NATHAN and Mel Marshall know a thing or two about the art of baking a good cookie.
The couple fell in love with chunky, New York-style cookies when they embarked on their first visit to the Big Apple in 2008.
It was love at first bite and they wasted no time trying to recreate the cookies at home when they returned to Newcastle.
They've tweaked the recipe over the years to achieve the perfect balance of choc chip chunkiness with a cookie that is crispy on the outside, and with a super-soft, melt-in-your-mouth inside.
"We tried making these styles of cookies a hundred different ways and there are a couple of ways that work and everything else doesn't," Nathan Marshall laughs.
"It was a lot of trial and error, but we made them and kept on changing the recipe and tried to perfect it.
"We started taking them to work functions and birthdays, and people would always say, 'You guys should sell those cookies, they're really good.' We said, 'Maybe one day'."
That day came in June this year when the couple launched their New York-style loaded cookie business, Marshall & Daughters.
A career in cookies was never on the cards until they had to think outside the box after their Newcastle-based music travel company Soundmart Touring, which leads guided tours to music events around Australia and overseas, was forced to pause due to COVID-19.
They turned to baking cookies to keep them going, selling the products online to ship Australia-wide and deliver in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Maitland areas.
Demand for the decadent cookies, which weigh in at 200 grams each, took off with the help of social media and word of mouth, which saw the couple posting orders everywhere from Darwin to Melbourne.
"We had loads of Newcastle people that would get a box delivered and then get a box for their relatives in different parts of Australia and then they have become customers ordering for their friends, so it has been really organic spreading that way, too," Marshall says.
The success of the business led the couple to open Newcastle's first cookie and coffee bar, Marshall & Daughters, in Mayfield last week.
The cookies are baked fresh on the premises and sold in-store, as well as supplying online orders and local deliveries.
"We were baking at home and it grew too big so then we started looking at places to bake out of and then we thought, 'Well, if we are going to rent somewhere to bake out of we might as well run a shop front as well', and it grew from there," Marshall says.
Situated across the road from the Coles in Mayfield, the cookie bar has four varieties of classic cookies available daily (including the "OG" New York Choc Chip) as well as some from the deluxe range such as the Loaded Smores with gooey marshmallow and milk chocolate-filled centre.
Other popular creations include the Oreo Choc Chip, Caramilk Choc Chip and Nutella Bomb, which is filled with a big hit of oozy Nutella spread.
Marshall says there are three elements that make the perfect cookie.
"Creativity is the number one aspect because cookies are one of those things that you can really go nuts with, but the dough is also key," he says.
"We make sure it's nice and crispy on the outside and really gooey on the inside, so that's the art of it."
Keep an eye out for the cookie of the week and a Christmas range.
The cookie bar has added toasties to the menu as well and you can also pick up rock'n'roll-inspired Marshall & Daughters merchandise in-store.
"We have done a Metallica-inspired shirt, so it's a bit of fun and a nod to my background with music, so we wanted to tie all that into the business as well," Marshall says.
