One of the things I like about cookies and cookie bars is the endless array of varieties that exist. Indeed, bakers all over the world are coming up with new twists on old favorites practically daily — and as such, I am thrilled that I have now discovered exactly where to get Cheetos cookies. You heard me: Cookies with crushed-up Cheetos and plenty of cheddar powder baked right in are a thing that actually exist, and even though Cheetos aren’t really my jam, I absolutely want to try one. To be fair, the cookie isn’t new; it’s been making the rounds since roughly 2016. It resurfaces every now and again, though (about once a year, actually; the last time it showed up was the summer of 2017), and I’m not even mad. Because, I mean… CHEETOS COOKIE.
The creation of baker Ross Canter, the Cheetos cookie is “made with lots and lots of Cheetos,” making it a “cheesy, salty, sweet” treat that temporarily stains your fingers orange when you eat it (just like actual Cheetos do). It only comes from one place — Canter’s bakery, Cookie Good, which is located in Santa Monica, Calif. — and it’s not always available (the Cookie Good menu changes week to week); however, its limited nature has only helped to boost it into the public eye.
Canter wasn’t always a bakery owner; he used to work in Hollywood, primarily as a screenwriter. As a hobby — and as a coping mechanism — he used to stress-bake in his spare time, according to an interview he gave Vice Munchies in 2016. Then, when the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike in 2007, he began to sell his stress-baking creations at his wife’s encouragement to help make ends meet. Once the strike was over, he continued to wear both hats — but as more and more orders rolled in, he eventually found himself needing to choose. So, in 2014, he opened up Cookie Good and went full-time as a baker and cookie innovator. He runs the bakery with his wife, Melanie; together, they also work to give back to the community, supporting schools and charities year-round and donating proceeds from Cookie Good to the Breast Cancer Care & Research Fund every October
The Cheetos cookie came into being in 2016, according to LAist. In October of that year, Canter told the publication, “A few weeks back while noodling our holiday lineup and the possible uses of crushed candy canes, Cheetos popped into my head (I do love Cheetos so this kind of thing does sometimes happen).” So, he began brainstorming ways to combine Cheetos with cookies: “I knew it had to be thick and chewy, salty and cheesy, have the soft crunch and slight corny flavor of Cheetos, and, if possible, it’d be great if the cookie could turn fingertips orange,” he said. He continued, “The next day, armed with a party-sized bag of Cheetos and a tub of cheddar cheese powder, we got to work.”
And, as weird as it sounds, the combination apparently just works. Vice Munchies describes as “not too sweet nor too salty”; wrote Javier Cabral, “[It] strikes a very happy middle ground that may bring up happy memories of stuffing your face with handfuls of cheese popcorn from Christmas tins with a little caramel con accidentally mixed in.”
Cheetos not your thing? No worries; Cookie Good has loads of other options that rotate out on the regular. This week’s menu, for example, includes classics like chocolate chip and a gluten-free version of snickerdoodles, some slightly outside-the-box options like s’mores and birthday cake, and the creativity afforded by flavors like pancakes and bacon and Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries. There are bars, too, if you’d rather have, say, a Nutter Butter brownie or a banana cream pie blondie. If you want to see the list of literally every cookie and bar Cookie Good makes, though, head here — but be warned: It’s a very long list (it spans four pages with about 50 treats per page) that is likely to inspire intense amounts of bakery FOMO.
But I haven’t mentioned the best part yet. The best part is this: Although the Cheetos cookie is only available at Cookie Good… Cookie Good ships. If you head on over to their website, you can either build a custom box of cookies or have the Cookie Good folks build a box for you, then have it sent right to you. You’ve got your choice of size, too — a box of a dozen cookies starts at $24, but you can go all the way up to a box of five dozen for around $110. According to the bakery’s FAQ, UPS Ground delivery takes one day to arrive in the LA area once a box has been shipped; for Northern California, it’s two days; and for everywhere else in the continental United States it takes around two to three days to arrive. (Sorry, Alaska and Hawaii — you might be out of luck, although there are copycat recipes available on the internet if you look hard enough for them.)
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bakery order to place…
