Downtown Yellowknife store Tastes of the North has launched a Cookie Quest to search for the “official NWT cookie.” Bakers have until June 30 to submit their recipes.
“We know we have very special flavours in the North,” said Janet Dean, executive director of the Territorial Agrifood Association, which runs the store.
“We have an amazing, creative population, and what better way to tie all of those things together than through a cookie?”
With the NWT being at the end of the supply chain, Dean said food insecurity is often brought up in conversations.
To combat food insecurity, NWT residents often harvest food locally. The Cookie Quest is looking to highlight some of the common ingredients found in northern cooking, said Dean – food that encompasses the flavour of the land and “spirit of the people.”
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Each entry must use birch syrup, wild blueberries, cranberries, Labrador tea, spruce tips, rose hips, bannock dough or another northern ingredient not listed.
But why a cookie?
Dean said the association was inspired by Jenna White, an Indigenous chef in New Brunswick and founder of Jenna’s Nut-Free Dessertery, who created a New Brunswick “provincial cookie.”
The association felt every province and territory should have a cookie as part of a nation-building activity, Dean continued, which led to the NWT cookie quest.
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Home bakers, youth, Elders, Indigenous community members, schools, local bakeries and restaurants are welcome to submit a cookie for consideration.
The association has extended its initial deadline to submit a recipe until June 30.
The public will then get to vote on their favourite from four finalists. The winning cookie will be selected at the NWT Culinary Festival on July 25-26.
The crowning of the official NWT cookie will take place on November 3 at the NWT Tourism annual conference.
