The whiteboard quickly fills up with new weekly orders, and ingredients cover the messy counter. By Friday night, after a long afternoon of mixing, pounds of cookie dough line the fridge in bowls, ready to be baked the next day. 

When Miramonte sophomore Zoe Petty created her cookie business, she never anticipated baking four to six dozen treats every weekend, all on her own. However, Petty has persisted and managed to grow her own business (that makes some killer treats) all by herself: Zoe’s Cookies.

“I think baking is really calming, but when you are making such large volumes, it isn’t always calming. I just like seeing people’s excited reactions when I deliver the cookies. Their feedback after they eat them makes me really happy,” Petty said.

Zoe’s Cookies offers a variety of flavors including brown butter chocolate chip (her best seller), brown butter snickerdoodle, gingersnap, sugar, monster (peanut butter, M&Ms, oatmeal, and chocolate chips), chocolate snowball, and cookies & cream cookies. She also makes cookie bars such as brookie (brownie and cookie), chocolate pecan pie, and oatmeal fudge. Each treat ranges from $12 to $15 per dozen.

“To figure out the flavors I use, I visit various baking websites. I look at the recipes and then test them out to see which are best,” Petty said. Petty uses those recipes as a basis for her recipes and modifies them as she sees fitting.

Petty’s cookies are available to order on zoes-cookies.com or by contacting her through [email protected] and  her Instagram account @_zoescookies showcases her newest cookies

“Zoe’s cookies are incredible, and I highly recommend buying them! My favorite type are the chocolate snowball cookies,”said Miramonte junior Lindsey Lucas, a consistent customer of Petty’s.

Petty started baking with her mom and grandma but has slowly grown more independent. During quarantine, with so much extra time on her hands, Petty decided it might be worth selling her creations, and Zoe’s Cookies was born! Over the past six months, Petty expanded her business and is now at around $4,000 in sales, making 3,780 cookies in total.

“My most successful time was the first week of winter break because everyone was buying cookies as gifts and treats for the holidays. In a span of four days, I think I made about 60 dozen cookies,” Petty said.

Petty gathers orders via her website during the week and makes the doughs on Friday afternoons. She bakes the cookies the next day so they can be fresh when she delivers them to her customers. Petty’s sales stay pretty consistent, averaging about four to six dozen each week. Most of her customers are local families from Orinda or friends.

“I really like her business because her cookies are just so good. I especially love how they are homemade and from a local business. I think it’s impressive that she was able to start this company and build it the way she has,” Miramonte junior Ethan Haines, one of Petty’s customers, said.

Other than her signs at Bay Area Rapid Transit and Miramonte, Petty relies on word of mouth to spread her business. As of now, Petty relies on funding from her parents to buy the ingredients, but she thinks it would be a good challenge to use her own profits to purchase ingredients now that she has a solid foundation in her business. 

“I love it when my sister bakes cookies because I get to ‘taste test’ (eat) them,” sophomore Matteo Petty, her twin brother, said. Petty’s family sometimes gets frustrated with having extra cookies around the house because it makes healthy eating habits hard to maintain.

“I am planning on introducing Valentine’s Day cookies, as well as specialty cookies during holidays. I have considered making gluten free cookies, and I definitely want to make them in the future!” Petty said.

Week by week, Petty’s cookies get even more delicious and popular. Although the process can get overwhelming and is extremely time-consuming,  Petty knows she has it under control and that she is making her customers happy. Her love of baking and dedication to her business make her cookies extra special, and a dozen of warm and gooey cookies from Zoe’s Cookies is sure to make anyone’s day and indulge all possible cravings.