An Intergenerational Cookie of Success

Tamara Palmer

Edna's Pecan Crisps.

​Edna's Success of Mountain View bakes from recipes that have been in the family for three generations, all the way back from when company muse Edna Hickman baked for her own Montana eatery. (With its single table, Hickman's Success Cafe was once listed as the Smallest Operating Cafe in the Guinness Book of World Records.)

Hickman's great-granddaughter Mary is behind the immortalizing of her inspiring relative, but Mary's mother Joyce is the one who contributed the recipe for Pecan Crisps. These rectangular bars start their teasing with a buttery, crackly sheen on top. Then there's the cookie base, which tastes mainly of high-quality cinnamon, with some shards of pecans.  It's so memorable that these could have been called Cinnamon Crisps instead.

Edna's are sold in San Francisco at Andronico's and Whole Foods' California Street location, with a wider variety of cookies as well as macaroons and cupcakes available at their many South Bay farmers market appearances. The company bestseller, a frosted cake-like cashew cookie, is also worth a good look, but the texture and subtle flavor of these cinnamon sweets are what will ultimately haunt you.