Grandma Hilda's Cookies

This past June, we introduced our newest flavor: Grandma Hilda's Cookies!

In our family, these are otherwise known as Grandma Elstner's Cookies. Grandma Elstner was my grandma on my dad's side of the family and her name was Hilda. Hilda Elstner.

Made with boxed yellow cake mix, peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and pecan bits, Grandma's cookies are so unique because they're actually the product of a delicious mistake! Once, when making her original recipe, she accidentally put the bowl of cookie dough into the hot oven and when she realized the mistake, the pecan bits had toasted and the peanut butter and chocolate chips melted into the dough. She stirred the dough and the melted chips swirled together transforming it into a marbled cake cookie. Everyone loved them and the cookie was forever changed!

I grew up enjoying these treats because Grandma made them all the time, for every special occasion, for every single family event. Now my mom makes them (she's the new grandma!) and stores them in a cookie jar that my sister made for her that looks just like the one my grandma once had. My nieces and nephews are growing up with Grandma's cookies just like I had. Same cookie, different Grandma.

When we decided to create an ice cream flavor inspired by these cookies, the kitchen team almost nailed it on the first shot. They started with the components of the cookie: yellow cake mix, peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and pecan bits. Since we make everything from scratch, the team created our own yellow cake mix that so closely mimics the flavor of the boxed cake mix and then marble that with our own chocolate brownie dough before baking. This marbled cake cookie is then folded, along with toasted Texas pecans, into peanut butter ice cream. The combination matches the flavor of Grandma's Cookie perfectly and it's just so good! It's rich, nutty, chocolatey, and everything I think of when I think of Grandma's Cookie.

Grandma is not with us anymore but I'm really excited not only for everyone else to try the flavor, but also to have that part of her and that part of my childhood live on. It's an honor to be able to share that with y'all!