping Center (682-4545)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Maybe it’s because they’re rectangle and small instead of big and round in addition to tasting great, but whatever it is the chocolate chip cookies at Ricki’s Cookie Corner & Bakery are addictive. It’s hard to stop eating them. Owner Ricki Krupp says her chocolate chip cookies are made of flour, sugar, eggs, and canola oil, but she puts her personal touch in each cookie. Krupp says she took a basic recipe and over the years tweaked it. She now sells 4,000 of her chocolate chip cookies a week.

Ricki’s Cookie Corner, 5068 Park Avenue (866-2447)

— Michael Donahue

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

For your gift list: Good Ham, Memphis Flavor, and Frost.

“When you were a little girl, was it your dream to work with ham?”

Suzanne Bryan Sampietro of the Good Ham Company laughs and says no.

But, yes, meat is a family trade. Her grandfather founded a meat company, Bryan’s Market, in 1936. That business was sold, and about three years ago, Sampietro and her father started the Good Ham Company, which sells five-pound smoked, boneless hams seasoned using an old family recipe.

Good Ham’s good ham

Hams were sold initially through word-of-mouth, then Good Ham got into a food show and then a catalogue. They were picked up by a distributor that got the ham into restaurants such as Aldo’s Pizza Pies.

Good Hams ($35) are available online at goodhamcompany.com with free delivery in Memphis. The last day to order for the holidays is Friday, December 18th. The hams are sold at Buster’s as well.

Sampietro says the hams are pretty much a no-brainer: They’re precooked and have a long shelf life (five to seven days in the fridge; six to eight weeks in the freezer). Plus, she says, “Even people who don’t like ham, love it.”

goodhamcompany.com

JC Youngblood, manager of Central BBQ downtown, has what he calls a “cheat sheet.” The list, filled with restaurants and must-see points of interest, is printed out whenever tourists ask him where they should go next. It’s his way of spreading the love.

Memphis Flavor, an online store Youngblood founded with a silent partner, could be considered an extension of the list. The business sells barbecue sauces and spices, T-shirts, jewelry, jams, candy, cocktail mixers, books, and stickers — all sourced in the 901.

Products from Sache, Felicia Suzanne’s, Huey’s, Dinstuhl’s, the Rendezvous, Germantown Commissary, Crazy Good, Brother Juniper’s, The Cupboard, Makeda’s, and more are all sold on the Memphis Flavor site.

Memphis Flavors also offers gift baskets. The 3Peat ($29.95) is a trio of sauces, from the Rendezvous, Central BBQ, and Germantown Commissary. The Competition Set ($29.95) features barbecue sauces and spices from barbecue teams Killer Hogs and Victory Lane BBQ. Then there’s the Memphis Flavor Holiday Sampler ($79.95) with sweets from Dinstuhl’s, hot sauce from Crazy Good, a bag of Makeda’s butter cookies, a jar of Flo’s, and barbecue sauces and spices.

“I thought it was a lamebrain idea,” says Youngblood, recalling when he first heard the pitch for Memphis Flavor. “But then we got to talking about it … ” Youngblood is the face of the business; his partner handles the logistics. Initially, the idea was to focus just on barbecue sauce and spices, but Youngblood thought they should broaden the scope. He is thinking of expanding further — offering vinyl records, perhaps, or maybe even starting a Birchbox-like monthly subscription service.

memphisflavor.com

Need a gift for those faraway sweet tooths (sweet teeth?) on your list? Don’t forget that goodies from Frost Bake Shop are now offered through Williams-Sonoma.

Frost’s strawberry cake

Pretty vanilla layer cakes, the Gooey Cookie Sampler, the decadent-looking salted caramel cheesecake (plus pumpkin, classic, chocolate, lemon, and turtle), a colorful birthday cake, strawberry cake, chocolate silk mousse pie, frozen cookie dough — all can be had from the site. Of course, you’ll want to order a little something for yourself too.

williams-sonoma.com

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Have a Cookie

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies, located on Airways, was started seven years ago by a family that had a thing for homemade cookies.

Morris and Willie Mae Hill named the bakery after their daughter Makeda, who died of leukemia when she was 6 years old.

Today, the business is growing. Morris’ brother Maurice and his wife Pamela have taken over the business and recently added a second location on Raleigh-LaGrange. They’re planning to open a third one in the Hickory Hill area.

On the menu at Makeda’s are a dozen different cookies — peanut butter, double-chocolate-chip pecan, macadamia nut, and oatmeal are just a few of the choices. The bakery also offers special-occasion cookies and character cookies for children, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Elmo, and Dora the Explorer. All cookies are made from scratch and baked in small batches throughout the day. And if you don’t want to splurge on a dozen cookies for $12.99, you can buy six for $7.50, three for $4, or one for $1.40.

Both Makeda locations are open Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to

9 p.m. Check out their Web site at www.makedascookies.com.

Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies, 2370 Airways (745-2667)

5729 Raleigh-LaGrange (380-5250)

Haven’t had your fill of cookies? Then don’t miss the Hope House Cookie Carnival and Silent Auction on Saturday. Once you’ve had all the cookies and milk your stomach can handle, you can tour the facilities, located at 23 Idlewild, and learn about the support that Hope House provides for children with HIV and AIDS and their families.

Author and talk-show host Ed Horrell will be in charge of the carnival games and prizes for children. The silent auction will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults, $2 for kids, and children under 2 years are free. For more information, call 272-2707 ext. 216.

Hope House Cookie Carnival and Silent Auction, August 19th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If you come from a family of “foodies,” with two generations of women as recipe testers, odds are you’ll be working in the business too. Laura Barrett, a native of Chicago, did escape her fate for a while when she worked in the fashion industry. Last year, however, she decided it was time to follow in her grandmother and mother’s footsteps and make food her full-time profession. To supplement what she learned from her mother and grandmother, she enrolled at the Memphis Culinary Academy. Then, when the Memphis Farmers Market opened, Barrett used it as an opportunity to establish a business and client base.

Bun in the Oven sells baked goods that Barrett learned to make as a child. To get ready for the Saturday market, Barrett spends hours baking cobblers, cookies, muffins, quick breads, and other sweet treats. “My rhubarb cobblers are really popular,” Barrett says. “Currently, I make strawberry rhubarb and peach rhubarb but also raspberry and three-berry cobblers.” A childhood favorite that Barrett sells at the market are carmelitas — a delicious bar cookie with a tender oatmeal crust that bursts with caramel and chocolate. No chance to withstand that temptation.

In addition to selling her goods at the Farmers Market, Barrett takes orders for all of her baked goods and wedding- and special-occasion cakes.

Bun in the Oven, www.bunintheovenmemphis.com (833-5188)

For a quick trip to Great Britain you don’t have to travel far: You have can a bit of English culture at The Peabody’s afternoon tea at Chez Philippe. Guests select a variety of teas, tea sandwiches, assorted pastries, and flavored breads from the Peabody Pastry Shop for $26.95 per person.

Through September 24th, The Peabody is offering Tea for Two, Two for Tea, a joint promotion with the Dixon Gallery & Gardens’ “The Artful Teapot” exhibition.

Peabody Afternoon Tea, Tuesdays through Saturdays 2 to 3 p.m. (529-4188)

siba@gmx.com