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At 70 years old, many people have begun their retirement. Not Alice Larse – she started her debut company, one whose cookies would be included in a Grammys swag bag, enjoyed by Wolfgang Puck and twice win Best Cookie by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade.
Alice’s Stick Cookies specializes in Larse’s recipe for vanillinsocker cookies – buttery, melt-in-your-mouth Swedish shortbread cookies that look like biscotti. Available in three flavors, the Los Altos-born company got its start selling at Draeger’s Market around 26 years ago. Now, Larse’s stick-shaped cookies can be found in specialty food stores all along the Peninsula and are available for online order nationwide.
Larse died last April, but her influence and legacy live on in the people whose lives she impacted and in her cookies that continue to be sold today.
“She is one of the most influential people in my life as my grandma, but also my professional life, inspiring me to cook for a living,” said Lars Smith, owner of State of Mind pizzeria. “She and I had a really special relationship, and she really knew who I was, even at times when I didn’t.”
Smith, who owns a public house and pizzeria in Los Altos and Redwood City, as well as a slice house in Palo Alto, said he was raised in his “grandma Alice’s” kitchen and has fond memories of baking with her. He grew up eating her stick cookies, which he described as “a work of art,” but he didn’t often bake them himself, saying that he didn’t inherit the baking gene.
“Even in her 90s, I needed her help to make cookies and cakes and stuff like that,” Smith said.
Larse grew up in Washington, moving to California and eventually to Los Altos in the 1950s for her husband’s job in the budding space industry. She was heavily involved in the Los Altos community as well as the Episcopalian Church.
“Her whole life was about living her life like Jesus lived his – not the church, not the hierarchy, but she would give anything to anybody at any time,” Smith said.
For Larse, creating her business was never about the money, Smith said. It was all about passion.
“My grandpa was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which is traumatic in many ways, and she was looking for ways to stay busy,” he said. “Baking was something that she really loved to do, and she didn’t shy away from a challenge in life.”
When Larse turned 80, she decided it was time to retire, selling the company to Los Altos resident Kelly Flaig, whose daughter was in the same kindergarten class as Larse’s great-grandson.
“We had no experience in baking…but what steered us to the company was everybody in the community knew them and loved them,” Flaig said. “One of my closest friends said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been buying those for 10 years at Draeger’s.’”
Since Flaig took over in 2011, she’s kept the same recipes (which are free of eggs, nuts and nut oil) and the same commercial kitchen in Santa Clara that Larse used, she said.
“People always say, ‘You should come up with another flavor. You should change it,’” she said. “Nope, exactly the same.”
Alice’s Stick Cookies originally came in four flavors – vanilla, lemon and cinnamon ginger are in production today, and orange chocolate will be reintroduced soon. Vanilla is the bestseller, but Flaig said she can’t pick a favorite between vanilla and cinnamon ginger, which reminds her of a snickerdoodle.
“There’s a certain snap with the cookies. It’s not hard, but there’s a certain crunch to it,” she said. “They’re in loaves, hand cut, so you’ll see that they’re not exactly the same size and shape.”
Flaig’s four children grew up helping out with Alice’s Stick Cookies. Her sons would bake at the commercial kitchen, and her daughters would help out at demos and events.
Flaig said there are many ways to enjoy Alice’s Stick Cookies. Crumble them over ice cream, dunk them into coffee, add them to a charcuterie board, dip them in chocolate or even make a cheesecake crust out of them.
Cookies can be purchased directly from the website (priced at $27 for three eight-ounce boxes, $45 for six, $81 for 12 and $150 for 24) or at various specialty stores for $10-$12 a box.
Alice’s Stick Cookies are available at DeMartini Orchard, Draeger’s, Andronico’s Market, Gourmet Works and BK Collections in Los Altos; The Market at Edgewood, Sigona’s Farmers Market and Schaub’s Meat, Fish & Poultry in Palo Alto; Draeger’s in Menlo Park; Dehoff’s Market, Sigona’s Farmers Market and Delucchi’s Market in Redwood City; Mills Cargo in South San Francisco; Bianchini’s Market in San Carlos and Portola Valley; Dean’s Produce in San Mateo; and Zanotto’s Market in Sunnyvale.
Flaig said she has had many wonderful opportunities because of Alice’s Stick Cookies, including lunch with chef Wolfgang Puck as well as singer-songwriter Carol Connors. As for the future of the business, she hopes to continue finding new specialty stores to carry the cookies and introducing them to new communities.
More information is available at alicesstickcookies.com. Instagram: @alicesstickcookies.
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