one smart cookie
Following a Trail of Crumbs to a Baking Empire
Most kids learn the secret sooner rather than later: sometimes, the cookie dough is even more delicious than the cookies themselves. Longtime cookie obsessive Courtney Cowan was no exception. “Growing up as a kid, if I was not in school or doing gymnastics, I was probably making cookies—and I really loved the dough,” Cowan, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, recalls. “When I was about eleven, I was out of baking soda at the house and I thought ‘Oh, it’s only a teaspoon, so it can’t matter that much.’ I carried on, then realized that my cookies did not bake properly. My mom explained to me the idea of a leavening agent and I realized that there was a science to baking, which just absolutely fascinated me and blew my mind.”
Cowan started tinkering and tinkering some more. Before long, she’d developed a doughy cookie recipe that her friends and family couldn’t get enough of. “Cut to being in my twenties in Los Angeles working in television . . . I would bring [my cookies] into work and hear people asking, ‘What bakery are these cookies from?’” says Cowan. “It kind of sparked something in me that maybe there was something to this recipe that I just made for fun.”
The baker also noticed delectable possibilities in the marketplace. “Cookies are oftentimes overlooked,” says Cowan. “They’re just so pervasive in our culture that everybody makes them, and they aren’t typically seen as a gourmet product. Obviously, I think that is a real missed opportunity.” In 2005, she kick-started a cookie company—now known as Milk Jar Cookies—out of the coat closet in her one-bedroom apartment. Buyers could fax in their orders, and she’d get home and begin baking posthaste.
“I did it on the side for seven years,” she recalls. “I would come home from working a twelve-hour day in television and bake cookies, take a nap while they cooled, then get up and package them and then drive them wherever they had to be on my way to work. Every time someone would open the door [to receive them], especially if it was a surprise delivery, their eyes would go wide and they’d have a huge smile on their face. It made me so happy to bring people so much joy! It started this dream of mine to have this really beautiful cookie shop that was welcoming, that would really elevate the classic experience of milk and cookies to a gourmet experience.”
Gourmet being the key word. Among Milk Jar’s current flavor offerings? Salted butterscotch, white chocolate raspberry, and chocolate covered strawberry (with an actual strawberry in the shape of a heart embedded in the cookie itself). When she launched her first storefront on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, Cowan worked incredibly hard to whip up a comforting, cozy space that echoed the cookies themselves. “It feels residential—I didn’t want it to feel cold,” she says. “So there’s wood and wallpaper and a very soft color palette. It just feels warm and welcoming, like your cool great aunt’s house.”
Infamously picky and discerning Los Angeles locals and celebs ate it up (pun intended). Cowan published Milk Jar Cookies Bakebook in 2020, and as of press time, was opening a second storefront in nearby Encino complete with a shipping and delivery facility. (Yes, you can order these specialty cookies online.) Milk Jar has even filed a franchise disclosure document. “I’m just so thrilled to offer the roadmap that I’ve taken so long to create and perfect to other aspiring entrepreneurs that might have that spirit.”
Cowan’s inventive nature extends to her cookie pairings, too—despite her brand name, milk is just the beginning. “I really love a good cup of coffee with my cookie: our coffee purveyor is [California local] Sightglass Coffee,” she says. “And I’m not going to lie—a good bubbly or pinot noir goes really well with cookies and isn’t overpowering.” Her favorite cookie flavor changes with the weather. “Every time we bake a seasonal flavor that I haven’t had since last year, I’m like, ‘Oh nope, this is it!’ But right now, chocolate pecan caramel has my heart. It’s our chocolate dough, chunks of pecans, and Rolo candies. It melts so perfectly and it’s so doughy, but then there’s a little bit of crunch.” And it’s not cookie-cutter in the least.
/ Written by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans.
Photography by Ashley Maxwell.
Order cookies by the half dozen: www.milkjarcookies.com
Instagram: @milkjarcookies
