Song of the Sea owner’s traditional chocolate chip cookies win Bay Village competition

When a couple of local store owners suggested hosting a chocolate chip cookie competition in Bay Village, Debbie Mozer of Song of the Sea said, “Bring it on.” The winner of the tasty challenge, which brought lots of sweet-toothed people to the south end of Long Beach Island before the start of the Ship Bottom Parade on Saturday, Dec. 5, Mozer claims there was nothing fancy about her cookies.

The recipe “is one I’ve been making for 40 years. It’s just a chocolate chip (Nestlé’s) Toll House cookie recipe. That’s it,” she said. “There’s nothing special in it, no secret ingredients, no cherries or anything like that that the others had. It’s basic. I don’t even follow a recipe. It’s all in my head now.”

Photo by Jack Reynolds
The Hershey's Chocolate shavings in Spice
It Up's cookies  are a big hit with cookie lovers.

Mozer made 140 cookies in her Spray Beach home kitchen at 6 the morning of the competition, and by 1 p.m. (the challenge ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) they had all been gobbled up.

“The secret is freshness, I guess,” she said.

Although required to make 50 chocolate chip cookies, many other participants made extra. Still, most ran out an hour into the competition, around noon. A few customers were not too happy about the shortage.

For an extra chocolate-y taste, Country Kettle Fudge added M&M’s, and Surf Shack used Ghirardelli’s extra-wide, milk chocolate chips. Yuletide doubled the chocolate chips and vanilla in Nestlé’s Toll House recipe.

Ground oatmeal and walnuts were added to the cookies at Beached, where cookies made with peanut butter were put out as “back-ups.”

The cookies made over at Spice It Up included Hershey’s bar shavings. Any other ingredients used could not be told, according to co-owner Dan Starin, who claimed he “would have to shoot you” if he did.

Indian Summer added extra flavor to its cookies with cherries, and Breezin’ Up’s cookies were made with mint chocolate chips and even had a green tinge. However, Raquel’s Closet & More went the extra mile, serving milk with red velvet, dark chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese drizzle.

“Everybody only took one cookie; I was watching. So it was a big hit, which was wonderful,” said store owner Lisa White.

The entire challenge made for a great holiday treat at no cost to the customers.

“I do believe, because we had such a great response, that we are going to make it a tradition now,” said Mozer. “We thought it would be a great thing to do in the off-season, bring some people down and stir up some interest. We’re grateful that people showed up and supported our little fun.

“We will definitely make more cookies next year,” she added.

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.