COOKIE COMEBACK

This story was created by our partners at the Heavy Table, a weekly culinary newsletter dedicated to covering the best food and drink of the Upper Midwest. Back them on Patreon to receive four distinct email newsletters focused on dining, the restaurant business, spirits, and home cooking: http://www.patreon.com/heavytable

Wherein we create a loving homage to the Minnesota Cookie from Groundswell in St. Paul.
By Stacy Brooks

Stacy Brooks / Heavy Table

Groundswell was the perfect neighborhood coffee shop and cafe. The only downside was that it was in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood, and I wish it had been closer to my home in the northwest suburbs so that I could have visited more often. The space had a warm, welcoming feel, with lots of seating and natural light. The espresso drinks were solid, the tea selection was robust, and the baked goods were housemade. What kept me coming back again and again was one of the specialties, the Minnesota Cookie: an oatmeal cranberry cookie with icing and a Minnesota-shaped chocolate garnish.

Sadly, Groundswell announced in February that they wouldn’t be reopening after a May 2025 fire (however, owner Megan Greulich Schoonover recently announced a new cottage bakery venture, Crumb Together). After cycling through the denial, anger, and depression phases of grief, I became fixated on recreating the Minnesota cookie—maybe that’s bargaining, or maybe I achieved acceptance? I reached out to various Groundswell folks via email and social media requesting the recipe but didn’t receive a response. If I wanted my Minnesota cookie, I was going to have to figure it out myself.

Stacy Brooks / Heavy Table

I knew from my extensive research (a.k.a. scrolling through the Groundswell Instagram feed) that the O.G. cookie (pictured above) included wild rice, local honey, oats, cranberries, an almond-orange icing, and a hand-cut chocolate Minnesota. In keeping with the Minnesota theme, I headed to the bulk aisle at Eastside Food Co-op, where I sourced Minnesota-cultivated from KC’s Best and raw honey from Dennison, Minnesota-based Homestead Apiaries. I read articles about baking with honey. I scrutinized photos of Groundswell’s cookies.

And then I failed. Over and over again.

I made cookies that were too honey-forward and cookies that had too much wild rice. I made cookies that were more like scones. I made burnt cookies and underdone cookies. I kept researching and I kept baking, and eventually I came up with a cookie that was really tasty, even though the texture was much softer than the chewy cookie I remembered.

“But you’ve got the spirit of it,” said my husband, as he enthusiastically sampled the latest test batch. “Does it need to be the same thing?”

No. It doesn’t. In an era of legacy sequels, reboots, and commercially-driven nostalgia, sometimes the best way to honor something is to let it go. I’m glad that Groundswell was around for 16 years and that I was there eating cookies for many of them. Instead of being a duplicate, this is my homage to the Groundswell cookie. It’s smaller and softer, with a buttercream frosting instead of an icing, sans chocolate Minnesota in a show of deference to the original.

Now it’s time to make some new memories.

Stacy Brooks / Heavy Table

Cranberry Wild Rice Oatmeal Cookies

Yield: approximately two dozen cookies

10 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp honey
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ + ⅛ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
1 cup rolled (old fashioned) oats
½ cup cooked wild rice
½ cup sweetened dried cranberries

In a large bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and honey until light and creamy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt until well-combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Add oats and mix well. Fold in cooked wild rice and sweetened dried cranberries.

Tightly cover dough and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350°F. Drop rounded tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through baking time, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.

Cool on cookie sheets for one minute, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Frost with Almond-Orange Frosting. Frosting hardens in about one hour. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Almond-Orange Frosting

Adapted from The American Patriette

Yield: enough to frost 2 dozen cookies, with plenty left over

6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
2 ½ Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp almond extract
½ tsp orange extract
⅛ tsp salt

Using a stand or hand mixer, beat butter until creamy. Gradually mix in powdered sugar until fully incorporated. Gradually mix in cream until mixture forms a thick, creamy frosting. Add the almond extract, orange extract, and salt and mix until well combined.