Photos by Caitlyn Martyn
What happens when quarantine baking turns into a real-deal business? The result is a Bronxville operation that’s all about ooey-gooey chocolate chunks.
Quarantine baking was a form of therapy for some this year, but for 14-year-old cookie enthusiast Michael Knox, mastering the art of the chocolate chip cookie turned into a flourishing business. (And, yes, you read that right: He’s 14.)
Everyone has a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, either passed down by relatives or discovered in a cookbook that has withstood the test of time, but Knox’s Chocolate Chunkers namesake cookie is the product of YouTube binging and good old-fashioned trial and error in the kitchen of his family’s Bronxville home. “We took ideas from many recipes to make the Chocolate Chunker cookie and baked 15-20 batches before perfecting it,” the eighth grader explains.
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Chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside, the Chocolate Chunker cookie is Knox’s idea of magnificence. The key: ooey-gooey chocolate chunks instead of chips. Knox credits the chemistry of the ingredients for his cookies’ ideal ratio of chunks to dough.
The Chocolate Chunkers business was born during the height of the pandemic and was the answer to Knox’s question of what to do with his newfound time. Knox, filled to the brim with entrepreneurial zeal, decided to get his family and friends involved in the process, even down to developing new flavors and picking the name and tagline. Flavors are made “based on what we think will taste best,” he says. Case in point: The Whoop Ass cookie; stuffed with chocolate chunks, coconut flakes, pretzels, Reese’s Pieces, and white chocolate chips.
Given his cancelled football and lacrosse seasons, Knox does most of his baking on weekends, whipping up 10-12 dozen cookies in one session and selling almost every last crumb in a week. With all hands on deck, Chocolate Chunkers churns out cookies in under an hour and serves as a family activity that’s “all about the fun of it.”
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Knox, who says the success of Chocolate Chunkers was a “loose cannon” and a “long shot,” plans to keep dreaming big. Although starting the business during a pandemic has been challenging — given his age and lack of experience — he says that he’s decided not to let it dictate the future of Chocolate Chunkers.
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With a tagline that promises “these cookies are the bomb,” Chocolate Chunkers are available for order online in original Chocolate Chunk, sugar, M&M, and Whoop Ass ($20/dozen), and each cookie is large enough to share. But, why would you?
Chocolate Chunkers
Bronxville
Michael@chocolatechunkers.com
