two cool cookies know ice cream and cookie combos best

Oreo cookies have their charm, as do whoopie pies, but when it comes to dessert sandwiches, nothing trumps the classic ice-cream variety.

The ice cream sandwich — invented sometime around the 1890s — has long pleased tastebuds, far before the Chipwich attempted to steal the show.

However, even spanning a century's time, ice cream has not been left out of the sandwich trend, and local residents Jessica Viscusi and Marisa McLaughlin have reestablished the icy sugared squares via their organic and local ice cream and cookies' business, Two Cool Cookies.
The bakers and ice cream makers, both raised in Phoenixville, "have shared endless memories and countless scoops of ice cream and cookies" over the years, beginning when they met at age 14, during the summer at a local field hockey camp.

From classmates and great friends, to business partners and now mothers, Viscusi and McLaughlin decided two years back to provide the local community with delicious and good-for-you desserts that wouldn't compromise the sweet treats' taste.

"Everybody loves cookies and ice cream," said McLaughlin. "People are looking for healthier alternatives that are also organic, and we are a green indulgence."

The crafty ladies, McLaughlin of Chester Springs and Viscusi of Eagleville, conceptualized Two Cool Cookies from scratch, both the cookies and the ice cream blends, using all-natural, simple ingredients combined with the best produce of the local area.

With strawberry season on the brinks, the females recently visited Willow Creek Orchards of Collegeville to purchase pounds of berries to swirl within their organic milk blend, one that uses Seven Stars' Farm's heavy cream.

"We use all organic products and as much local as we can, too," said Viscusi. "We like to feature what's in season, so we rotate our combinations to keep up with what is fresh."

Renting a certified kitchen in Berwyn, Two Cool Cookies, with the assistance of several ice cream makers, sculpt their rectangular ice cream squares from scratch as they freshly prepare for their stand at the Phoenixville Farmers' Market.

The sandwiches aren't stamped out either, but instead hand-shaped and baked, with the founders putting each sandwich individually together themselves. From shortbread and graham cracker, to chocolate and chocolate chip, the food-loving females case their sleek rectangular cookies outside of a generous amount of homemade ice cream.

"We found that the sandwich construction was kind of like crafting," said McLaughlin.

Two years ago, the duo premiered their concoctions at the local market, taking a year off last year until they reemerged this summer, with their first day back on Sat., June 12.

"We were well-received," she continued. "We saw a lot of familiar faces from years ago, even the regulars came back and it was nice to see them."

With a fresh strawberry and strawberry cheesecake creamy ice in tow, Two Cool Cookies will now, besides offering their beloved ice cream sandwiches, also be selling eight ounce containers of their blends.

Several of their ice cream flavors that are worth a mention include their apple pie, lemon mascarpone, peanut butter, orange cream, mint chocolate chip, pumpkin, black raspberry, and of course, classic vanilla and chocolate.

Two Cool Cookies will appear at the Phoenixville Farmers' Market on select weekends, and at least once a month. The deliciously-minded duo also invites the area community to request special orders for parties and functions.

And, while their ice cream and cookie combinations are sweet, savory and endless, the important question is why such a moniker as "Two Cool Cookies": "We are doing a sandwich made of two cookies that are cooled by ice cream — it just works for us. Also, there are two of us," concluded McLaughlin.

a crush-worthy handcrafted cookie company

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In a sea of sugary boutiques boasting on mini-cakes with crowned tops, it is an obsessive sweet tooth's relief when something fresh falls into the dessert-drenched mix. Better yet, what plops the genuine icing on any crave-worthy cake is the availability of the notable treats in proximity to you.

Working just around the boutique bend from Handcrafted Cookie Company is a situation that should victoriously receive two gold stars. One, being that they celebrate the blessed cookie and two, being that it takes me less than a minute to trot to their only location.

Let me digress momentarily, you see, I do adore the cupcake. Even those who say they are sick of them, honestly are not. But, when you reminisce to your childhood years and your time spent baking with your dearly grandma, are you contemplating the notorious papered-stump? NO!

Chad and Theresa Williams, the darling duo behind the all-natural baking company, fulfill the need for sugary fiends breezing around Bridge Street to treat themselves to a health-conscious marveled mouthful.

Making use of original recipes that are free of hydrogenated oil and corn syrup, the couple crafts everything from classic chocolate chips to creative concoctions of lavender vanilla and chocolate hotties (fiery japs in rich cocoa). And with the mouthwatering blends too interesting to not continue, with raspberry mint and coconut sugar cookies, blueberry oatmeal, honey roasted nuts, chocolate mint and chocolate grapefruit, I may never stop gushing over the adventuresome appeal to these Main Street-made circles.

The Williams' are also currently hosting a community-search for recipes, asking anyone interested in participating to submit an original how-to and a sample for consideration to their baked shop. The contest concludes April 30 and the recipe best suited to taste will be featured June-August.

The Handcrafted Cookie Company is also as much of a cafe as a brick-bearing bake shop, selling organic bubble teas and milks, including soy, and also, an ever-changing choice of other sweet treats, including their baggies of brownie butts and their German chocolate cakies, as seen above.

Handcrafted Cookie Company, 24 S. Main St., Phoenixville, 484-921-4934

Naomi Strauss & chocolate chip cookies

As if I can't say it enough, my grandmother, Naomi Strauss, meant the world to me. This, of course, is why when filling out the question-and-answer from City Paper's Meal Ticket for their weekly feature, The Good Word, it was inevitable that I'd take the first opportunity I could to blab 'bout my lovely heroine.

As published a fews weeks back, I wrote:

If ever there was a baker’s hall of fame, my grandmother, Naomi Strauss, would be the star. As a Mennonite and a Pennsylvania Dutchwoman (same as myself), she crafted killer traditional sweet treats that were mixed, mashed and pinched to perfection, and I am forever grateful to her for passing on to me all that she could. With a childhood flooded with rounds of funny, shoo-fly and apeas cakes, mountains of fluffy Dutch doughnuts and delectable sweet buns and rolls, I never questioned whether I should skip a night’s dessert.


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There was something comforting and exceptionally special about visiting my dear grandmother regularly, and without question, having fresh baked cookies always available to nibble on. It is of the norm, that a gigantic Tupperware container would be filled with her recipe of chocolate chip cookies, usually also pumped with oatmeal.

No one has ever made cookies like her, and this is not a bias opinion. However, I recommend you all, see for yourself.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 5 dozen

1 1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour (I use whole grain/wheat.)
1 package (12 oz.) chocolate chips
1 cup nuts, oatmeal, etc. (I use toasted almonds.)

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Sift flour, soda and salt. Add to wet mixture. Fold in chips and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.