7 Local News Toowoomba featured Toowoomba Cookies this week!

1 hour of filming, for 3 minutes of fame!



I enjoyed baking a batch of ANZAC biscuits for the film crew (Gordie) and my interviewer (Emily)



This was a case of 'third time lucky', because Emily contacted me early in May, wanting to share my story of being a blind baker. But the day she organised to come had to be delayed to later in the day due to them coming across an accident on the way to our house... Then later in the day, they had to reschedule again because something had happened with a video that they needed to chase down... so they couldn't make it again that day.



I happened to be travelling overseas, so wasn't in Toowoomba for a few weeks, but as soon as I got back to Australia I let my interviewer know that I was READY TO BE FAMOUS!



Apart from coming an hour earlier than planned on Tuesday 31st of May, everything went smoothly, and I was on the news that night! I feel like I nailed the interview :)



Elizabeth was telling me to smile, and be myself, and I said a few prayers that I would be able to do that.



What do you think?

TOP 4 COOKIE FLAVOURS

FAVOURITE TOOWOOMBA COOKIES FLAVOURS

... 

Mmmm. Everyone seems to love chocolate. 

Except my wife who is not meant to eat chocolate (specifically the cocoa).. 

So, the TOP 4 COOKIE FLAVOURS from what our customers tell us (and what sells out the fastest): 

1. M&M 

Kids love colours, and adults enjoy eating cookies that look enticing too. 

I put peanut M&Ms in some cookies, and they sold well too. 

I didn't get to try any myself, so I don't know yet how they taste. 

I like using M&Ms in cookies, because they are ready to go straight in the cookie (no cutting is required).... although you can crush the M&Ms before sticking them in the cookie dough to add a bit of a colour sprinkle. But you should keep some M&Ms for putting on the surface as well. 

2. Choc chip

Classic, and long-term favourite among many people. 

I don't add cocoa to the cookie dough, so the cookie is a nice contrast to the choc chips. 

I also like the choc chips to be nice and chunky, so you don't get little scraps of chocolate, but a whole taste of real chocolate in your mouth. 

Sometimes I put a whole piece of a chocolate block in a cookie, and that is really cool to bite into. 

I made some with my own block of Cadbury Black Forest chocolate, and loved them :) So then I made a batch for Toowoomba Cookies customers. 

I prefer to use the choc chips made with a pointy top on them, so I can count them better (by feeling the pointy tops sticking out of the cookie dough). 

My wife thinks I make faces out of the choc chips. 

Just for fun. 

3. White choc macadamia

Sometimes white choc macadamia is the fastest selling flavour of the day... 

My wife toasts the macadamias, to bring out a richer flavour of the nut. 

I make sure each Toowoomba Cookie has enough chocolate and enough macadamias in each cookie I bake. So no-one misses out. 

Have you ever eaten a cookie that was supposed to have a certain ingredient in it, to find that you had eaten the whole thing without noticing that particular ingredient? It's disappointing isn't it.  

4. ANZAC

Who wouldn't enjoy a nice lovely chewy ANZAC cookie, or biscuit, or whatever you want to call it. 

Actually, some customers think it's very important 'what you call it', because they grew up calling biscuits 'biscuits' and 'cookies' was the American term, not used as much in Australia.

Being from New Zealand, I still 'translate' for my wife some words :) like chilly bin or jatter bar.... 

Are there any other cookie flavours that you think should be on our list? 

What's your favourite cookie flavour? 

OVER 100 TOOWOOMBA COOKIES!

Today I baked 104 Toowoomba Cookies and really felt like I had achieved something. 

Just like a blind cricket player who wants to get to a century. 

And looking forward to your letter from the Queen...

There are certain milestones to really celebrate.  

100 cookies in one day seemed impossible a few weeks ago. 

The daily total would be 94, 91, 95, but never 100 or more. 

Some days I am more focused on selling or despatch and have a day off baking or just do one ‘triple batch’. 

My eyes get tired after a few hours of focusing on putting chocolate pieces inside the cookie dough. 

But 'at the end of the day' after I bagged up all 104 cookies for my customers, I enjoyed having a rest and thinking about who will be lucky enough to buy them. 

Chunky Choc Chip and Banana Choc Toowoomba Cookies

This morning my wife saw on the msn website that a man named Alf Date Passed away aged 110!... I think he deserves every day off from now on :) 

Noodles and luncheon

I did make my wife dinner..

