The Black and Gold cookie is our signature cookie. It's the cookie we started Top Shelf Cookies with. For those that don't know, I am a LONG time Boston Bruins season ticket holder. I would bring cookies to my pregame hangout The Fours and it became a routine. In the summer of 2010, I developed a recipe using a really cool black cocoa and made a dark, chewy cookie with peanut butter chips. We called it the Black & Gold. I brought this cookie every game to The Fours. The superstition grew. I remember when the Fours facebook page had a post asking if I was bringing the cookies for a much needed win. In the summer of 2011, I attended a duck boat parade with a big old silver cup. I decided then we would move forward with Top Shelf Cookies
We started production in CommonWealth Kitchen September 7 2014. I moved in a bunch of things I had bought with the help of my best friend at Restaurant Depot the day before. I had picked up a case of peanut butter chips from a distributor on Friday.
We moved everything in and got started baking. I was planning to make Hazel's Chocolate Chip cookies and Black & Golds for the Ribbon Cutting event at the kitchen the next day.
I powered through the chocolate chip dough, figured out dough placement for the larger sheet pans.
When it was time for the Black & Gold cookies, I opened up the case of chips, what would 25 pounds of peanut butter chips look like? Would they actually last me forever? I opened the box and gasped. They were mini chips. I didn't use mini chips when I was baking the Black & Gold cookies for superstition. I frantically texted my best friend. He told me to go and buy the right size. I was faced with three real hard truths as an "officially in business" business owner.
1. I was officially paying an hourly rent - which was happening right now.
2. I was also not moving at a fast enough pace and was concerned that I wouldn't be done before the kitchen was closed. I didn't want to be the jerk that held up closing the kitchen on my first day.
3. I had spent money on these chips. I couldn't fathom throwing them away.
I measured and dumped the chips into the dough and finished the bake. The cookies looked beautiful with all those mini chips in them. I loved the look of them, they tasted great. I moved on with mini chips because - I could find them with a distributor.
When I tell the story of the Black & Gold cookie, about how I made them faithfully every home game for the 2010-2011 Boston Bruins season, how this superstition led to me starting Top Shelf Cookies, I always feel of twinge of sadness knowing the Bruins have not made the playoffs since our formal launch.
So, the Bruins got a little bigger and stronger....and we are back to using bigger chips. If the Bruins don't make the playoffs, I don't know what to say about that, at least the cookie is great even if the Bruins aren't playing in the late spring.