Positively Philadelphia: One 'Crazy' Cookie Maker
By Lauren Lipton
VOORHEES, N.J. (CBS) -- Her chocolate chip turtle cookies have been named Rachael Ray's "snack of the day." She was one of the Food Network's "tough cookies," and recently she was on QVC.
"The turtle is a chocolate chip cashew," says Susan Adair of Crazy Susan's Cookies. "We top it with a caramel, and then we top it with Belgian milk chocolate."
Adair has a "Crazy Susan's" cookie shop in Voorhees and another in Ocean City, NJ. And it all started with a recipe from her best friend's mother.
"I would always ask for the recipe and they said, 'Nah, we never give it out,' " she recalls. But eventually, "They gave me the recipe with the promise I never give it to anyone else."
And that embellished cookie recipe turned into a business.
"I just started baking chocolate chip cookies for my kids, for school or for parties, and no matter how elaborate those dessert tables were, those chocolate chip cookies were always the first thing to go," she says.
And they say that if you have a candy you like, they can make it into a cookie.
But what about the "Crazy" name?
"We were always throwing names around: Oh Susanna's, all kinds of things. At one time I had brought cookies to a party, and somebody said, 'Who made those cookies?' And somebody else said, 'Oh, Susan -- you know, crazy Susan.' "
She still works part-time as a legal secretary, and her huge extended family helps out in the cookie business.
"The bakery is kind of like a Cheers," Adair says, referring to the TV bar where everybody knows your name. "I get to talk to everybody, and that's my two main things -- I like to bake and I like to talk."
And that's "Positively Philadelphia!"
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