Meet Your Merchant: Idea for cookie business was out of mouth of babes

The secret to Madeleine's Cookies is simple: namesake Madeleine de la Torre bakes sweets her kids would like.

"Our children really told us what they liked," de la Torre said of her big, soft and fluffy treats. "It was our children's tastes."

And the cookies that her children loved soon became a Carson City commodity found in stores throughout the region. The wholesale bakery's products can be found in Reno and in several Carson City stores, from Costco to Villa Basque. The bakery has grown in the two-plus decades since de la Torre was baking out of a friend's restaurant.

"When we first started, we didn't need labels and we were just all over town," she said, adding that they eventually had to get them because of regulations. But even that had its own silver lining. "It was kind of nice to recognize our products."

Now, they lease a warehouse-type building on Research Way in Carson City and have filled it with an industrial oven and fridge and enough equipment with the word "pneumatic" in it to make any home baker jealous. One mixing bowl alone will hold 150 quarts. All together, it means Madeleine's Cookies can churn out up to 500 dozen sweets a day, her husband Michael said.

But for de la Torre, it all comes back to her love of baking. She grew up on a farm and started making apple pies when she was 12. And with plenty of fresh fruit available, she said she and her siblings would challenge each other to come up with the best creations.

That passion carried over to when her children were in school in the early 1980s. She volunteered to bake treats for their classes for special occasions, such as holidays, and earned such a name for herself that other parents asked for cookies for their kids' classes, she said.

She said they still donate cookies to classes and charities and she still gets a special joy out of testing new recipes on children.

"Oh, nothing makes me happier than to watch children go, 'Oh, Mom, what a good cookie,' because children are very honest," de la Torre said.

But all things must end. The de la Torre's have been kicking around selling their business so they may spend more time with their children and grandchildren, pictures of whom line the outside of their walk-in freezer. But the fire that drives the dough to rise also hasn't left de la Torre.

"I still like it and I still love it," de la Torre said. "I'll go home and I'll bake. Michael can't believe it, after I've been on my feet all day."