Trend watching is built into everyone’s job here at Sweet Flour, and lately, we’ve been eyeing up over-the-top hybrid desserts. First came the Cronut craze, the croissant + doughnut combo that dominated the dessert scene for years; more recent was the croissant + cookie dough explosion, the Crookie. In between, there was the lesser known Pake (don’t worry, we almost missed this one too), a dessert made by baking a pie in a cake. We decided to take on the trend but did it Sweet Flour style with a Thanksgiving inspired twist that combines our delicious cookies with the classic apple pie to create the Apple Pookie.
Using classic favourites to inspire new Thanksgiving delights
Where did our inspo for this dessert come from? We love the season changes and have always seen it as an opportunity to innovate and expand our offerings to excite and delight our customers. Fall is quintessential pie season, and so we couldn’t pass up the chance to feature pie in our predominantly cookie and cupcake lineup. The beauty of this inspiration is that we didn’t have to start from scratch; with cookies like Red Velvet, Ginger Molasses, and Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut, we were already channeling fall vibes and just had to get creative.
We chose our Ginger Molasses, a classic cookie infused with warm spices like ginger and cinnamon that’s always a fall favourite. We baked it up into one of our super popular Cookie Cakes, providing an 8” round base for our pie component – a rich & gooey apple pie filling. Our creation was then topped off with an apple cider infused buttercream that we piped on top in a lattice formation reminiscent of our favourite pies. The finishing touch was an apple shaped sugar cookie that crowned the top of the pie and brought all the components together in an elegant finish worthy of a Thanksgiving dessert!
Inspired baking leads to inspired marketing
Our masterpiece complete, we had to come up with a name to match the creativity of the final product. We tossed around the standard names – Fall Cookie Cake, Apple Pie Cookie Cake, Apple Cookie Pie – but nothing resonated. We wanted something whimsical and fun that would embody the spirit of the dessert, so we went back to our hybrid dessert predecessors and –LIGHTBULB MOMENT – called it an Apple Pookie (Pie + Cookie). Yes, we know people are more familiar with the word as a pet name, but we’re embracing that! Its playful name has become a little joke in our kitchen and it's fun for our social media team, which in turn makes it fun for our followers and our customers.
Inspired baking leads to inspired tasting!
But our Pookie’s journey isn’t complete! The final stage in product development always ends with our loyal customers. Help us start the next hybrid dessert craze and order your Apple Pookie now! It'll be available on our website throughout October and is perfect for Thanksgiving celebrations, family get-togethers or even nights in with your own Pookie 😉. We offer delivery within Toronto and the GTA. If you're outside the GTA, check out our Thanskgiving gift boxes instead.
