You don’t normally associate health food with cookies. In fact, if you are shopping in a health food store, cookies are typically the farthest thing from your mind.
If you are lucky enough to shop in the stores that stock Fat Badger Bakery products, that no longer has to be the case. Fat Badger cookies are sold in health food stores up and down the East Coast and are sought out for their non-dairy and vegan status, along with their delicious taste.
The switch to vegan came last summer, but the cookies have been pareve and under the OU since the company’s inception in July 2014. In addition, there is a monthly pas Yisrael batch made for those consumers for whom that is necessary. Contact Kosher Sales Manager David Bader for more information at [email protected] or 267-362-5326 x 110.
Bader noted that “vegan is the newest health market, so we decided to try to make our cookies vegan.” According to the company’s website, fatbadgerbakery.com, “We set out to recreate the classics and focused on bringing out natural flavor. After tinkering with tons of recipes, we chomped our way through more cookies that we’d like to admit. Turns out we baked the best vegan cookies any of us have ever tasted.”
At a cookie tasting at Aron’s West Orange, the patrons seemed to agree. “Chocolate chip is sooo good!” said one customer. “The chocolate sea salt…yum,” said another.
The non-GMO products are now prepared without eggs or honey, using a honey-like sauce for sweetness and flaxseed paste instead of the eggs as a binding agent. Regarding allergens, the company website reads: “Please know that all cookies contain wheat and soy. Some cookies may contain nuts or coconut. We have an allergen control plan in place and isolate cookies featuring nuts to the best of our abilities. We are a dairy, egg and peanut-free facility.”
In addition to distributing to health food store chains, the company also sells to college and university Hillels, as well as shuls and other Jewish organizations, and has now begun selling to kosher retail stores. Orders can also be placed through the company website at fatbadgerbakery.com.
“There is definitely a need for vegan products in the kosher world,” Bader said. “But there is a disconnect between the kosher community’s awareness of these products and what is actually out there.”
All Fat Badger products are baked fresh daily and individually wrapped. When your order is received, the cookies are baked, packaged and shipped the same day. Cookies are shipped within the continental U.S. only.
Fat Badger sells a variety of cookie flavors, including chocolate chip, chocolate sea salt, vanilla bean, oatmeal chip, toasted coconut, cinnamon sugar, chocolate mint and sweet raspberry. All are certified by Vegan.org. There are also seasonal boxes for spring, fall, Rosh Hashana, Purim and Chanukah, and care packages can be sent to college students and hospital patients as well.
For more information or to place an order, visit fatbadgerbakery.com or contact Bader at [email protected] or 267-362-5326 x 110.
By Jill Kirsch
