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Post by Val the Cookie Queen
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Hey There Fabulously Fragrant Foodies and Funsters
Scent of the Cookie Run. A Five Year Anniversary.
A Perfume Geek Post.
History
Five years ago I began supplying cookies to a Salzburg based firm, Indigo. As a number of you know I have a business together with my husband. Bikes and Cookies. He is a downhill bike specialist and runs the bike shop, and I make cookies by hand. From the milling of the grains, to the specialist vanilla, along with chopping all the chocolate by hand, I bake up small batches to fill the orders of the stores. I started with seven and as of September this year, with the opening of a new one in Linz, I will have eleven. My kitchen is located in the back of the shop, closed in of course, with a wall to wall window looking out into my husband´s workshop. There is a good chance that we are the only bike shop with a cookie kitchen in it.
Milling the spelt (Cookies are half each spelt & wheat)
Husband Chris & BFF Kirk shopping
Daughter Hannah (Blondes Wunder) chopping
Method
Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings are spent preparing and making the dough and turning it into weighed balls. It can be anything from three to five hundred cookies and I weigh each one separately. It all gets packed in-between sheets of waxed paper and kept in a very cold refrigerator. Top up dough is made on Monday as I can never quite guess all the orders correctly. Tuesdays I get up at the butt crack of dawn and bake. Once the oven is turned on it´s a race against the beeper! The cookies are baked and cooled, boxes are packed with the orders. (I can be flexible with the prepping times, but orders need
to be delivered Tuesday noon time.) I load the car and head to Salzburg, but not before changing my clothes and applying my perfume.
Resting
Buckets ready for packing
SOTCR* (The Geeky Part)
Monday evening I decide which perfume I will wear on Tuesday. I very seldom, nearly never, wear anything that I don´t have a full bottle of. I choose a couple of photos or pictures that give the vibe of the perfume and subsequently post the information onto a couple of the private perfume groups on Facebook. SOTCR*. Hahahahahaha. I am laughing my arse off here as I type this. Only a perfume junkie would understand. Trying something new in the car is an absolute no, I have no desire to sit in a confined space with something nasty.
The Cookie Run favourites
Cookie Queen
The day I met Portia in Vienna, more than three and a half years ago was the day I became Cookie Queen. It has stuck now and I have my own logo which as well as being on my blogging and cookie cards, is also on our mountain biking downhill jerseys. I sponsor our small racing team with cookies, indeed I seem to sponsor half the bloody world!
The day we met in Vienna Feb 2013
Chris wearing the logo
So come on and crack out your geeky perfume habits and spill the beans. Or perhaps you have a cookie addiction?
Armadillo bussis
CQ
*{Ed: SOTCR = Scent Of The Cookie Run (I know you didn’t need to look)}
Most photos were donated by Val the Cookie Queen
Some were from Dayle Ann Clavin (<<<Go check the site, GORGEOUS!)
Australian Perfume Junkies 
I just love this post! I will smile all day!
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Hello Barbara! Totally nice to se you here. Yeah, you gotta laugh huh? Utter madness. xxxxx
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I’m with Barbara – loved it. Great to get a window in on your cookie/perfume routine. Didn’t know you milled your own grains, weighed each cookie individually or chose your SoTCR the night before. All very impressive. So did Portia dub you the Cookie Queen then?
Hmmm, it’s hard to think of my geeky perfume habits because they just seem normal to me. Probably matching perfume to the temperature.
Now I really want one or ten of you cookies. I can’t accept any substitutes.
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Hi Tara: actually no, I dubbed myself. I jokingly said I would love to write a post or two for APJ. And you know Portia, before I knew it I was on the payroll and I needed a name. I have to weight the cookies for Indigo, as each cookie needs to be the same. I mill my spelt, the wheat I have milled for me at the farm near Chris´s parents. I like the spelt to freshly milled each week, it has a nuttier flavor then. See you soonish. xxxxxxxx
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Val,
Thank you for being such a stable and fun contributor to APJ. Thanks also for being my mate.
Loved this post for so many reasons.
Geeky frag habits? Well, how about the one where I get as much enjoyment out of having an unopened bottle that I can adore the unsullied packaging and take it out, hold it up and adore it as from opening and spritzing. GEEKY!
Portia xx
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Stable? 😉 You know what really worries me? I totally understand the unopened bottle thing. Thanks for having me, whoever would have thought it eh? Bussis. xxxxx
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haha, thought the acronym was for Scent of Tuesday’s Cookie Run. Great photos.
