Edible Food Finds: Fancypants Baking Co.
Photo by Michael Piazza
To Maura Duggan, president of Fancypants Baking Co., “Sometimes simple is best.” When it comes to baking their award-winning cookies, the baking team uses simple, quality non-GMO Project Verified ingredients like organic butter, eggs, King Arthur Flour and no nuts. Each cookie cutter is handmade, all dyes are plant-based and they taste-test every batch of cookie dough.
Duggan embraced this kind of thinking when she first started baking and selling shortbread cookies out of her Boston apartment in 2004. The cookies grew in popularity, expanding in sales to local markets in a matter of months. Eventually, Duggan and her husband, Justin Housman, left their careers to pursue this passion project, which has since moved to a 20,000-square-foot facility in Walpole.
What sets Fancypants Baking Co. apart from other cookie brands is that all their products are nut-free. As Duggan explains, “A lot more retailers bring us in because entire schools are going nut-free. Nowadays, there’s a greater allergy awareness than there ever was.”
Fancypants Baking Co. sells “crispy and crunchy cookies” in flavors like Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate, plus seasonal specialty flavors that include Lemon Ginger, S’mores and Irish Cream for St. Patrick’s Day. The company also sells decorated cookies carefully crafted by a design team in various thematic and seasonal shapes like bunnies, flowers, ladybugs, frogs and baseballs.
With a newly branded look, Fancypants Baking Co. continues to expand while staying true to its quality ingredients and close relationships with suppliers.
This story appeared in the Spring 2019 issue.