Be on the Look Out For … Sweets

Dec 19, 2022 by Chef David

By Chef David

KosherFest, a culinary convocation that happens in New Jersey’s Meadowlands every November, is where new kosher products are introduced. This year amid the hustle and bustle we discovered two delicious sweet products and met their founders.  Coo Coo Kosher Cookies created by a young pastry chef turned entrepreneur is certified by Kuf K and CRC and Just The Fun Part Waffle Cones which is certified by Star K-dairy.  These snacks will satisfy your sweet tooth, and both have an inspiring story. Who doesn’t like a good story?

Coo Coo Kosher Cookies

Coo Coo Kosher Cookies are designer kosher cookies. Each cookie is 4.5” in diameter. They come stacked in a see-thru jar. Coo Coo was created by Victoria Harary, a young up-and-coming pastry chef.  They come in provocative flavors including Lemon Loco, which is her mother’s favorite, Red Velvet, and Cotton Candy which is Victoria’s favorite, along with the traditional Chocolate Chip. Each cookie is decorated and colored to match its name, and best of all, they come either parve or dairy.

According to Victoria, it’s not just about offering customers a Chocolate Chip cookie, it’s about, giving them, “the chocolate chip cookie”.  Coo Coo Kosher cookies are “baked goods for everyone and anyone, who wants to have a good cookie.”

We tasted the Lemon Loco and enjoyed the texture, and taste. The cookies are light but firm. They are especially good for dunking in coffee because the cookie does not disintegrate, some even float. The taste was a soft lemon, which melts pleasantly in your mouth. For a parve cookie, it was superb, tasty not overly sugary, flavorful, and attractive. Victoria uses ingredients that are honest, including vanilla and lemon extract, flour, brown and white sugar, eggs, margarine, baking soda, and a pinch of salt.

Healthy? Not really, but then it is a cookie, and a good one.

Her Story

Victoria is a Certified Savory and Pastry chef.  She attended the School of Kosher Culinary Arts in Brooklyn and went on to the Institute of Culinary Education in New York to study pastry arts.

Her first opportunity to apply her knowledge happened by chance. She was grabbing her morning cup of coffee at a nearby restaurant, and the owner invited her to bake some cookies for him to try.

Victoria spent hours perfecting each cookie until she got it just right, selling jars of cookies in stores at the Jersey shore. They sold out within 24 hours, and by the end of the summer, she was baking and distributing 100 jars a week.

The expansion was next. Victoria built a team and acquired industrial kitchen space. She is continuing to develop her brand, while at the same time expanding her career as a pastry chef in Manhattan. Orders can be placed at https://www.coocookosher.com/about

Just the Fun Part

Just the Fun Part is a new snacking concept developed based on consumer research.  They discovered that the best snacks are ones that brought back childhood memories. A common favorite childhood memory is associated with ice cream cones, especially the anticipation of getting to the bottom which is traditionally filled with chocolate. This led to the creation of Just the Fun Part, a chocolate-filled cone bottom.

These bite-sized, flaky, mini waffle cone tips are packed with Belgium chocolate. They come in three varieties, dark, mike, and white chocolate. Each resealable bag contains 12 tiny cones.

When we sampled Just the Fun Part, we felt nostalgia, tied to memories of eating ice cream. These bite-sized snacks are precisely the right size.  Big enough to pop into your mouth, or to nibble at the flakey wafer cone shell.  The chocolate center is filled with rich, solid chocolate. Our favorite flavor was milk chocolate, which was a sophisticated version of the chocolates of our youth.

The Idea Men Behind Just the Fun Part

Just the Fun Part was developed by Yigit and Aytur. Yigit is the idea machine and Aytur, who we met at KosherFest is the businessman and President of Evergreen USA, the company behind Just the Fun Part.

Yigit and Aytur connected in 2005 through their shared interest in specialty foods. Years later, Yigit joined Aytur at a gourmet food manufacturing company.

Yigit wanted to create a new type of snack, something everyone would enjoy eating. He assessed business trends, discussed snacking habits with industry professionals, and his research led to the concept of Just The Fun Part, which is available on Amazon

Try Something New

Part of the snacking experience is awakening childhood memories. Instead of reaching out to relatives for family recipes to recreate the flavors from our youth, you can order these familiar tastes, and have them delivered to your door. Both Coo Coo Kosher and Just the Fun Part reconnect us to our inner child. Snack happy!