I am a huge "Top Chef" fan and one of my favorite seasons was season five, which included three of the most memorable contestants: Fabio Viviani, Stefan Richter and Carla Hall. Carla was one of my front runners right away. I loved her warmth, humor and her signature rally cry, "Hootie hoo!" She's also a fellow Libra.
When Carla's team reached out to me to ask if I'd like to sample her new line of cookies, of course I said "yes!" When the package arrived I couldn't wait to see what was inside. I had received two boxes of cookies - one sweet and one savory.
Each collection was clearly marked, with a brown label for the savory and an orange label for the sweet.
I love the logo for Carla's products. The way her initials are drawn reminds me of how we used to put hearts over the letter "i" when we were young.
The branding continues through to the design of the cookie box. The CH logo appears on the side with a message, "With love, Carla Hall."
When you open the box, the phrase "made with love" is stamped on the inside of the lid. When she was on "Top Chef" Carla often spoke about cooking with love. This is a huge part of her approach to food.
On top of the cookies was a folded menu card that read, "Small Bite. Big Flavor." on the front.
Inside, the menu had the names and descriptions for every single one of the cookies.
The savory box had three varieties, each topped with Carla's loving logo.
The savory flavors were cheddar pecan, harissa spiced nuts and lemon black pepper shortbread. After tasting all three, the spiced nuts were definitely our top pick. These would be perfect to sneak into your purse for the movies.
The sweet cookie collection had six choices.
They were oatmeal cranberry white chocolate, chocolate hazelnut praline, almond ginger, black forest crinkle, Mexican chocolate chip and pecan shortbread with vanilla salt.
Of the six sweet snacks, the black forest crinkle was far and away the shining star. It tasted like a fudge brownie and reminded me of the chocolate earthquake cookies I love at Sofra in Watertown.
I also flipped for the Mexican chocolate chip which tasted like the cinnamon and chocolate bits ice cream flavor from Batch in Jamaica Plain. A co-worker who tasted them said, "These remind me of that breakfast cereal from when we were kids, Cookie Crisp." I have to admit, it did!
The oatmeal cranberry white chocolate chip had the same flavors as a lot of popular Christmas cookies. I'd love to eat these in December with hot tea.
If you are one of those people who orders the Girl Scout shortbread cookies, then you will definitely want to get your hands on the pecan shortbread with vanilla salt.
While the flavors of these treats were spot on, the size was a bit . . . odd. They are teeny weeny and it was unclear if a person should have just a few or chow down and eat half the container. Carla says, "Our 'petite' cookie is the size of a sugar cube. So if you're practicing moderation, we make it just a little bit easier."
My friend commented, "These seem great for personal snacking. This is what I need, really. Better to have these in the house than a full tub of ice cream."
These two petite cookie collections would make great gifts, party platters, cupcake toppers or even movie snacks. Just make sure to snag the black forest crinkle cookies for yourself!
Check out all the goodies made with love on CarlaHall.com.
