Is this the perfect chocolate cookie?
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
What makes a perfect cookie? “A crispy edge, with a soft centre. Dark chocolate dough, but with every bite you taste a white chocolate core,” says Vera van Stapele, head baker and owner of Van Stapele Koekmakerij, the cult cookie shop in Amsterdam. Crucially, for her, “you never have to worry about whether or not you’ll find a chocolate chip in every bite”.
Her formulation has proven a hit. After she opened her tiny, dark wood-panelled shop off the Spui, a 19th-century square in Amsterdam, in 2013, it wasn’t long before visitors began queuing. Fresh cookies came out of the oven every 15 minutes; the shop remained open until the very last one sold. Last year, van Stapele decided to move the shop to a new location on the Rokin with greater capacity: they can now bake 8,000 cookies a day.
The cookie was born out of a craving. Van Stapele had been studying psychology in Groningen when she began to dream about a particular kind of cookie and decided to try making it herself. “It took me half a year,” she says. “In the evenings, I dedicated myself to the quest of making the cookie I had in my head. Every night I changed a single ingredient so that if something went wrong or well, I knew what change had caused it.” The final recipe “is a secret” but she uses only the best-quality ingredients, including Valrhona chocolate from France.
The new space is decidedly more chic, with large glass windows and an open view into the bakery. The goods (one cookie for €3, six for €15) are displayed in trays behind the counter alongside stacks of their signature pale-blue gifting tins (€5). They’re usually gone by about 5pm, but if not, any leftovers are donated to De Regenboog Groep, which helps individuals experiencing loneliness, homelessness and addiction.
Right now, van Stapele has no plans to diversify. “I just love the idea of doing a shop with only one thing. Everybody knows what they’re coming for, there are no bad decisions,” she says. “We could have grown very big. We get a request for a franchise or a partnership every single day. I just, with all my heart, want to keep it as small as possible.”
Keeping it small allows van Stapele to stay close to the centre of it all. “I’m happiest when I’m in the bakery.”
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