Sweet collaboration saves creator of fanciful cookies

A kindhearted gesture by Mitzi Toro of Maui turned into a business that might have closed were it not for a member of a fifth-generation chocolate-making family.

Toro staged a fundraiser for the intensive care unit nurses at Maui Memorial Medical Center who had cared for her dying father, and after achieving the goal, she was persuaded to turn the baking into a business.

She registered the trade name The Maui Cookie Lady in July of last year, and in September created a limited liability corporation with the same name.

The initial recipe was a gift from her ninth-grade English teacher, and Toro herself is an educator. She is the testing and ESL coordinator at Kalama Intermediate School in Makawao and is known for bringing baked goods to work to share with colleagues.

They now also serve as her research and development team (read: guinea pigs), since she has experimented with the original recipe and created new ones along the way.

Most of her cookies are toweringly unique and are not just cookies, but cookies piled high with other ingredients. Each weighs from 4 to 7 ounces, depending on the recipe and the toppings, and costs $4 each or $20 for a half-dozen.

"It takes maybe two days to get through a cookie," Toro said. "They’re like minicakes."

Her creations include Oreo Mocha Mudslide cookies with salted-caramel centers, All-American Fried Chicken and Waffles cookies — which, yes, are made using fried chicken — a cookie that includes brandy-soaked, slow-cooked bacon as part of its topping, fruity flavors of all sorts and best-sellers such as the Sarah Biggs, a chocolate concoction named for Toro’s first repeat customer.

One dares not peruse her website, www.themauicookielady.com, on an empty stomach.

While Toro’s cookies sell out at events such as the Maui Swap Meet, First Fridays in Wailuku, Fourth Fridays in Kihei and at special events at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, the costs of supplies and shipping were so high that she considered shutting down.

In October her need for a profit margin weighed heavily on her mind when she attended the International Baking Industry Expo in Las Vegas and met Clark Guittard, global sales director of the Guittard Chocolate Co.

Guittard is run by the fifth generation of a family of chocolatiers.

Toro already was using Guittard products, but her ability to obtain additional items from the product line was limited, she said.

That all changed with that chance meeting, as did her ability to affordably ship heavy ingredients like special flours to Maui, she said.

Likewise, difficulty sending orders off-island were eased by Maui Pack and Ship, which specializes in handling food products.

With the connections Guittard has made for her, he has become a valuable resource, Toro said. "For a baker, it’s a dream come true" to have such a friend and mentor.

"We consider ourselves to be an extension of our customers’ business, which means when they grow, we grow with them," Guittard said.

As a result of the Guittard connection, trade publication Dessert Professional magazine wrote a short piece on Toro and her business for its upcoming December issue, to be released within two weeks. "We suggested to Matthew (Stevens, editor) from ‘Dessert Professional’ that Mitzi had an excellent product and amazing story," Guittard said.

WHERE TO BUY THEM
>> Maui Swap Meet
>> First Fridays, Wailuku
>> Fourth Fridays, Kihei
>> Maui Arts & Cultural Center (special events)
>> Online: www.themauicookielady.com
>> Phone: 357-3684

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“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.