Eden Prairie local Matt Rosen is a U.S. Army veteran of 23 years. When you learn that Matt became a full-time baker following his discharge in 2015 – and one who specializes in cookies, no less – you can only wonder at his backstory. Did a cookie play some vital role during one of his missions? Did he once have to subsist on government issue hardtack for several weeks, praying all the while that he might one day return to our Land of the Free where cookies are good and abundant?
“There was actually zero crossover,” Matt will say with a laugh when you guess at the colorful origin of his love for baking. “Before I went on vacation to Hawaii a few years ago, the thought of baking cookies never once crossed my mind.
“My wife and I decided to take my parents to Hawaii. They had never been before, and you can’t put something like that off indefinitely. On the last day of our trip I watched football at a bar while the ladies went shopping across the street. My wife texted me to say that the Honolulu Cookie Company was giving away free samples. That’s all you have to tell me when you want my immediate attention.
“That was the day I fell in love – and I mean in love – with the shortbread cookie.
“I didn’t even ask how much it would cost to ship a box of shortbread cookies from Hawaii to Minnesota. I looked up the recipe on my phone instead. Flour, butter, sugar, and maybe brown sugar; I knew what all those ingredients were, so I told my wife that I would make shortbreads at home. She shook her head, chuckled, and said ‘You go ahead and try!’
“And try I did. After a few trial batches I got the recipe down to a science. My whole family loved my shortbreads and said they were delicious. Whenever I wanted to be the most popular guy for the day at the office I used to work at, I only had to bring in a batch of freshly baked, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbreads.
“Finally one of my coworkers asked me how much I’d charge to bake them a dozen. That’s when I saw the opportunity for a side hustle. I looked into the Cottage Food Law that lets a Minnesotan sell certain foods they make in their own home, got a certification, and put a stack of order forms on my desk. Now, I’m not saying I didn’t like my old job as an account manager of international logistics. But when I realized last year that I could do enough business to bake cookies for a living, I didn’t stick around much longer.
“I’ve toyed around with different recipes here and there, adding flourishes like dark chocolate sea salt and orange cranberry, but you can’t improve on perfection. I’m still making the same great shortbread cookies that I owe being able to work from home to.
“I have branched out into another specialty: granola bars. They’re my own special recipe that I developed after a lot of trial and error, with two kinds of granola, crispy rice cereal, organic virgin coconut oil, raw honey, and just a touch of brown sugar. My granola bars have no preservatives or any other ingredients you wouldn’t be able to pronounce, but they’ll still last up to a month on your counter.
“I couldn’t be happier. I love being a part of so many special events whether they’re birthdays, weddings, baby showers or fundraisers. I love being able to talk with so many new people at farmer’s markets and craft shows, even if they don’t wind up buying anything. Just getting to see someone’s reaction when they bite into one of my samples – well, that’s a feeling which managing international logistics never gave me.”
Matt enjoys a change of scenery, so he will gladly take his expert hand to any cookie recipes his clients request. To order better cookies than you will ever find at a grocery store, please visit thebakerzdozen.com.