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One bite of Connie Grant's chewy Toffee Crater Crunch cookie and you'll know why she's called the Cookie Queen. A benevolent ruler, Grant oversees her Galaxy Cookies business with loving and focused dedication. Located for five years in Westport, she recently moved her shop to Knight Street near downtown Norwalk, just up the block from Fat Cat Pie Co. She's been working tirelessly for the past two-and-a-half months to maintain her relationship with past customers and to establish a new, more local clientele as well. On any given day, the Cookie Queen bakes approximately 250 cookies. During the holiday season, that number can increase to as many as 700.
On a recent visit to "The Galaxy," I caught up with the Queen as she painstakingly tied pretty bows to individually wrapped, sailboat-shaped and decorated cookies for a sailor's birthday party. "Fun or elegant, I do cookies in all shapes and sizes," she says. "But they always taste amazing!"
Grant caters to kids at Galaxy -- big ones and small ones. "Who doesn't love a great cookie?" she says. A main focus for her new shop is cookie decorating. "I'm doing a lot of kids parties now," she notes. "For $34 each, kids get a half-a-sheet tray of cookies in all different shapes to decorate. We serve them pizza and cake, and then they take their creations home." In addition, Grant bakes special, kid-themed cookies for home-based parties, including Elmo, Batman and Sponge Bob.
For bigger "kids," she plans to start throwing Girls' Night Out events where, for $20, customers can come in, bring a bottle of wine, and learn some advanced decorating techniques and insider tips from the Cookie Queen herself, and take home the fruits of their labor. Aside from the classes and parties, though, for those just having a cookie monster moment, Grant's got several just-baked options always at the ready, including the aforementioned Toffee Crater Crunch, the customer favorite Cosmic Chocolate Chip, and her personal favorite, the Big Dipper Double Chocolate with roasted pecans and chunks of dark chocolate set in her "G-force" fudgy base, to name just a few. "I only use high-quality, dark chocolate in my cookies ... never milk," she says pointedly. "And if people want to be absolutely certain that their own favorite is available, they can call me and I'll have the cookies standing by, just out of the oven, when they arrive." For those who want that fresh-from-the-oven cookie taste at home, Grant also sells her dough, which is made using all natural ingredients. "No preservatives or artificial ingredients, ever," Grant notes.
Located at 12 Knight Street, the shop offers plenty of free parking in the lot just behind it. For more information about Galaxy's out of this world cookies and the Cookie Queen herself, check out the Galaxy Cookies Facebook page or go to galaxycookies.com, where you can watch a short video she's created about her work. Don't be surprised if this Queen's next move is to the small screen. Ace of Cookies, anyone?
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