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Hahahahaha. That works fine too, I never thought of it. Thanks for scrolling through so many picccies Caroline. xxxx
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Hi CQ!
Congrats on FIVE years. Does it seem like only yesterday? Loved all the photos – the muddy bike tire with the Mito VdE is so poetic 🙂
My geeky frag habit is to adorn my dresser with pretty bottles of perfume, arranging them all as “artistically” and “meaningfully ” as possible. Sometimes I think I should have better things to do…
Azar xxxx
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HI Azar. Well, I dunno about yesterday. So much has happened over the years. what really stuns me is that I am still making cookies for indigo. I never in a million years imagines it would last this long. And as of today, one of the stores is doing a trial run with my vegan brownies and vegan peanut blondies, so that will be interesting. AND next year a twelfth store …… at some point I will lie under a table eating pizza and mayonnaise and not go out for a year. Watch this space. xxx
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I love what you do and how you do it, Val!!!! This story of your story made me very happy. Maybe someday I will be able to taste one of your delicious cookies1
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Hey Dearest Tora! Really, let´s make it happen. Nothing more I would like than to meet you. Don´t be deceived by the seeming simplicity of the Cookie Run. I incorporate regular nervous breakdowns. xxxxx
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Great to get to know a little bit about your cookie business. I love the fact that you also have vegan alternatives, since it will be helpful also for those of us with food intolerances.
Geeky perfume habits? I don’t know, but my friends find it geeky to make notes about the perfumes I try. By now, that is totally normal for me.
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Hello Ingeborg! Tere is such a lot of people asking for vegan alternatives. Both out of necessity and as a food fad, so why not? I would like to do a vegan cookie but to hone it to perfection to sell on to be sold on, would take some time. They are more fiddly than “normal” cookies. But the brownies are much easier, so let´s see. I think a lot of us make notes! xxxx
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Oh, I loved this post! Right now I’m the salsa/canning tomatoes queen. My husband is a cyclist and rode the Paris-Brest-Paris 750+ mile ride last year. This really made my day, seeing the process, the hand milling (which seems like the most work), as well as your perfumes lovingly propped up with cookies, the great taste (pun included), and those Serge Lutens (my favs…). Now, what is on top of the Serge Lutens in a pretty multi-colored bottle, square, with golden cap, bits of black and orange colors? That one piqued my curiosity. Your and your husband’s shop, cookies and bikes and perfumes, following the bliss sms one’s passions in life. How great! My geekiest perfume habits are alphabetizing my SLs, storing perfumes in special places, often the fridge (my Tauers are there), selecting or considering the night before (totally made sense to me when you mentioned it), and using small sized samples up first, moving to larger ones that I’ve ordered in the suspicion that I will like them more, rotating mousy of the perfumes by general seasons, hot/cold. Oh, there are so many OCD aspects to my perfume obsession.
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Shiva-woman, Good morning! Wow that is so cool, what a long ride. I love the challenge our biker husbands set themselves. Preferable to lying around on a sofa huh …. Maria McElroy`s Aroma M Geisha Vanilla Hinoki is the bottle on top of my Serge´s. It is her most recent scent and very lovely addition to the Geisha series. I also have the oil. I recently wrote about them on APJ, have a look. So did The Silver Fox, A Scent of Elegance. Alphabetizing sounds good, my perfume wardrobe is a mess.
We have turned our passions into a business, and it is wonderful, and also damn bloody hard work, we have come close many times in the winter season (no bike business) to bankruptcy. But we are in our fifteenth year now!!
I always pick a perfume the night before as I just love looking forward to it!
Thanks for commenting. Boom Shankar. 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxx
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Now I want cookies…
My geekiest perfume habit is probably planning my next day’s scent, just as I plan my outfit ahead of time. I think about what I feel like wearing or trying, what I’m going to be doing (teaching classes, going to meetings, etc.), the weather, etc. It took me longer to choose my wedding perfume than it did to find the dress!
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Hi Maggiecat! As I said above I love to plan my perfume in advance. I sometimes do it weeks in advance if I have something to do. That is quite funny now come to think of it. My wedding perfume was Chanel No 5 Parfum. Sending virtual cookies with love! Hugs. Val xxxxxxx
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Congrats on your anniversary! I loved hearing about your process in detail – it really is all about consistency and precision timing week in, week out. You are hardcore, girl. 😉 The gym workouts must help keep you in tiptop condition and give you the necessary stamina. Cookie Queen you most certainly are, and those pictures are truly mouthwatering. I look forward to dipping in the next band bucket, hehe.
