Cookie ties that bind

Mother-daughter teams can't be stopped. How one incredible cookie recipe turned into a baking empire and bonded this Nova Scotia family together.

By Mary Luz Mejia

A cookie empire grows from one single recipe

Mother-daughter baking team TJ and Susan Peach of Susie's Shortbreads in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Bite-sized orange and pink iced cookies, some speckled with the promise of chocolate and nuts, call out from under a sign reading “Susie's Shortbreads" amidst the rabbit's warren of the Halifax Farmer's Market.

One nibble of these shatteringly tender, melt-in-the-mouth morsels and you know this isn't your average cookie! Susie's Shortbreads is a mother-daughter team who turned a wildly popular family recipe into a bourgeoning mother-daughter business.

Great things happen when family bakes together
Tara-Jaye (TJ) Peach warmly remembers watching her mother Susan (the Susie in Susie's Shortbreads) make these cookies as gifts for family and friends every Christmas in Nova Scotia. It was a simple cookie recipe Susan developed and perfected over time, but no one could replicate. TJ also remembers the list of recipients growing and growing; word of mouth praise will do that to a cookie!

Eventually TJ helped her mom churn out piles of cookies each holiday season. With an MBA from Saint Mary's University in Halifax,TJ had a "lightbulb" moment in Christmas 2005. “My mom and I were baking hundreds of Christmas cookies when I told her 'I'm going to market these!”

Susan recalls, “Initially, I thought she was mad of course, but I was willing to try to market them with her.”

In January 2006 TJ registered the company name anyway and literally took the cookies to market - the Halifax Farmer's Market where you can still find their treats today.

Sweet success from a single cookie
Susan and TJ went from baking and packaging hundreds of cookies at Christmas to tens of thousands year-round. Today, that number has reached hundreds of thousands and growing! Susan's smashingly successful recipe left room for experimentation, where TJ really made her mark in 2006.

“The business was actually launched from a single shortbread cookie. My mom only made what we now call our 'Traditional Frosted Shortbreads'. I took the recipe to new heights by adding in different flavour combinations. We now have 15 different flavours,” TJ says.

Thankfully, Susie's Shortbreads delivers across Canada - you can peruse all of TJ's combinations at http://www.susiesshortbreads.com

Susan's little Christmas cookies aren't just for Christmas anymore - something TJ knew others would appreciate from the start. “I'm very proud of TJ. She took an idea and made it a reality,” says Susan.

Next page - family baking secrets and cookie recipes to share

Page 1 - A cookie empire grows from one single recipe
Page 2 - Baking secrets and cookie recipes to share

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