Perfectionism just might be the ideal ingredient to Christina Jokerst’s success. As the owner of KCookies in Olathe, she continually pushes herself to perfect each cookie she makes.
“I love to create. I have a very creative brain and I love to challenge myself,” she said.
Baking is nothing new to Jokerst, as she spent time doing so with her family growing up. However, a visit six years ago to the renown Levain Bakery in New York City, to taste some of its famous cookies, including the chocolate chip cookie, would mark the beginning of her business venture and her focus on cookies.
After returning to Kansas City, she searched for something similar to that chocolate chip cookie, only to come up empty-handed. Not willing to give up, she took a family chocolate chip cookie recipe and aimed to perfect it to her liking.
“To this day, my husband will tell everybody that that chocolate chip cookie is the most expensive in development, in the history of chocolate chip cookies, because every single day I would bake a batch and every single day, for the first eight months, I would throw them away,” Jokerst says.
Practice eventually made perfect and with the help of her husband, during the pandemic, she opened up a home-based business and started having local pop-ups. Jokerst quickly gained a following, and last December she opened up her first storefront. On opening day, there was a line out the door. By the end of that day, more than 700 customers visited the store.
“I was absolutely convinced that nobody was going to pay for cookies. To this day, I still cannot wrap my head around the success. People will stop and say, ‘I don’t think you understand how good these cookies are.’ Maybe it’s because I’ve been making them for so long but it is still so mind boggling that people want to buy my cookies,” she says.
For cookie lovers, KCookies offers a variety of six-ounce cookies. There’s the Oreo Dream, which has Belgian white-chocolate chips and Oreos; the Poppy Chow, a peanut butter-based cookie topped with peanut butter chocolate glaze and a sprinkling of powder sugar; and the Kitchen Sink Cookie, which has potato chips, pretzels, toffee, and chocolate chips.
“A top seller is always the Duchess. I think it’s because it is just a classic homemade chocolate chip cookie. I think it’s because everybody loves a chocolate chip cookie. It’s somewhat nostalgic. It reminds you of childhood,” Jokerst says.
Going into the warmer months, beginning June 1, KCookies will have
ice cream sandwiches and ice cream, and cookie sundaes, added to their offerings. Modest about her success, Jokerst counts herself blessed and lucky to be doing what she loves and promises to never stop perfecting her cookies.
“It feels like a dream. It just feels surreal. I love being a business owner. I don’t want to ever let anybody down,” she says. “There is a reason why people love our cookies. They know the taste of our cookies, and it’s because of the ingredients we use, and I will never stray from that.”
KCookies, 1239 W. Harold St., Olathe, KS Open Tuesday – Saturday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.