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Let’s get the obvious out of the way. What the heck is a zuzzy? “True story,” reveals co-owner Joe Jeresaty. “When my nutty little sister was three years old, a bumble bee was flying above her head and she pointed to it and shouted, ‘Zuzzzzz, zuzzzzz,’ and you guessed it, she was forever known as Zuzzy.” (Hence the bumble-bee mascot.) Screwy homage aside, Zuzzy’s Cookie Dough is deadly good. It’s the kind of stuff Willy Wonka would use to stucco the walls of his summer house. Jeresaty, along with another born and bred Masshole, Jeff Sadowski, started on their cookie crusade in Florence — not far from Amherst and a stone’s throw from Northampton — just a few years ago. Why cookie dough? In the dessert world, Massachusetts has set notable precedents. Fudge was invented here in the late 1800s, the Parker House originated the Boston cream pie, and Ruth Wakefield created the Toll House cookie before Andrew Nestlé went for the glory grab. Sadowski puts it more succinctly, “Hey, who doesn’t love cookie dough?”
As they bake, Zuzzy’s great, goopy globs transform into the kind of warm, chewy treat you enjoyed while watching GI Joe cartoons or playing Sega after school. Even better, while sneaking a little raw dough from Ma’s bowl in those days might have caused a nasty case of salmonella, Jeresaty says go for it: “Jeff, being pastry chef extraordinaire, formulated recipes using pasteurized eggs.” Add unbleached flour, cane sugar, and no trans fats to that. Slather some Brigham’s or Richardson’s ice cream between two Zuzzy cookies and you have the summertime ice-cream sandwich no kid or kid-at-heart could resist. The cookie dough comes in eight flavors (suggested retail $5.49 each), including M&M, Oreo, and Heath Bar.
Available at Whole Foods, 115 Prospect Street, in Cambridge. Call 617.492.0070.
