sarea | Mother's Cookies

I guess I'm late to the party, but apparently, Mother's Cookies has shut down.

Now, some of you may be saying, so what? To be honest, I haven't had their cookies in a very long time myself, especially once I started making my own baked goods. But that doesn't mean that when I saw a package of their pink and white circus animal cookies (called "the Parade assortment," my friend tells me) at the grocery store, I wasn't tempted to get it.

Were they good? Yes, but not that good. The frosting was a bit waxy, the cookies were probably a bit too sweet, and there are a dozen or more ingredients in them that I can't pronounce. But for me, they were the ultimate in decadence growing up. My mother was fairly strict about what kind of junk food my brother and I were allowed to get, and these cookies were at the top of her no-no list (because not only were they junk food, they were SO sugary she was convinced they'd rot my teeth). I only got to eat them if a friend had them at lunchtime (and I could get them to give me one or two), and I think I maybe convinced her to get them for me once, after a lot of begging.

When I was on my own, one of the first things I did when stocking up my kitchen for the first time was buy these cookies. Because I could, damn it.

I really wanted to have them one last time, since the last one I ate was years ago. But they're already all out at my nearby grocery stores (the animal cookies, at least), and it's probably unlikely I'll find them elsewhere since Mother's has already stopped production. So if you bear any fondness or nostalgia for Mother's Cookies, go get them while you can!

Photo is from Dessert First, which also has a recipe for homemade circus animal cookies. Visually they look just like Mother's, but apparently the taste is not to be duplicated (not surprising given the industrial processes and unpronounceable ingredients).