N.H. gourmet cookie co. brings product to North Shore

The standard dry and crunchy fortune cookie that typically accompanies a Chinese meal is giving way to a giant gourmet variety baked in New Hampshire and available at several North Shore restaurants, markets and gift shops.J. Pace & Son and the Kowloon restaurants have added Fantastic Fortunes to their menus. The cookies are also for sale at Shubies Market in Marblehead.The cookie company was started in May 2009 by Cindy Francis, a former interior designer doing business in Newburyport who concocted the recipe in her York, Maine home kitchen.”When the real estate market slowed down, the interior design business followed suit,” said the chief baker’s husband, David Francis. “Cindy was making these cookies to bring to parties or to give as gifts to interior design clients. The people kept coming back, asking her to make more for weddings, showers, anniversaries, birthdays and special events.”Sensing they were on to something good, the couple began baking larger batches at the Stolen Menu Cafe in York, Maine, which was owned by a friend and closed on Mondays.”Cindy began doing this one day a week ? Monday ? just to see if it would work. The cookies have the same texture, feel and essence of a fortune cookie, but they are more along the lines of a French butter cookie,” said David Francis, noting that his wife approached eight area stores with a pitch for display space and within a week was receiving re-orders. The cookies soon appeared on the shelves at high-quality food businesses such as Philbrick’s Fresh Market in Portsmouth, N.H.; Tuttle’s Red Bar in Dover, N.H.; The Marketplace in Cape Neddick, Maine; and Carrots and Company in Kennebunkport, Maine. Cindy Francis offered to bake her cookies for corporate events and weddings.As demand increased, the operation was moved to a commercial kitchen in the Mills at Salmon Falls in Rollinsford, N.H., where Fantastic Fortune has grown to occupy twice its original space inside the old mill.Word spread that Fantastic Fortunes cookies possessed the classic crisp texture of a traditional fortune cookie but differed because each is hand-dipped in dark, milk or white chocolate, then finished with a decadent topping. The company was featured on The Phantom Gourmet show and New England Chronicle, giving them wider media exposure.Six months after launching, Fantastic Fortunes expanded its distribution network into other New Hampshire and Vermont cities, and more recently to the North Shore of Massachusetts, to establishments like Henry’s Market food shop in Beverly and the gift shop at Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport.”The minute I saw Fantastic Fortunes cookies I wanted them in my shop. Their packaging is a class act and best of all they are delicious and sold at a great price,” said Linda Molloy, manager and buyer at the hospital gift shop.The cookies are packaged in a clear cellophane bag inside a transparent plastic Chinese take-out style box.David and Cindy Francis write the messages that are tucked inside the cookies near the end of the baking cycle.”They’re all upbeat and hopefully inspirational,” he said. “We try not to make them for young or old, male or female. We also have customers who write them.”The messages are printed on paper, just like a regular fortune cookie, only bigger.”So that people who are getting older can read them,” David Francis quipped, noting that their favorite fortune reads: If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.The company has developed two other products. The new cookies ? called Dippers ? are the size of a Milano and suited for dipping in tea or coffee. The other has been named Slice of Heaven, a cookie the size of a pizza that is drizzled with white chocolate to resemble mozzarella.The Kowloon restaurant serves Fantastic Fortunes as a dessert with ice cream, or as party favors at special events.”Right now we’re making hundreds of cookies each day from fresh eggs, cream, butter, flour and sugar. There are no artificial ingred