I am sure I must have some geeky perfume habits, but my mind has gone blank. Oh, I have taken to using a L’Erbolario Citrus edt to disguise Truffle’s farts. Is that geeky, or just a little coarse?
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I laughed so hard I dropped my dumbbells.
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Cookies!! How great to read this story and finally understand how all the pieces fit together! Congrats on your five year anniversary, may it all continue to grow and prosper. One of my old dear friends sings and teaches with a Salzburg opera company, so who knows? We may just get to try those cookies one day! Xoxo
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Hey my favourite Robert! Please let me know as soon as you are gonna visit Salzburg. We can spend a day together, that would be amazing fun. Five Year anniversary with Indigo and 15 year anniversary of our business. I´ll pick you up at the airport. Bussis. xxxxxxx
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Best. Cookies. In. The. World.
Thank you for mine, they were treasured. Well, treasured for a little while then devoured. One made it back to Neustadt with me & I excitedly shared it with my brother.
Thrilled to have met you in Salzburg. What a fun day! And hot, and caffeinated, and foodie, and that castle…. Wow. We packed a lot in.
When I get settled in my new place I’d really like to get a grain mill. So cool.
Lots of love!
Tina G xx
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I loe my mill. Have had it for 24 years now. Granite stone. It mills such fine flour you can make anything with it. Sometimes when you buy a wholegrain flour it coarse and has large bits in it. That equated to the typical “nasty health food” taste.
And yes, we had such a fantastic day. Let me know when you are settled in ….. Hugs Tina. xxxxxx
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Oh Val, this is such a lovely story!!! I love every bit of it: the private family business, doing something you love (and sharing it with all of us), your husband’s business and courage (I think of the photo on the bike), the connection to the iconic Portia (who I am to meet some day I hope), the cookies in itself (they look oh so yummy!!!), your smile which shouts – I’m happy and fulfilled AND last but not least: I love your love for perfume and the small geeky things about it.
My geeky perfume habit? Well, when I put on some of my vintage beauties, I carefully take them out of the box while I’m kneeling down next to my couch and I’m applying it in this position just in case the bottle drops out of my hands. In this way it can’t possibly break which is my greatest fear. And yes, I sometimes do it even with my evening gown on.
Bussis from Croatia 🙂
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Hello Neva. Hmmmmm. Courage or batshit craziness. Thanks for sharing your kneeling try. That´s wonderful. I stand in from of a mirror to apply my perfume, seeing it goes exactly where I want it to. I wear a lot of extraits and am a great dabber and it must be applied precisely!! Bussis back Neva, I really must visit Croatia. We are so close but have never been. xxxxxxx
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Love this post! My husband and I are bike nuts and I am a perfume nut and lifelong cookie baker. So nice to see your ingredients, I have been experimenting with non-wheat flours, will try spelt next! I would ask for a recipe but yours probably makes 200 dozen. 😉
I also love your perfume choices – Vero, Serge and Chanel, yay! I have way too many bottles but love making my selection every morning.
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Hi Tara C! I don´t bake with pure spelt, it´s too heavy for the cookies. I split it half and half, with non-bleached wheat flour. I find most alternative flours work better mixed, at least for baking. I am sure if you have been baking cookies for your whole life I should be asking you for secrets!
Really? What kind of biking do you do? I want an electric bike next year. The future of pleasure biking. Absolutely amazing fun. The have not taken off in the UK at all, I have no idea why. But over here? We have sold more electric bikes than any other this year. High tech, off road, full suspended wicked fun.
Loads of love, Val. xxxxx
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I never use more than 50% non-glutenous flours in my recipes or it changes the texture too much. Will try the 50/50 spelt/wheat combo. Been using mostly oat, rye and almond flours but I love trying new stuff. Lately I have been making rye/whole wheat pastry flour/white flour challah bread for breakfast toast, it is quite nice. 🙂
As for bikes, we are into road biking and cyclocross. E-bikes are becoming quite popular here in Canada too, although I personally prefer using my own pedal power as long as I am able so I haven’t tried one yet. Biking is my workout activity. 🙂
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It is a common misconception that am electric bike equals no work out. It is false. Try one if you get the chance. A high end one for sportlers. ?
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BTW, what is the animal in the middle of your logo?
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An armadillo. 😉
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Those cookies look perfection, and how I envy those Salzburgers 🙂 in fact, your story made me think hard about when I need to go to Salzburg as the last time I was there (ages ago) I believe the only confectionary far and wide were Mozartkugeln.
