If you’ve never had one of Carol Goldman’s cookies, you haven’t lived life fully. Arguably the official cookie of the North Shore, they weigh in at a half-pound each, are more than 1½ inches thick, and are moist and filled with inconceivable amounts of butter. They should really come with a warning label: Highly addictive.
Goldman, a 65-year-old native of Saginaw, Mich., started selling her cookies in Highwood in the early ’80s at a local gym. Shortly thereafter, they were selling out at Sunset Foods in Highland Park and then in Northbrook. In 1983, People magazine rated Carol’s the fourth-best cookie in the nation. And now, you can find them in all kinds of stores and restaurants—and the company ships all over the country.
In addition to pleasing so many taste buds, the Highland Park-based Carol’s Cookies donates hundreds of its treats to Children’s Memorial Hospital and other organizations each year; and Goldman and her husband, Peter, started the Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Foundation, which teaches people with disabilities how to sail. Goldman also serves on the women’s board of the Chicago-based Gastro-Intestinal Research Foundation and co-chairs the annual walk for the Chicago chapter of Scleroderma Foundation.
Make It Better sat down with “Cookie,” as her granddaughters affectionately call her, to learn a few of her delicious secrets.
We heard that you and your sisters learned to bake from your mother. What’s your most vivid memory from your childhood kitchen?
Licking the batter off the beaters. What’s better than being able to do that?
Why is giving back important to you?
My parents taught us to give and not take. Giving is comforting. I chair the walk for the Scleroderma Foundation because several members of my family have this and other auto-immune diseases. I’ve been spared, so I’m well enough to help everybody else.
I understand you were a marathon runner. I bet that helped burn off the cookie calories.
I ran one marathon when I was 39 and many races for charity, but I haven’t run in 10 years. Put it on, then take it off, I like to say.
Your company celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Have you grown tired of your own cookies by now?
Nope—they’re my favorite dessert. If I snack, I snack on my cookies.
What advice do you give to other bakers?
Use all-natural ingredients.
Your cookies weigh half a pound each. Um, isn’t that just a bit much?
That’s just the kind of person I am. Shopping, eating, baking … I do everything in excess.
Do you have any thoughts of retiring?
No way. I have too much energy. I always want to be in the dough.
To order Carol’s Cookies or find local retailers, visit carolscookies.com
