Cookies So Good, You’ll Be Tempted to Take Credit

I’m jealous. I wish Kelley’s Kookies had my name on them. In fact, I’m tempted to pass them off as my own.

They remind me of the perfect cookies my Aunt Mary turned out in her kitchen. I inherited all of her recipes and baking equipment, but I have yet to turn out a batch as lovely as hers. I just haven’t got the touch.

But Marcella Onishi, who started the business as a sideline in 1988, does. Kelley is her 22-year-old daughter, who helps out at the bakery on Saturdays. “These are the cookies she grew up with,” said Onishi, who eventually left her job as a computer programmer to run the bakery full time. “Many of the recipes are from friends of the family and relatives,” she said.

Onishi started with six varieties: shortbread, peanut butter, crispy oatmeal, icebox, chocolate chip and Melting Moments, her version of a Mexican tea cake. The lineup has expanded to 15 varieties.

It is very hard to pick a favorite. But I can narrow it down to Melting Moments and all of the shortbread varieties (lemon, pecan, macadamia, chocolate-dipped macadamia).

Onishi cuts and forms them all meticulously by hand. They come packaged in cellophane or in beautifully wrapped gift boxes. At Christmastime she sells them in decorative tins.

Get them at her bakery in Cypress or at Yaohan market in Costa Mesa. Mail-order delivery available.

* Six packaged Melting Moments cookies--80 calories and 5 grams of fat each. $3.25 at Kelley’s Kookies, 5009 Ball Road, Cypress. (714) 229-9443.