Cookie Cravings: BenjeeS Cookies

The humble chocolate chip cookie is having a bit of a moment: According to one report by market research firm Data Intelo, the global chocolate chip cookie market is projected to reach over $30 billion by 2032. In New Hampshire, a handful of new cookie-focused bakeries aim to tap into that demand — and satisfy even funkier flavor cravings.

Here are three places that will make your sweet tooth sing.

• BenjeeS Cookies, Keene (profile below)
• Maddi Hatter Cookie Company, Bow
• Mama Bear’s Cookies, Sullivan

BenjeeS Cookies, Keene

Sarah and Ben Brinson show off 12 of the 18 flavors offered at BenjeeS Cookies.

When Ben and Sarah Brinson first launched BenjeeS Cookies in 2014, it was with a single cookie flavor: potato chip. “We found a recipe in a very old magazine for potato chip cookies (that) sounded really interesting,” Sarah — who is the PR arm of BenjeeS while Ben brings the baking expertise — says. “We spent two full years really working on that recipe and making it what we imagined it could be.” 

 The couple sold those potato chip cookies successfully for a year before Ben injured his elbow. “That injury took him out,” Sarah says. “He never recovered from that injury and received several diagnoses for chronic illnesses because of that injury.” 

They put their cookie company dreams on hold but, according to Sarah, Ben never stopped talking about it. So, in 2023, Sarah left her job of 10 years and told him he had six months to get the company running again. When they relaunched later that year, things were different: “We went hard with it. Last year in August, we hit the ground with 18 flavors.” 

Sarah and Ben call their product “smash cookies;” they’re thin and chewy with crunchy edges. “We pack as much flavor into that cookie as we can without using stuffing or frosting,” Sarah says. Though the potato chip cookie — a cookie made entirely out of potato chips, not one with some chips mixed in — remains their top seller, other flavors have become fan favorites. At the farmer’s markets, Sarah says the most popular flavors include M&M (“mostly because of the kids”), maple bacon molasses, double chocolate cherry, sweet curry and cardamom, and lemon basil.

BenjeeS is famous for its “smash cookies” that are thin and crispy but full of flavor.

Ben has been in the food business for decades, including training under a French baker in Nashua. Still, developing flavors is a joint endeavor, with Sarah often suggesting the initial idea based on something she’s seen online or flavors she’s craving. Ben then refines the idea into something unique to BenjeeS, often taking months to develop the perfect new flavor. Take their coconut macaron, for example. “I wanted a macaron so badly,” Sarah says. Instead of going the classic coconut-and-milk-chocolate route, Ben decided to add pineapple and white chocolate. 

Currently, you can buy the cookies at two farmers markets (Peterborough and Jaffrey) and a stand on Main Street in Keene on Thursdays and Saturdays. “We’ll be out there until it gets cold, usually the first week in November.” 

Customers can also order online for front porch pickup from their house in Keene or for two-day shipping across the country. The dream, Sarah says, is to open up a cookie cafe, specifically one that would be a safe space for all ages, as a nod to the cafes and restaurants where Sarah says, “I would buy a five-dollar French fry for a group of eight teenagers and they would let us sit there for three hours” after school. 

The Brinsons hope this cookie cafe would be a place “where people can walk in and get all 18 flavors and all of the different milks and sit and really just kind of break into their lost childhood.” 
benjeescookiesnh.com