Member Spotlight: Truckee Cookies

September 17, 2025

Truckee Cookies is the answer to your late-night cookie cravings. Customers can choose from a menu of favorite flavors and have warm cookies ready in under an hour—no planning required. With recipes perfected for the ideal balance of chewy, crunchy, and melty, Truckee Cookies are irresistible. Their most popular flavors are The Classic CCC, Salted Dark Chocolate Walnut, and Snickerdoodelish, but they have delicious combinations to meet every craving, like Truckee Trail Mix, Candy in the Cookie Jar, and Take Me to Hawaii – with coconut and macadamia nuts. Each order is baked fresh to match the selected pickup or delivery time on Friday and Saturday nights from 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. When you order 9 or more cookies, receive an “I love cookies” discount of 10%, and when you order a dozen or more cookies, you receive an “I’m a cookie monster” 20% discount, plus Truckee Cookies donates to Truckee nonprofits.

Make your event that much sweeter — Truckee Cookies can bake and deliver special orders to anywhere in the Tahoe Basin! Truckee Cookies can bring warm cookies to your event!  The Truckee Chamber has ordered Truckee Cookies for Lunch & Learn and Truckee Young Entrepreneurs meetings and they were a huge hit. Truckee Cookies also teamed up with Little Truckee Ice Creamery, providing their fresh-baked cookies for the world’s best handmade ice cream sandwiches for the grand opening party of Martis Valley Lodge last month.

The Sweet Beginning

For Nicole, founder of Truckee Cookies, the dream of baking for a community began nearly three decades ago in a small Chicago suburb. In 1996 as an engineering student in college, she took a job at Dan’z Cookies in Evanston, Illinois. What started as a simple delivery gig quickly became an education in running a cookie business. From baking dough to managing late-night deliveries, Nicole learned the ins and outs of the operation and quietly nurtured a dream: one day, she hoped to open a cookie shop of her own.

Nicole’s engineering career eventually brought her to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002. Like so many, she fell in love with Truckee during ski weekends with friends. Even then, the idea of a late-night cookie business lingered – rental cabins didn’t include cookie baking equipment.

Between 2012 and 2015, long thru-hikes on the Tahoe Rim and John Muir trails gave her time to imagine what her future cookie business could look like. She thought about flavors, logos, and shop locations as she walked mile after mile. The dream stayed alive, even as her career took her far from the Sierra.

In 2016, Nicole moved to Singapore for work, where she discovered just how uniquely American chocolate chip cookies are. Missing the flavors of home, she started experimenting with recipes in her own kitchen. It was also there that she met Zac, who shared her California roots and enthusiasm for eventually returning to the mountains. Together, they bought a rustic cabin in Truckee and planned their next chapter.

Building a Business with Purpose

When Nicole and Zac finally moved to Truckee, they found a town that had changed in ways that made starting a business possible. A shared commercial kitchen at Kitchen Collab and food delivery platforms gave them the tools to launch the cookie delivery service Nicole had once only imagined.

But Nicole also wanted something more. Through her involvement in the nonprofit sector, she realized her business could be a vehicle for community impact. Instead of a standard bakery model, Truckee Cookies was designed as a benefit corporation. A significant portion of profits are directed to local nonprofits, and customers themselves help decide how that giving happens. Each order includes a share of profits that customers can either keep or donate to a Truckee-based cause.

“It wasn’t just about baking cookies,” Nicole explains. “It was about creating a business that gives back to the community that makes it possible.”

The Flavor of Community

Truckee Cookies has quickly become known for its balance of comfort and creativity. From perfectly chewy chocolate chip to new seasonal flavors in the works, every batch is made with care. But what truly sets the business apart is its commitment to community. Truckee Cookies spark joy and support local nonprofits.

The journey from college days delivering cookies to a Truckee business owner has come full circle. She has created an enterprise rooted in Truckee values, powered by community, and sweetened by the simple joy of a warm cookie.

Truckee Cookies isn’t just about dessert. It’s about making home a little warmer, neighbors a little closer, and Truckee itself a little stronger—one cookie at a time.

Visit Truckee Cookies’ website to order and for more information. https://www.truckeecookies.com/