Moms We Love: Jennifer Bush of Ice Box Bakery

One of the classic moments in childhood is prepping and eating cookies made from a cookie dough log with your fam. Well, Jennifer Bush of Ice Box Bakery has reinvented the, um, log with her delicious (and healthy!) cookie doughs for the modern parent and child. Minus all the nasty hydrogenated shortening, fillers and preservatives, that is.

How did Ice Box Bakery begin?

I trained as a pastry chef, and I worked mostly as a restaurant dessert chef. I always had the cookie dough idea in the back of my head. When I had my daughters, Chloe, 10, and Charlotte, 7, I took off from work. It was then that I started developing the dough and the flavors. I launched a bakery in Boulder, CO and we sold the cookie dough out of the pastry case. We would roll it in parchment paper and sell it. We got amazing feedback. Moms would come in to buy it for soccer games, parties, any time they needed to make cookies.

When did you decide to focus solely on the cookie dough?

In November 2007, Whole Foods in Boulder said that there was a real niche for it. They sold it and then we began expanding store to store and region to region.

How would you describe the cookie dough?

It’s made with all natural ingredients. We knew that we could make it healthier than what is currently being sold. It’s a clean cookie dough, made with natural ingredients. It’s a cookie dough you can feel good about feeding your kids.

I love that it’s packaged as a log. How did you come up with the retro theme?

I really wanted to hearken back to a time when moms baked more. Moms were home and they had the time to make cookies for their kids. I also love the format of the slice-and-bake. Also, the packaging forms a really tight air barrier. The cookie dough roll is very recognizable, too.

What are your most popular flavors?

Of course, chocolate chip is our best seller, but our cherry pie cookie does very well, too. We have seven flavors, but two are local only to Colorado.

You must have grown up eating a ton of cookie dough.

No, I didn’t! My mom was a great baker, so I never really had it as a child. As an adult, I’ve had it often. The other brands have so much hydrogenated shortening in the dough that it crumbles when you cut it. If you really taste it, you’ll realize how funny that tastes!

[laughs] Oh, so you mean it’s not supposed to slide down your throat like that? Now, where is the line going?

I’m planning on branching out into more baked goods, like cinnamon rolls and brownies. There are so many kids and adults who are celiacs, so we’re doing a gluten free chocolate chip that will launch in the next 6 months. I’m excited about it.

You must be the coolest mom ever in your daughters’ school to own a cookie dough company!

Chloe and Charlotte definitely love it. The business consumes a lot of my day, though, so I found the best thing to do was to involve the girls. They will help me put things together, and do Kinko’s runs with me. It gives them a feeling of ownership, which is important to me. I wanted it to be a positive experience for them.

Do you think they will help you with the business when they are older?

I think Chloe will. She’s a foodie! They’re both so helpful, though. They will taste test new flavors for me, although sometimes they’ll ask me not to put the cookies in their lunchbox all the time! [laughs]

Photos: Courtesy of Jennifer Bush
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