How the Cookie Crumbles: Brown Butter Cookie Company
Story by Aja Goare
Photography by Ruby Wallau
Ahead of her sister’s May wedding, Traci Hozie was busy shuttling guests from the San Luis Obispo Airport to Cayucos. Along with ushering in friends and family for Christa’s big day, Traci was balancing the growth of their shared company, which would provide the parting gifts for guests.
“She will have a variety of Brown Butter Cookie three packs at the wedding,” Traci, Co-founder of Brown Butter Cookie Company, says. “She’s also marrying my husband’s brother. It’s kind of crazy how full circle life comes. I’m really grateful for our relationship.”
Though they grew up more than 100 miles apart, the sisters have been interlinked since graduating high school. The Central Coast deli they co-owned in the early 2000s brought in a steady stream of loyal customers, whom the sisters decided to thank for their patronage with a complimentary cookie. “We weren’t planning to make it a big deal,” says Traci. “But there was a crazy response from our customers. They started asking for the cookies and it happened so often, Christa suggested we close our deli and open a cookie shop.”
When in 2009 they began selling cookies, production was a modest 60 cookies per day. But Christa’s clever press connections sent tourists and locals alike veering off Highway 1 for a pit stop at the shop. “We were so busy, I remember interviewing someone for a position but I couldn’t stop mixing,” she recalls. “There were no more cookies on the shelves and we’d have to close at 5pm just to catch up on orders.”
The small staff of three wouldn’t be able to keep up with the surge in demand, so the sisters decided to expand. By 2013, they opened a second retail shop in Paso Robles and in 2019, a third retail location welcomed customers in San Luis Obispo. In 2022 a new production facility in Atascadero supplemented the Cayucos kitchen, allowing the business to meet demand to the tune of up to 10,000 cookies per day. “The new facility freed up our Cayucos employees to make connections with customers,” Traci shares.
There are now more than 65 staff members on payroll and Traci says turnover is rare. “When we started, we knew that to make it a ‘real’ job for people, we needed benefits like a retirement and health care,” she says. “We also move people around to keep them stimulated and we work closely with our team to identify their specific skills and place them in those roles. I always say I collect magical people.”
Whether that magic is used to bake the brand’s namesake cookies — the Brown Butter Cookie line including original, cocoa, espresso, and almond — or the classic cookies — chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar — duties are tailored to the individual. The cookies may look a little different today than they did early on, however, the star ingredient remains. “We use two pounds of butter for every 100 cookies,” Traci shares. “It’s our take on a classic shortbread cookie and there are no fillers, just brown sugar, butter, vanilla, flour — the basics.”
Though a machine now scoops and portions the dough, team members still roll out the cookies by hand. Depending on the flavor, the cookies receive a specific number of hand taps to give them their shape. “Some flavors need more taps than others,” she says. “It’s something we perfected over time.”
And how do they know it’s perfect? Customer feedback. Since Brown Butter’s start, the team has offered samples, promoting a taste-before-you-buy satisfaction. As the company’s menu of options expands to include at least seven staple brown butter flavors and a rotation of seasonal offerings, along with their classics, so too do the ways in which to indulge.
A cookie club now allows fans to enjoy their favorites in the same manner as San Luis Obispo County’s other prized product — wine. “It was a natural decision, considering that we live in wine country and wineries have member clubs. So, we decided to create a cookie club,” Traci explains. Club members receive shipments quarterly and get first dibs on new flavors.
That’s not all. Traci says a frozen brown butter cookie custard is on its way to market, along with an “un-cookie,” which is a low-sugar, low-fat and whole grain breakfast item for kids in the San Luis Coastal Unified School District.
Nearly 15 years after Traci and Christa asked themselves whether their decision to sell cookies full time was a crazy endeavor, Brown Butter Cookie Company has surpassed more goals than they could ever have imagined. And on the day of another major milestone in these sisters’ lives, these simple little cookies — sweet reminders of their bond as sisters and business partners — would end up in the hands of each beloved guest on Christa’s wedding day.
