When former hairdresser Kelly Battjes decided to create a salted espresso chocolate shortbread cookie last Christmas using the coffee beans her husband Dave roasted at
Madcap Coffee, she had no idea it would be the start of a new business.
Battjes (pronounced "batches") is the owner of
Sweet Batches, a small Grand Rapids-based baking company that specializes in shortbread cookies. Although Battjes also developed a traditional, butter shortbread cookie, it's the salted espresso chocolate version that caught the attention of Dave Battjes' coworkers at Madcap when he brought the cookies in as gifts.
Madcap's owners asked Kelly to sell the delectable bites at the coffee shop, which meant she needed to make them in a commercially licensed kitchen. She turned to the incubator kitchen at the
Downtown Market for help, and bakes small batches there twice a week to make sure her products are the freshest they can be.
Battjes began baking after moving to Seattle a few years ago. She was a hairdresser, but took a job at Cinnamon Works, a vegan bakery in the
Pike Place Market. She loved it. She, Dave, and their young son returned to West Michigan a year ago and the Christmas gift idea was born.
"The perk for me of the Downtown Market was that it was new and a really cool place," Battjes says. "The equipment is state-of-the-art and the market is helping me market the shortbread."
She's also enthused about the Mooville butter she uses in the cookies, which has a higher fat content than other butters and makes the cookies rich and flavorful.
Besides the traditional shortbread and the salted espresso chocolate flavors, Battjes produces a specialty flavor each month: November is Pumpkin Spice and December is Candy Cane. The cookies are available at Madcap Coffee and on Battjes'
Sweet Batches Etsy shop here.
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
Photos courtesy of Sweet Batches
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