A New Life for Grandma’s Shortbread Crescents
By Lorrie Baumann
Flathau’s Fine Foods is known to specialty food retailers mostly as a baker of cheese straws and shortbread cookies, but the company started out 25 years ago as a caterer for corporate events and weddings. The Flathau cheese straws, chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate macadamia cookies were big hits at those affairs, but when Founder Jeff Flathau decided to take a chance to expand his market with a trip to Atlanta’s gift market, he thought he might want to expand his product line as well. “I wanted to do shortbread,” he said. “We were humming along there, and had the catering, so I didn’t have to make a living out of the cookie business,… but I really wanted to get the business changed and get the packaged cookie business going.”
As he thought about shortbread, Flathau remembered the crescent cookies that his grandmother had made for him when he was a boy. After she’d passed along the recipe, Flathau baked the cookies and tasted them eagerly, only to realize that, while the cookies were good, what had made them really special was that his grandmother had baked them for him. That wasn’t an experience he could pass along in a package, so, regretfully, he continued his search for a great recipe.
Then, one day, he came home from work to find his wife, Heather, bashing away with a hammer on a bag of peppermint candy. “I thought she was off her rocker,” he said. “She’s in the carport with a hammer and a Ziploc bag, and she’s bashing at it to crush peppermint candy to put inside the shortbread.”
Then Heather took some of that crushed candy and mixed it a batch of cookie dough that had started with Jeff’s grandmother’s recipe for crescent cookies and been doctored on by Heather. And when she’d baked that off, there was the magical experience that Jeff had been hoping for when he’d asked his grandmother for that recipe. “That little bit of pulverized candy gives it a distinct flavor along with a little crunch from the candy inside the cookie,” he said. “They say necessity is the mother of invention. We needed something that would sell, and we needed something with a long shelf life.”
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Flathau’s now has seven different flavors of its shortbread cookies. The original Peppermint Snaps flavor was followed by Raspberry Snaps, then Key Lime Snaps. Butterscotch, Lemon and Cinnamon followed. The latest flavor was All-Natural Shortbread Cookies – a classic shortbread with no candy inside and no dusting of powdered sugar, which won a silver sofi Award in 2017 to add to the two previous sofi Awards on Flathau’s shelf – one for Butterscotch Snaps and one for Raspberry – along with a wide range of other awards from various food and gift shows.
The cookies are offered in several different package sizes. A 4-ounce carton retails for $4.95, a 6-ounce carton retails for $6.49. There’s a 7-ounce Maddy’s carton that retails for $6.95, and the 8-ounce Flathau’s carton retails for $7.95. Flathau’s also offers a 6-ounce can of cookies that retails for $11.95. The can is modeled after a paint can, but it’s made of plastic and it’s reusable. “People use it for putting pins in or collecting pennies,” Flathau said. “We get people calling us and telling us that they have cans that are seven or eight years old.”
A 16-ounce can in a design similar to the 6-ounce can retails for $21.95. “It’s great for holiday gifts,” Flathau said. “We have a Holiday Assortment in the large can that has Cheese Straws, Plain Shortbread, Key Lime and Peppermint Shortbread.” The assortment also retails for $21.95. “The Holiday Assortment is one of our top sellers during Christmas,” Flathau said. “People like the choice, and it’s 24 ounces of each in the can, so it’s a good assortment.”
The cookies have a 9-month shelf life and are all still made in Mississippi. Flathau’s Fine Foods is a founding member of Genuine MS, a Mississippi state program that recognizes products that are grown or made in the state. Flathau’s also offers private label products. For more information, call 601.606.3899 or email flathauj@aol.com. Visit on the web at www.flathausfinefoods.com.