Renowned chef, restaurateur and dessert queen, Christine Manfield has collaborated with the Byron Bay Cookie company to create a signature range of decadent cookies.
The collaboration comes just in time for the Byron Bay Cookie Company’s 25th anniversary, and will see Manfield create a total of three cookies for the range with the first cab off the rank being the Passionfruit & Dark Chocolate Cookie.
“When I came on board the company asked for some flavour profiles so I looked at their portfolio, I looked at a bit of the competition and what the holes [in the market] were, then went to work and presented them with a list of about 15 different potential flavours," says Manfield.
“Passionfruit has always been my signature ingredient – it’s in every dessert menu that I’ve ever done and ever will do, so it was just the perfect way to start the collaboration with Byron Bay. It’s also something that is quintessentially Australian.”
The cookie itself combines a rich shortbread biscuit base with passionfruit puree and pieces of dark chocolate. Manfield travelled to the company’s factory in Byron Bay to create the cookie and was very hands on right throughout the entire development stage.
“It was great to be invited [to the factory] and it was really a sort of natural relationship that developed,” says Manfield.
“I’m a bit of a control freak too so I had to be there tasting and doing it. I didn’t just want to sort of hand over the recipe and say ‘I don’t care what happens’ because at the end of the day, I’m putting my name to it.”
Manfield says that the next flavour to be released – which is currently in its final stages of development – is the Spiced Apple Crumble and Salted Caramel Cookie.
“Salted caramel at the moment is kind of making everyone go weak at the knees, but the [Spiced Apple Crumble and Salted Caramel Cookie flavor] is a nice change because most of the work that’s been done with salted caramel has been with chocolate and I wanted to do something different. I want all three flavours to be quite different – I don’t want any of them to overlap. The third flavor is still a work in progress, but it’s going to be tropical. I’d like to do something with chili but we’ll see how we go.”
Byron Bay Cookies by Christine Manfield (Passionfruit & Dark Chocolate Cookies) will be available at selected cafes nationwide in early 2016.
