Winnipeg Jewish Review Reviews Eight Fabulous Cookies by Cookie Girl Jill Margolis Atnikov

[Editor's note: To reach Jill Atnikov, Chief Cookie Girl, call 204 894 8556 or email her at: [email protected]]

For 17 years Jill Margolis Atnikov had a successful career as a Pharmaceutical Representative, which required a lot of travel and time away from home. After losing both parents at a young age (three years apart from each other) she decided that life was too short and she wanted to be home with her daughter Brooke and her husband Steven.She decided to make a career change and fulfill her dream of baking full time, and now she makes fresh fabulous home made cookies. Some of the recipes she uses are her mother's (Zlota Margolis, z"l), and my mother (Gail Spivak) accurately predicted that Jill's cookies would be very good because "Zlota had a lot of good recipes."

Jill , who is "Chief Cookie at Cookie Girl" (and who gets up at 5 a.m. to bake ) recently dropped off a box of her attractive cookies (8 different kinds) to the Editor's house for sampling. Jill bakes at Oscars Delicatessen as well as Kitchen Sync (both downtown).

The Winnipeg Jewish Review then obtained five impartial well trained "cookie reviewers" (i.e. the Editor's daughter and son, daughter's friend, etc) all of whom cleansed their palates between cookies with some one percent milk and began the difficult task of reviewing/ranking the cookies . ( One of the five impartial reviewers refused to itemize his favourite cookies-He tasted a few"They are all really good. Too good. Get them away from me. I don't want to keep eating them. I won't be able to stop ...I'll turn into a cookie monster).

FUNFETTI , PEANUT BUTTER CUP, CARAMILK CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES ARE RANKED AS TOP CHOICES BY WJR TEENAGE COOKIE REVIEWERS

The three teenage reviewers had a very tough time ranking their favourite cookies, given all of the scrumptious mouthwatering choices. The two female teens (age 17) both chose the Funfetti Cookie (with colourful sprinkles in it) as#1 -describing it as "Delicious", "Divine" and saying that "It Tastes Like Cake." My Teenage Son (age 16) also thought the Funfetti Cookie was "Really Good " but he ranked it as #2, preferring as his #1 favourite the "Peanut Butter Cup Cookie" ( This cookie actually has a peanut butter cup in the middle !). The girls also loved the heavenly Peanut Butter Cup Cookie, which melts in your mouth, ranking it as their #2. Our fourth reviewer (an adult) also tasted the Funfetti cookie and thought it was very moist and flavourful and agreed with its high ranking. The teenagers had devoured all the Funfetti cookies before I got a chance to have one bite of one , but I had a nibble of the Peanut Butter cup and it was delicious.

The Caramilk Chocolate Chip Cookie was also a big hit. My son ranked this creamy, ooey, gooey cookie as his #3 favourite, and the girls also gave it a big thumbs up. All agreed it was #3.

At this point, I should explain that the my daughter and her friend refused to taste the Oatmeal Raisin cookie since they were so excited by the other choices. However, I tasted it and it is a great cookie-moist, and yummy with a touch of cinnamon, and in fact I would rank it as my #1 cookie. Another adult reviewer who does not generally like oatmeal raisin cookies tried it and also really liked it . I also sampled the brown Ginger Molasses cookie which had hint of ginger, and was very tasty and flavourful. It would be perfect with a cup of tea (It would be my #2 favourite cookie). The girls were too full to try this Molasses cookie, and even my son asked to take a break from stuffing his face with cookies before trying them all. Alas,none of my teenage reviewers had realized just how difficult the job of a cookie reviewer is.!

The Salted Caramel Cookie is another that I sampled and it too was tasty with a unique mix of the sweet and salty.(although, I think you have to like the salt taste to appreciate this cookie. The teenagers preferred only the sweet taste, with no salt.)

My teenage reviewers did inform me that the Chocolate Chunk cookie is a very good choice for those who like a really chocolatey cookie. They also sampled the Smores Cookie, with marshmallow, graham waters and chocolate chips, which was also flavorsome and I found myself returning to the box to nibble smore and smore of it.

On the whole, Cookie Girl's Cookie's are sure to impress! These cookies are a terrific gift for birthday parties, special functions, your office meetings or corporate gifts for your clients, or a "just because" gift for your colleague that has gone the extra mile,

or a special gift for a starved Editor of a Jewish community publication and her children.

As Jill the Chief Cookie Girl says "Life is short..Eat Cookies!"