Why I closed my Cookie Business + Strawberry Gochujang Thumbprint Cookies

Some thoughts on being a failed founder and a cookie recipe

I love a good baking project. From pop-ups, croquembouches, and apartment tasting menus, I really love exploring my culinary capabilities (and mostly my intrusive thoughts).So in the summer of 2023, one of those ideas took shape as a cookie business run out of my parents’ kitchen. The goal? Create a cookie empire, much like the trendy online brands Crumbl or Last Crumb. In reality though, it was more of a micro bakery with Gen-Z geurilla marketing.

Each week I would create 4 flavors of cookies, promoting them through social media. The flavors were vaguely Asian inspired, but really were just cookies that I wanted to eat that I never found in a bakery.

While these cookies looked great in photo and on social media, unsurprisingly this practice was unsustainable.

In hindsight, trying to sell and produce 4 different flavored cookies was far too ambitious considering all the other responsibilities that I had to tackle. I was baking 200 cookies a week by myself with just 6 sheet trays. Granted, I did have the luxury of two ovens because I was living with my parents, but I also lived far out of the city. I would rush into the city with a granny cart full of cookies on a weekend to pass out cookies and then commute back to Mama Chenny’s passed out on the Metro North.

I did all the shopping, orders, and admin on the days I wasn’t making pounds and pounds of cookie dough, and on top of that edited everything for social media. But because I was promoting everything on social media, people from around the country wanted to try my products, so I was also researching how to build a website, do e-commerce, and finding commissary space to increase my production. All separate wings of a business that require far too much time and dedication for one person.

Even after doing this bulk baking routine a few times I started to feel burnt out. While I’m thankful the videos and the documentary reels/clips were going viral and were very successful, I was feeling all the pressure. I felt there was too much hype around my baking for a product that was unique, but often inconsistent.

It’s already hard to run a micro-bakery, and trying to turn that into a full scale operation was not a risk I was willing to take at the time. But I’m that you all trusted me, a random girl from the Internet, to serve you cookies with little to no knowledge of my baking and products.

Strawberry Gochujang Thumbprint

Now, as promised (or expected), here’s your recipe of the week: almond, cinnamon, and black pepper-scented sugar cookies with a strawberry gochujang jam center.

I’m making these cookies for a bake sale on Sunday, February 23rd, at Pop Up Grocer to support wildfire relief efforts in LA. What’s great about a pop-up is that this is a one-time event. This cookie doesn’t have to be a crowd pleaser since it’s such a limited run item which gives me the freedom to experiment with some more unique flavors that wouldn’t be able to sustain a bakery, but hopefully satisfies the stomachs of give or take 75 people. I’ve developed this new cookie recipe based on the Spicy Sunset Cookie, a strawberry gochujang swirl cookie that I sold back in 2023.

I’ve been craving Linzer tarts, but for this event, I decided to be kinder to myself. I won’t subject myself into baking sandwich cookies, so I’ve created something in between a Linzer tart and a thumbprint cookie.

Unlike some of my other recipes (oops), I’ve done several test batches of this one to get a nice texture and flavor. If you weren’t able to make it out on Sunday to support, you can try making them at home instead!

All 4 of my test batch attempts. The right-hand bottom was ultimately my final product.

Ingredients