GALION, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—A Galion woman is taking her baking skills to a whole new level with colossal cookies that set her apart.
Gourmet giants weighing in at a half pound each.
Lori Lewis, 39, is the owner of The Midnight Cookie Co., a small home-based business she started in April. Her cookies are already a “huge” hit with Crawford County cookie lovers and others lucky enough to try them.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Lewis, a 2003 Galion High School graduate and mother of twins. “We are so busy. We’re literally making over 200 half-pound cookies a week on a regular basis.”
Her signature S’mores cookie, topped by a toasted marshmallow and miniature Hershey candy bar, is a customer favorite. So is Banana Pudding, a cookie filled with crushed vanilla wafers and inspired by her grandmother’s old pudding recipe.
Midnight cookies are sold at the Three Bean Coffee House in Galion, where barista Misty Nelson said they are a top seller. “She has just completely blown up. She sells out constantly. People are just scrambling to get her cookies.”
Gabe Verzino stopped in Three Bean for coffee but couldn’t resist two of the soft-baked cookies at $5 apiece. “I knew I had to try them. They are the perfect size for sharing. The salted chocolate chip was a great twist on the classic.”
Lewis is no newcomer to the kitchen. “I consider myself a self-trained baker. I learned most of my trade from my grandmother.” But over the years, she only talked about her cookie concept and the prospect of opening her own business.
Until one night – at midnight.
“My husband Josh dared me and said, ‘You’re never gonna make a half-pound cookie.’ And I literally got up in the middle of the night and made a batch of confetti cookies. I just posted it on Facebook, and it took off from there.”
Lewis still bakes at night. “Days are consumed by kids and nights are consumed by cookies, I guess.” But she’s introduced minis (quarter-pound size) and other varieties, such as M&M, Andes Mint, and Ultimate Peanut Butter.
Every recipe is created through trial and error. Midnight Hunter, the brainchild of her son Hunter, is a seven-year-old’s dream, she said – a chocolate cookie with an Oreo center, peanut butter, and tons of chocolate chips inside and out.
The Pickwick Place in Bucyrus has picked up her fresh-baked confections, which are individually wrapped. So has the convenience store located inside the Valero gas stations in Galion and Shelby.
More than 2,000 Midnight Cookies were recently sold for a Galion Youth Cheerleader fundraiser. The mini six-packs, including Fruity Pebbles, were “the most successful fundraiser they’ve ever had,” she said.
Lewis is already concocting recipes for the upcoming holiday season and seriously thinking about investing in a convection oven. “I bake these cookies four at a time in my kitchen. It takes a good amount of time.”
Her husband, now dubbed “the Baker’s Man,” helps with packaging and labeling the ingredients. Daughter Emmy is also collaborating with her cookie-dealing mom on a variety that will carry her name too.
“All I can say is I’m just super proud of it, outside of my kids, which are my pride and joy,” Lewis said. “You have to believe that you can do it, and it’ll work out for itself if you try hard enough.”
