Somebody Named a Cookie Scott's Smoke Barrel. It's Hickory Smoked.

I was scrolling a Bradenton cottage bakery menu looking for something normal. Chocolate chip. Snickerdoodle. Maybe a stuffed key lime if I was feeling festive.

Then I hit Scott's Smoke Barrel.

It is a cookie. Hickory-smoked butter. Loaded with Heath toffee. Topped with Maldon sea salt flakes. If the name sounds like a food truck that parks next to a brewery, that is because somebody in Bradenton decided dessert could join.

The house rules

Kristin's Cookie Chronicles is a woman-owned cottage food cookie business based in Bradenton, per its own About page on Bakesy. Year-round flavors are $30 a dozen. Single flavors per dozen only. Payment is due in full three days before pickup. Typical lead time is five days. This kitchen does not do "I'll think about it at the table."

Chef Kristin Higgins lists culinary and food-science degrees on that same About page. I am not making that up. The cookies still have names like Cookie Monster and Fluffernutter, which is exactly the energy I want from someone who knows food science.

Also: potato chips in a cookie

While you're there, meet Kitchen Sink: wavy potato chips, salted pretzels, M&Ms and white chocolate chips, all in one cookie. Same $30 a dozen. It is the grocery aisle collapsing into dessert, and I respect the commitment.

Other year-round options on the menu today include Lemon Basil (lemon zest and fresh basil-infused sugar), Dark Chocolate Rosemary Sea Salt, Espresso Chip, Stuffed Key Lime Cheesecake, and a Mini Cookie Bucket with 60 mini M&M chip cookies for the same $30. The Cookie Monster listing even notes it uses Wilton food color for the blue while other cookies use ENCO Naturals. Transparent about the blue. I appreciate that.

Where to get them

Kristin's is listed as a vendor at the Bradenton Public Market on Marketspread. That market runs Saturdays, October through May, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton, per Realize Bradenton's market page. Next up on the Marketspread calendar is Saturday, Oct. 24 at 9 a.m.

Order through the Bakesy shop, pay ahead, and show up like a person who planned dessert three days early. Same Old Main Street market where Crust N' Crumb sells out the sourdough. I'm not saying you need smoked cookies and bread heads in one tote. I'm saying the tote can handle both.

— Marina