Danielle Velez said she remembers having a Minnie Mouse cookbook as a child and enjoyed whipping up many types of cookies for Christmas.
“Growing up, baking was a part of family life,” she said.
Years later, creating sweet treats is again at the center of her life with the recent opening of her shop, The Half Cookie, on The Street in Chestnut Hill (3A Boylston Street).
While this is Velez’s first brick-and-mortar store, she’s been selling delicious treats at farmers markets and other venues for a few years.
Some first-time customers think they can buy half of one of the impressively chunky cookies, but all cookies are sold intact. Velez said the business’s name has several meanings:
- Since the treats are large, you can enjoy them together;
- She often eats one half of a cookie in the morning and the other at night; and
- “The cookies are just the half of it,” since she wants her business to grow and include other menu items, as well.
Opening in Newton “was a big step for our business,” she said on a recent weekday while carefully carrying a hot tray of red velvet cookies.
Velez has been growing her following since 2020, when she began baking out of her kitchen as a hobby. Until then, she had worked in the fitness industry and created tasty treats as a “side hustle,” she said. However, in April of that year she was laid off, and she had a baby in May.
“As a family, we had to reassess,” she said. Soon, “we decided to go all-in” on the cookie venture, partnering with other businesses to run pop-ups as well as sell at SoWa Boston, the Seaport District, and through the Boston Women’s Market, among other locations.
In addition to selling online, “it was so cool to meet people live” and build the customer base, she said. Velez decided to open at The Street because “we wanted a place to call home.”
Several local fans were thrilled they could stock up on her desserts nearby now that The Half Cookie has opened its doors.
Seaport customer Ethan Valery was excited to stop by the new shop to buy a box of cookies for his family. Asked why cookies are his go-to dessert, he said “they’re just so nostalgic.”
“I really love the cookies with fillings because I couldn’t make anything like that myself, so it’s a really nice treat,” said regular customer Shoshana Edelson, a personal trainer at Healthworks Fitness. “I don’t think I can pick just one favorite flavor, but I love the Reese’s Stuffed and her winter season cookies. I also love the Nutella-filled ones.”
The Half Cookie is known for its quirky, creative combinations, some of which change frequently. Velez always keeps several regular flavors on hand, including chocolate chip, Salted Twix, and the Brookie (half chocolate dough and half chocolate chip dough), among others.
Recent limited-edition flavors included Cookie Butter S’mores (featuring Biscoff cookie pieces, mini marshmallows, and stuffed with cookie butter), the Boston Breakfast (stuffed with honey dip doughnut), and Strawberry Shortcake (signature dough with Ghirardelli white chocolate, dried strawberries, golden Oreos and strawberry crumble top), to name a few.
“People like that we change them weekly,” said Velez.
The magic happens in Charlestown’s Foundation Kitchen, a shared culinary workspace where the Half Cookie team has been mixing up their concoctions since 2021. By moving into a private space within the facility, they have been able to increase output to satisfy the sweet tooth of each customer.
While making cookies is certainly fun, perhaps the happiest “workers” at The Half Cookie are Velez’s two daughters, who have one of the best jobs on Earth: “They get to taste test,” she said with a smile.
