County Fare
by Diana Cercone
Cookies have been delighting children and adults alike for more than 1,300 years. The earliest style of cookies dates back to 7th-century Persia, which was one of the first countries to cultivate sugar. By definition, cookies differ from cakes because they can be handheld while consumed rather than first sliced into pieces.
Though ingredients varied from country to country and according to customs, the basics remained the same: flour, fat and sugar. Historically, the fat called for was either butter or lard (made from pork fat). All except for kosher cookies. These need to be dairy-free as well as not made with lard. Out of necessity then, for a majority of those 1300 years, kosher cookies were either homemade or baked in small quantities in Jewish bakeries.
True, mass-produced commercial, dairy-free kosher cookies have been on the market since the beginning of the last century. But it wasn’t until almost 100 years later that someone came up with a homemade-tasting dairy-free cookie. The year was 2014 and that someone is Bucks County resident David Bader, founder of Nomoo Cookies.
According to his close friends and co-workers, David made some pretty darn good cookies. It wasn’t uncommon for him to arrive in the morning at the software company he owns in Upper Bucks with a fresh batch for his staff to enjoy.
These were eagerly gobbled up—especially his chocolate cookies. But the genesis for Nomoo cookies came not from praise but from complaints. Albeit, these came good-naturedly from his friends and staff who kept a kosher diet and weren't always able to enjoy his cookie creations.
They appealed to David’s problem-solving acumen, called upon his baking skills, and OK, also laid a little guilt on him, imploring him to come up with a dairy-free cookie that rivaled his butter-based ones in taste and texture.
David didn’t disappoint. Not only did he come up with a chocolate cookie that surpassed his original, but he also launched a complete line of dairy-free, kosher cookies.
First he called upon his colleague Gretchen Dossa, now general manager of Nomoo Cookies. Knowing Gretchen’s daughter, Olivia, now 18, had been lactose-intolerant since birth; he figured Gretchen knew a thing or two about dairy-free baking. She did. And, since the birth of her daughter, had learned how to cook dairy-free, often relying on foods certified kosher.
With a team assembled of long-time friends and co-workers, David and Gretchen bandied ideas back and forth of how best to produce the cookies. But before any of their ideas could be put into play, they needed a baker. Enter Laurie Brandau, a then member of David’s staff and “an amazing cook and baker.” Using the second floor of their office building located near the Delaware River in Erwinna, Laurie developed the initial recipes for Nomoo’s dairy-free line.
So how did you know they were any good? This I ask David and Gretchen as we sit in Nomoo’s lunchroom. “We knew because we all got fat taste-testing them,” David says. “They were that good!”
So good in fact—and with sales quickly growing—David had to find a bigger space to make his cookies. In 2013 he found one in Pipersville, a former machine tool factory. It took a year to redesign it for making their cookies in an allergen-free and eco-friendly environment, which included buying stainless-steel equipment that is AIB (American Industry of Baking) certified as well as having the equipment and all the ingredients used to make Nomoo Cookies certified kosher by the OU, the Orthodox Union in NYC. And this year the company added a vegan line.
O.K—that’s all good to know, I say. But what makes Nomoo Cookies so good? Not missing a beat, Gretchen says simply, it’s the ingredients. All are all-natural ingredients of the highest grade, such as the Belgian dark chocolate they use, she says. Many of the ingredients are organic, and when possible, are local, such as the raspberries from Manoff’s Orchards, apples from Solebury Orchards, honey from Buckingham Valley Honey and coffee from The Coffee Scoop—all Bucks County’s finest.
By my last count, I had close to 20 different dairy-free and vegan cookies in their line, and this doesn't even include their seasonal and holiday cookies, such as a pumpkin cookie with ginger and a maple glaze on top for fall. Come the fall and winter holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Christmas and Hanukkah, you’ll find among the offerings appropriately decorated palmiers, sugar cookies, coconut macaroons and mandel bread.
Did I mention Nomoo cookies, besides being dairy-free, vegan and delicious, are preservative-free? No? Well, they are. But this also translates into a short shelf life. But not to worry, I told you the folks at Nomoo Cookie Company were smart. They came up with a way to “preserve” their non-preservative cookies. They individually wrap them. So, if not consumed within a week or so, you can refrigerate them for a longer shelf life. For longer periods, freeze them. Then, take out, let defrost and come to room temperature and enjoy the fresh, home baked taste.
Just as David used his friends and co-workers as taste-testers, I enlisted a few of my own. I presented a gift box of Nomoo Cookies, containing a variety of 12 cookies, to my niece Lori, who is a great baker; her husband, Ed, who has been known to forgo dinner and go straight to dessert; and their daughter, Madelyn, who, at 8-years-old, already has a sophisticated palate. My “experts” overall assessment was that “they are all very good.” “I would never know they were dairy-free,” Lori says. “The fact that they are wrapped individually is really nice, especially for packed lunches, and they freeze well (if you can resist and save some).”
As far as their favorites: Madelyn cast her vote for the Ginger Snap, saying, “It has a strong ginger flavor that is tangy and soft and chewy. I love it!” Lori was torn between the Cran Merry, “a delightful, light flavor with real bits of cranberry and I love the granulated sugar on top,” the Almond Oy, “almonds and coconut in each bite,” and the Flyin’ Hawaiian, “a powerful pineapple flavor.”
In summing up, Ed says, he loved them all. But the Choco-lift, he says, was their all-time favorite. “It is delicious,” he says. “Would have no idea that this cookie was dairy-free. A hint of coffee flavor makes this chocolate treat a delight. This was our favorite.”
I should add that all Nomoo gift boxes come in an eco-friendly, non-dyed natural brown box and are beautifully tied with a dark chocolate satin ribbon and bow.
Oh, and, my favorite? It’s whichever cookie I’m eating at the moment.
Nomoo Cookies are sold locally at Altomonte’s Italian Market in Doylestown and are available at all Phillies and Eagles games. For more information or to order Nomoo Cookies, call 267-362-5326 or visit www.nomoocookies.com.
Diana Cercone is an area freelance writer who specializes in food, art and travel.
