It was “Da Baconator”—an eight-ounce behemoth oatmeal cookie topped with crème brûlée whipped cream and brandy-marinated bacon—that got people in the streets asking, “Where is the Maui cookie lady?” Mitzi Toro didn’t have a name for her stand when she first came to Maui’s Friday town parties with a poster board and two trays of cookies. The schoolteacher never intended to be in the baking biz; she simply wanted to honor her father’s memory by raising money for Maui Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit.

But one hooked customer got Toro imagining what it would be like to be the Maui Cookie Lady full time. In 2016 she traded an eight-hour workday for an eighteen-hour one and, with no formal culinary training, used her creativity to envision “next-level cookies.” Over the past seven years she has produced 125 delectable varieties.

Hand-scooped and rolled in small batches, Toro incorporates her favorite local ingredients, such as Maui Brewing Company’s Coconut Hiwa Porter (did someone say beer cookies?), Maui Gold pineapple or Waihe‘e Valley macadamia nuts, combined with decadent extras like Bavarian cream and Valrhona chocolate. Sometimes she stuffs her cookies with candy bars or concocts flavors inspired by nostalgic childhood treats like Girl Scout Samoas or Thin Mints.

Toro discovered that a local company had been including her cookies in celebrity gift baskets when she began getting calls to create custom recipes for actors and musicians. Her A-list clients include Snoop Dogg, Adam Sandler, Ludacris, Bruno Mars and Diana Ross. Dwayne Johnson ordered a sixteen-ouncer called “The Rock.” Some of these celebrities sent Maui Cookie Lady confections to their friends, while others posted their over-the-top sweets on social media, helping advertise Toro’s treats.

Why does she make her cookies so large? “I just like big cookies—crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside, which is harder to accomplish than you think,” she explains. “For me it’s more than butter, sugar and eggs. It’s really about connections and making people happy. I’m trying to make the world a smaller place, one cookie at a time.”

themauicookielady.com