The Story of Kelly's Famous & Cookie Dough Creamery

Hello! We are Kelly and Rob Hammersmith. We'd like to tell you the story of how Kelly's Famous came into being.

Back in 2010 we, as well as Kelly's parents (Bill & Janet Howard), opened Farmhouse Ice Cream Parlor in Marysville, Ohio. 

About five years later we came up with a great idea for a new ice cream shop concept. And in February of 2016, we opened Cookie Dough Creamery in Worthington, Ohio.

Over the following four years we made and sold 115,000 pounds of edible cookie dough. That’s over 57 tons! But because we were first and foremost an ice cream shop, and ice cream pairs so well with cookie dough, we sold even more ice cream than we did cookie dough. We sold 140,000 pounds of ice cream. That's 70 tons! Combined we sold a quarter of a million pounds of ice cream and cookie dough. 

After having to close our shop in 2020, we heard from our family, friends, and the nearly 20,000 fans of our Facebook page, about how sad they are that we closed, how much they miss us, and how much they wish we would open up again. The people clearly want our products back. Here are just some of the recent comments posted to our Facebook page:

What made our edible cookie dough so unique and popular?  Answer: It was the recipe Kelly invented that produces cookie dough that stays soft when refrigerated!

When we came up with the idea for Cookie Dough Creamery, I (Rob) stepped back and let Kelly have total control over the recipes for the cookie doughs we were going to offer in our shop. But I did have one request. And that request was due to the health department requiring edible cookie dough to be served refrigerated. That requirement created a problem for me.

I told Kelly that I don’t like the texture of cookie dough when it’s refrigerated, or even worse, frozen. I don’t like hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough, like the pieces of cookie dough that are in Ben & Jerry’s, and all the copycat cookie dough ice creams.

I told her, the cookie dough I want to sell should be the same experience I had sneaking a spoonful from the bowl behind mom’s back when I was a kid. When I did that, the cookie dough was soft. I could push it with my tongue up into the roof of my mouth. I could feel, and even taste it in my cheeks. I told her, it’s not the same experience when eating hard, stiff and crumbly cookie dough, because it’s not the same texture. She agreed, and took on the challenge of replicating that texture and experience even when the dough is refrigerated.

But accomplishing it wasn’t as easy as she first thought. When you make cookie dough, and then refrigerate it, the dough will just naturally turn hard, stiff, and crumbly. And that’s all Ben & Jerry did when they invented the first cookie dough ice cream. They just took a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, removed the eggs, and used heat treated flour. That's it. They did nothing more. And all their copycats did the same, and as a result we had hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough ever since.

Kelly spent four months trying all kinds of tricks. Some tricks would produce a spongy dough. Not good. Not the right texture for cookie dough. Other tricks would produce a fluffy dough. Again, not good. Also not the right texture for cookie dough. Another trick was to make it with pudding mix. Not good. Again, not the right texture for cookie dough (were we serving cookie dough or pudding?). And sometimes the texture was just right, but the flavor was now way off. She kept on trying.

The solution would have been easier if she replaced the butter with different kinds of oils (margarine, canola oil, palm oil, et...), which is what a lot of edible cookie dough companies do. It's the butter in the dough that solidifies when the temperature drops. Replacing the butter also brings the cost of making the product down, which is why so many companies are willing to do it. But Kelly was determined to "keep it real"! Her edible cookie dough was going to be made with real butter!

After many, many trials, she finally nailed it. She had me taste her latest attempt, and it was soft, just the right flavor, and made with real butter. She did it! She created real edible cookie dough that keeps a soft texture when refrigerated! 

With her new found knowledge, we opened Cookie Dough Creamery. And many of our customers agreed with me, that cookie dough is better when it is soft, instead of hard, stiff, and crumbly. And when it's made with real butter.

Over the years our customers experienced our unique products that could not be found anywhere else.  We served served hundreds of thousands of customers, who gave us overwhelming feedback that they loved our products, especially Kelly's cookie dough. Kelly's unique recipe had made her famous. 

Unfortunately we had to close the shop in 2020. We made the mistake of choosing what turned out to be a dying mall. Read Why Did Cookie Dough Creamery Close?

This was the second time we had an ice cream shop of ours burned by significant change in commercial retail real estate dynamics. The first time being our Farmhouse Ice Cream Parlor in Marysville, OH, where after other entrepreneurs could see the success we were having at our location, two frozen custard shops as well as a rolled ice cream shop decided to open up near us, one literally 30 yards around the corner from our door, and another right across the street. Our market went from being lucrative to being over saturated in less than a year. 

The mall dying on Cookie Dough Creamery was like pouring salt in already existing wound of ours. And then the pandemic arrived and we watched the world fall apart. As a result of experiencing so many things out of our control that determine our destiny as a retail storefront business, any thoughts we entertained of investing in the build out of a second Cookie Dough Creamery location (and a third ice cream shop location for us) were extinguished. We were done gambling in the commercial retail real estate game. We have concluded we don't have the skills needed to succeed in that game, and we're not going to lose our shirts gambling in that game again. As a result, we did what we needed to do to move on with our lives, and Cookie Dough Creamery became nothing but a memory for us. 

But after a five+ years of people begging us to come back, it became obvious that we had to do something, even if it meant not getting back into the commercial retail real estate game and building out a new Cookie Dough Creamery location. 

We brainstormed, and we realized that we don't need to invest in the buildout of a 3rd ice cream shop to make our fans happy again. Instead, all we need to do is operate a licensed "Ohio Home Bakery" (see: https://agri.ohio.gov/divisions/food-safety/resources/home-bakery).

Obtaining the license for an Ohio Home Bakery requires an inspection of our home by the Ohio Department of Agriculture, and approval for the license allows us to make all of Kelly's famous edible cookie dough flavors from our home kitchen and sell to the public. 

Unfortunately, the Ohio Home Bakery license does not permit the production and sale of ice cream, so we no longer operate as a creamery. But despite this our fans were thrilled to hear that they can get Kelly's famous edible cookie dough flavors again!

And from that Kellys Famous Foods LLC was born!

While we miss our store, it makes us happy and filled with pride knowing that people can continue to enjoy the "made with real butter" edible cookie dough flavors that stay soft when refrigerated that Kelly poured her heart into creating!