I can see how after days standing in a divine sweet cookie ‘perfume’, one would need something like Mito or CdR. When I’ve been baking or making deserts I’d go for Sycomore, CdR or other Cuir fragrances, as far away from sweet as possible.
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Hi Asali! I am sure we will meet up one day, you are to that far away. You have reminded me I must get a sample of Sycomore. I had not t thought of that but you are right, after the mammoth baking session I do like something with a more bitter or leathery vibe to it. Not that I wear too many really sweet scents anyway. I will be in touch soon. 😉 Hugs. xxxxxx
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There isn’t a scent in your pictures that I don’t want. The row of Veros are simply droolworthy.
I love cookies, but I have a peanut allergy, so if I want to eat them and not turn aquamarine, I need to make my own; and while I am a great cook, I suck at baking….
I have a metric crap-ton of strange perfume habits, but nothing that would be considered unusual in this crowd. ( Collecting for the bottles, following a lemming to the end of my credit card, etc. 🙂 )
Love your reviews, and the huge stacks of chocolate.
Tena
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I make other cookies too Tena. You could skip the peanut butter ones. I am however insured though. In case someone drops dead from eating one. Gotta cover all bases.
Luckily I am not into collecting for the bottles, otherwise I could kiss what isl eft of my sanity goodbye. xxxxxx
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which hermes bottle is that before Chanel boxes. Don’t tell me it is Doblis 🙂
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But Fazal, it is. 🙂 🙂
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I love this behind the scenes look at your cookie making magic! I always crave something sweet when I see pictures of those cookies. Sadly, there are no cookies in the house at the moment and it’s too late and too hot to bake.
You’re a cookie making machine.
Xoxo
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Hahahaha Poodle. I guess I am. By the end of the four day session, and after the cookies are delivered, I am thrashed. But I get a kind of three day recovery period before starting again, although that does involves some shopping. If the vegan brownies take off to any extent I will have to rearrange things. Kind of scary actually. Bussis. xxxx
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Congratulations five years of business! Thanks also for a delightful post about your life as a Cookie Queen. My only minor quirk is that I can (just) leave the house without make up, but without wearing scent? Never! Actually, even at home I need some olfactory excitement.
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Morning from here Bernadette. Thanks a lot, five years Indigo, fifteen years of the shop and twenty odd years of baking. Gosh. I totally agree with you. I always wear perfume, always. With the exception of Tuesday, the baking day. I leave the house with none and only apply, as I said before I go to deliver. I cannot have an oven running and perfume. Nope. Thanks so much for dropping by and saying hi! Love, Val xxxxxx
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Ah, this is lovely! Thanks for the window into what you do, Valerie 🙂
Oh, and my geekiest perfume habit? After going on a sampling expedition, I’ll periodically sit and smell everything I’m wearing. It doesn’t sound so strange, but it is an odd picture.
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Don’t we all do that? ?
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Hi Val!
Congratulations on five years and embracing your geeky self to the max! I’m sure you have your “moments” but it looks like a life well-lived to me. Plus,cookies. 😀
Hmm, my geekiest perfume habit? So many to choose from, but probably the weirdest one is that I have bought at least a decant or mini of every perfume that has some sort of sentimental value to me from my youth until the period when I started overwhelming myself with all the other stuff about ten years ago. I know, I’m a sap. 😉
Holly xo
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Now THAT would be an interesting collection of decants. Anything scary? ?
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Val, I loved the post and all the pictures. I hope one day to try one of your cookies (do you make anything with dark chocolate?) 😉
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When asked, I do. Mostly people don’t like dark chocolate in cookies. I do however mak a mean brownies with 90% chocolate …….. I hope I am back in SF within a year. Fingers crossed. ❤️
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I realize now I mis-spoke when I said I was making “chocolate-chip” cookies. …Actually, they are oatmeal cookies with dark (60%) and white chocolate chips added and enough spices to start a new version of India. Plus my secret ingredient : )
I go for ‘crisp’ in baking rather than chewy.
A proper cookie should be able to hold up long dunks in cold milk or hot chocolate … or provide a satisfying crunch before a sip of Amaretto or Grand Marnier.
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Secret ingredient? Legal? 🙂 I use oatmeal too, but the cookies are chewy. Perhaps I should try a crunchy cookie, hmmmmmmm. Spices in chocolate chip? Very intriguing. Xxxx
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Haaah… No illegal secret ingredients here.
Oh, did I mention raisins, almond slivers and chopped pecans?
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