The Cookie Next Door keeps it simple

A single recipe, that’s it. Brands like Coca-Cola have risen to international dominance using a timeless formula. And while it may not come close in scale to the beverage giant’s billion-dollar revenue, Lake Highlands cottage bakery The Cookie Next Door has made a name for itself in the community using the same 12 ingredients —  albeit with the occasional M&M — over and over.

When neighbor Rachel King moved back from New York City with her husband and son while pregnant with her youngest in 2021, she knew she wanted to keep busy, but wasn’t envisioning batch after batch of triple chocolate chip cookies just yet.

Her professional background is in speech pathology, having graduated from the University of Texas at Austin before completing a master’s degree at the University of Texas at Dallas. While taking time off following the birth of her youngest, she “doctored” a cookie recipe she’d found to create an easy, fun snack for children’s parties. That led to demand and, eventually, a new side hustle.

“They would be like, ‘Hey, for my son’s birthday party, y’all are coming, will you bring those or whatever?’ And, so I just kind of took off,” King says.

Her husband, conveniently, works as a software engineer and helped her create a website. The name is meant to be unpretentious and approachable, just like the product she bakes from scratch in her home oven. Her friend gave her the idea for the name, which she says is a nod to 2004 film The Girl Next Door.

She soft-launched the product in 2021 with Whitley Nemec, the “Lake Highlands Lunch Lady,” a fellow mom who sells weekly meals from her nearby home. Around the Fourth of July, King left sample bags for Nemec’s customers during party tray pickup.

“They were just for free so people can try it. She let me do that,” King says. “And then, people kind of started reaching out from there.”

King now lives near Lake Highlands Elementary after her family moved from their Old Lake Highlands rental in 2023. From her kitchen, she churns out anywhere from 80-100 dozen batches (960-1,200 cookies) each month.

At 4 inches across, some come close to being as tall as they are wide. Where’s the chocolate supposed to go, after all?

King believes cookies are best enjoyed chewy without much crunch or crumbs. Hence, she uses corn starch, which gives her product a softer, chewier texture, she says.

The most important ingredient? Salt.

“You need enough salt,” she says. “That is one thing that I’ve tweaked over the years. I got some feedback. And sometimes, people undersalt.”

Cookies can be ordered with or without M&M’S, the lone variance from an otherwise all-encompassing recipe. King’s arsenal is stocked with near-every hue of shell-covered chocolate. She uses school colors for class events, green and red for Christmas, and even has had some colored in the fashion of a baseball for team outings.

The busiest season comes with Valentine’s Day in February, when red and pink M&M’S prevail, and her creations take the shape of hearts.

“I was like, ‘Can I make it with the cookie cutter?’ But that didn’t work, because when they bake, it’s not like a sugar cookie — they hold shape. But I found some silicone molds that are food safe. It takes a little bit more work because I kind of have to flatten the cookie a little bit, but they bake in there like perfect, and then, they just pop out,” she says.

Her two sons, apparently, are fans of their mom’s business.

“If there’s any extras, they’ll definitely come get those for sure,” she says with a laugh.

King says she will likely start selling frozen batches of her cookie mix sometime in spring, possibly as soon as March. Past that, she’ll stick with just the original recipe for now.

Her favorite part of the process, she says, has been meeting the community.

“We were new to the area. As I kind of opened this and was getting into it, it’s just so fun meeting people, or it’s fun to run into someone and they’re like, ‘Hey, I’ve had your cookies.’ And then we kind of have that connection.”