Thank
you to LEAH SIVIERI and the staff at The Sure Guide
OCEAN CITY
Crazy for Cookies at Ocean City Bakery
By LEAH SIVIERI -- OCEAN CITY - It's early on the morning of July 4th and the smell drifting out of Crazy Susan's Cookie Company and into the cool air of West Avenue is intoxicatingly delicious. Owner Susan Adair, a native of West Berlin, is already cheerful and busy, radiating her signature "crazy" energy as she greets customers coming in to pick up patriotically-decorated trays of cookies and discusses the day's baking agenda with her helpers.
Four summers ago in 2006, when Susan lost a close cousin, her cookie company was "a shot in the dark ... just a dream." But the death prompted Susan to start pursuing her dreams and the bakery became a reality.
All it needed was a name - which fate and family promptly provided. At one big family dinner, someone with a tasty mouthful of chocolate chips asked, "Who made the cookies?"
"Susan," another guest answered.
"Crazy Susan?" the first asked, amazed.
Adair and her sister Linda Brand just looked at each other. They knew that was it - the name they'd been searching for.
Ocean City was an easy choice when it came to finding a location for the new store. Adair vacationed there as a teenager.
"It's a nice, clean town," she says, "and it helps us reach people who aren't from our area, people from other states."
They only had one cookie when they started out. The recipe came from another old friend, Jill Snell, whose family possessed a generations-old, to-die-for chocolate chip cookie formula. They agreed to pass it on to Susan, as long as she kept it quiet, and the company had its first staple cookie.
After four years, Crazy Susan's has a few more recipes. The renowned chocolate chip cookies still have a prominent place in the store's mouthwatering display cases, but they're now surrounded by dozens of other time- and family-tested varieties.
"We'd experiment in the winter," Adair says, "take trays to parties and see what went over well." Among the varieties that have passed the family taste-test are lemon- and strawberry-iced sugar cookies, brownies, macaroons, cinnamon and sugar snickerdoodles, wholesome and soft oatmeal creations, and mint chocolate chip cookies. There's a red, white, and blueberry flavor proudly displayed as well - made from cranberries, white chocolate, and fresh blueberries from a farm in Haverton.
Crazy Susan's now tempers their own chocolate, allowing the staff to take their crazy creations to new levels of homemade deliciousness. The "crazy turtle" cookies (with chocolate chips, caramel and cashews) are coated with the company's very own milk chocolate. There's also a whole new line of cookies inspired by popular candies - the Heath bar crunch cookie being especially popular this year.
"They're sinful," says Chriselle Bramante, 28, a longtime friend of Adair's daughter Lauren and a frequent worker at the cookie company.
Chriselle is just one of three or four people already mixing batter on this Fourth of July morning. Brittany Tirro, another family friend and full-time student at Rowan University, is busy arranging trays.
Adair's sister Linda - her silent partner in the business - is also in attendance.
"I just like to bake and meet the people ... Linda is the brains of the operation," Adair says.
This close-knit, rotating staff of Susan's friends and family toils happily in the bakery all year. "They call us Cinderella," Bramante says, laughing. Adair loves this about her business.
"The family spends a lot of time together here. There's no stress. The worst thing that can happen is we burn cookies. We're building something together," Susan says. It's the other dimension of the sweetness at Crazy Susan's - the real, fun, homemade quality of the products.
This laid-back combination of family time and skillful baking has turned Crazy Susan's into a thriving operation. In addition to their summer hours at the store in Ocean City, the cookie company also runs an online store year-round.
"We get more business online in the first two weeks of December than we do all summer," says Adair of their busy Christmas season.
Looking for a fresh-baked treat or a heartfelt and yummy gift? Crazy Susan's is the place to go year round. It is a safe bet it'll be energetic Susan or a laughing member of her extended family who lovingly bakes the cookies - just like they'd bake them for each other at holidays or Sunday gatherings.
Crazy Susan's Cookie Company is located at 1345 West Ave. in Ocean City. It's open during the summer seven days a week starting June 20. It can also be reached at (609) 391-1919 and online (year-round) at http://www.crazysusanscookies.com.
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