DATE: Sunday, November 16, 1997             TAG: 9711130064

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F4   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Morsels 

SOURCE: Ruth Fantasia 

                                            LENGTH:   53 lines

AREA TO GET HIT WITH CRUNCHY-CHEWY COOKIES COOKING TEACHER, BAKERY TEAM UP TO MARKET CRUNCHY-CHEWY COOKIES

TALK ABOUT having one in the oven!

Local culinary instructor, cookbook author and television personality Janie Jacobson is about to present Hampton Roads with Sweet Baby Janes.

Sweet Baby Janes cookies, that is.

Jacobson started making the cookies years ago, giving them to friends and family as gifts. The more people ate, the more they wanted.

And it's no wonder. These little bundles of joy are an oatmeal-raisin chocolate chip-walnut cookie, all rolled into one.

If it sounds like a lot, it is. One 3-inch cookie is almost a meal, but the ingredients are well balanced so that nothing overwhelms you. There's just the right chewiness from the raisins, the right texture in the oatmeal, the right crunch in the walnuts and the right sweetness from the chocolate chips.

Many of Jacobson's friends suggested she market the cookies. But there was a problem.

Jacobson, who is known for her healthful approach to food, uses only fresh-milled flour in Sweet Baby Janes, something for which most bakers don't have time.

Then came Sharon Tolliver, a health industry exec who wanted out of the corporate world. Tolliver bought The Real Bread company stores recently and, since Real Bread grinds its own flour, the Hilltop East store in Virginia Beach came equipped with a mill.

Tolliver called her friend Jacobson and the two immediately started testing big batches of Sweet Baby Janes with Real Bread's fresh-milled flour. They also began testing a spelt version.

Jacobson originally called her treats ``Halfway Cookies'' because, she says, they are halfway good for you. Now that the cookie is in production and nutritional analysis has been completed, she's discovered she was right.

Each 1 1/2-ounce Sweet Baby Jane has 180 calories and 9 grams of fat (4 grams saturated). But each cookie also contains a whopping 2 grams of fiber.

The cookie will officially hit the market on Saturday with a ``christening party'' from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hilltop East store. After that, Sweet Baby Janes will be available at Real Bread Co. stores in Ghent and the Virginia Beach Farmers' Market as well. MEMO: For more information about Sweet Baby Janes, watch Pilot-13 News

(LNC: Cox cable channel 4, channel 8 in Chesapeake) today between 8 a.m.

and 6 p.m. or call the Real Bread Co. at 428-1559. ILLUSTRATION: DAVID HOLLINGSWORTH/The Virginian-Pilot

Sharon Tolliver, standing, owner of The Real Bread stores, and

culinary instructor Janie Jacobson pose before a batch of Sweet Baby

Janes cookies.

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