And we were both full. Even too full to eat cookies!

This is the recipe for the noodles that I made last night: 

NOODLE AND LUNCHEON DISH

INGREDIENTS: 

3 packets of noodles (including the noodle flavouring sachets)

about 100g luncheon (chopped finely)

about 1 cup frozen veggies

boiling water

METHOD: 

1. Prepare the ingredients (chopping the luncheon on a chopping board for meat, very carefully so you don't cut yourself).

2. Get out a big glass bowl (or something that can go in the microwave), and boil the jug (in other words, put the kettle on).

3. Break the noodles while still in the packet, then open the packet and tip the noodles out straight into the bowl

4. CAREFULLY pour the hot jug of boiling water over the noodles (JUST enough to cover the noodles), then add the sachets of flavouring.

5. Give a little stir, then add the luncheon and veggies... 'drown them in the noodles' so they can soak into the water and get defrosted properly

6. Microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes

7. Check if the veggies are soft and the water should be all soaked into the noodles. 

8. Bob's your uncle! There's your noodles and luncheon! Yum Yum

I said to pour the jug of boiling water CAREFULLY, because I have accidentally burned my left hand while making my Dad a cup of tea by pouring hot water into the cup, and it missed the cup and landed on my hand. 

It was very scary. 

I still have a little scar between my thumb and finger . 

I had to put gel on my burn, and I learned to use a liquid level indicator so I could tell when to stop pouring! 

Good to the last mouthful :) 

Every story has a beginning

Hello, my name is Rhys.
And I am the blind baker from Toowoomba Cookies.

I was born and bred in New Zealand, but was born very premature, and my parents were told by the doctors that I "might not make it".


But I did!


I'm sitting on the chair right next to my wife, who is helping me write my story.


As a young child I also had meningitis, which is the cause of me losing my sight.
I have had so many operations, I don't know all the details of.
I don't know when they happened or why I needed them! I would like to find out one day.


My koro thinks I am very brave for having all the operations I did, and when he needed to have a surgery he thought "if Rhys can do it, I can too!"

My aunty told me that I needed to get rushed to hospital after having a migraine one day.


I know that I have had two 'shunts' which my wife says are to drain fluid from around my brain. The scars are behind my ears. My shunt really hurts if I get a migraine. Pain killers don't even help take the pain away.


My nan and koro looked after me until my parents came back from Canada. I love my grandparents, but I miss my koro. I remember seeing him when he was very sick, then he passed away when I was eight or nine.


I love all my family. I have my Mum, Dad, siblings, heaps of aunties, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, "the works"... and now I am getting to know my wife's family as well!


I have three sisters and two brothers, but mostly I lived with my brothers and two sisters.


I did my schooling at Dominion Road Primary, Mount Roskill Intermediate, and Mount Roskill Grammar in Auckland.


I found mainstream schooling hard.


I couldn't keep up. I had to get special work sent up from Wellington. I got different work from everyone else. That's how I started reading audio books (on tape!)... I remember hearing the phrase "when you hear this sound, turn the page"... 'DING'.


I enjoyed the tapes... Listening to the stories, pointing to the words with my finger.


When I moved to Mount Roskill Intermediate I was in PDU (physically disabled unit).


I made friends and still keep in contact with some of them. I visited my school last time I was in Auckland, and the teachers all remembered me, and got to eat some of my cookies for afternoon tea!


I learned how to cook noodles with prawns, shrimp, and frozen veggies with help from my Occupational Therapist. That was my lunch for the day!


My wife thinks I make the best noodles, even better than she does (they come out really fluffy and flavoursome, and she likes that I put veggies in it).


I used to play drums for the school band. We performed a production in the school hall one night. Parents and children came to watch. I wasn't scared. We even got recorded for a CD version of our production.


I think I gave mine to my uncle.


Who knew I would grow up to be a baker? (not a chef)
Some people don't have patience to bake. I do.
I love baking.
I enjoy what I do for Toowoomba Cookies.
I just wish my wife would be a bit more patient with me when I am trying to measure the cups of flour or sugar! It's hard on my eyes to see the colours on the glass measuring jug.



I told my wife that I would make our dinner tonight, so I better go do that, or there will be nothing to eat !!