Chonky Cookies opens in Lindenhurst

In Lindenhurst, sweets lovers can thank the pandemic for bringing Chonky Cookies to town. The new shop, which opened in mid-July, is couched between an empanada shop and an Italian deli at Sunrise Plaza on North Wellwood Avenue. Behind the counter, cheery workers offer visitors a chance to "Get Chonked" with hefty, hand-sized cookies stuffed with everything from marshmallows and Hershey’s chocolate to cotton candy and frosted animal cookies.

Owner Heather Friedfertig, 24, said she’s "always been a baker." But when the pandemic claimed her two jobs (as a customer service rep for Nikon and a server), her creations went from fanciful (giant chocolate chip cookies loaded with white chocolate and sprinkles) to downright gluttonous.

"One night I asked my fiancee, ‘What if I put peanut butter inside the chocolate-peanut butter cookie,’" Friedfertig recalled. When it worked, she thought, "I wonder what else I can do?!"

She started baking for friends and family who brought her ingredients — grocers couldn’t keep flour in stock during the pandemic — and bringing sweets to nurses at local hospitals. "Everyone was going through a tough time," she said.

In May 2020 the baker started casually offering cookies on Instagram. Orders streamed in. Three months later, Chonky employed a dozen part-time workers, who baked thousands of cookies to-order weekly at Seventy-One Milbar, a shared commercial kitchen in Farmingdale. "It was wild," Friedfertig recalled.

These days, Friedfertig employs around 20 workers, and her output has grown to around 1,000 cookies per day. Bestsellers include the Bada Bing, a raspberry-almond confection stuffed with Italian rainbow cookie, and the Cookies & Cream, whose Oreo-marbled dough conceals a Double-Stuf Oreo and a square of Hershey’s Cookies & Cream candy bar.

Any of these — along with ever-changing specials (at Easter, cookies came topped with Peeps; now, find peanut butter cookies stuffed with molten peanut butter and grape jelly) — can be had warm or cold, with or without coffee. Or add scoops of Perry’s Ice cream, all the toppings, and make it a sundae.

Chonky Cookies is now open at 646 N. Wellwood Ave., Lindenhurst; 631-412-3311, chonkycookies.com