WPSU’s TV and digital series, Keystone Stories, explores the people, places and culture that make Central Pennsylvania unique. In the first episode of Season 4, Keystone Stories looks at “Sweets,” highlighting candy makers and baked sweets across Pennsylvania. In this sneak peak, you’ll hear from Nick Freed, the founder of Inside Out Cookie in Spring Mills in Centre County.
Nick Freed:
The cookie part is a little bit sort of ambiguous. They're not really cookies, but they're not really anything else either. They're sort of a cross between a cookie, a brownie, and I've heard a pie because they're filled.
I started this, 3 and 1/2 years ago mainly as a job for myself—but also with my goal being to provide opportunities for other people like me. To give people a shot who might not be able to have one on their own. I wanted to hire formerly incarcerated people like myself.
I made a lot of money about 15 years ago, and I went to prison for it. [laugh] That's where-- I learned to bake in prison.
I learned a lot from that experience. And one of the biggest things that I learned in prison was the value of community and reputation, which doesn't seem like it would be the case. But surrounded by some not so good people, the best way to stand out is to be a good person.
I would like to bring myself up and bring other people up with me, and that's been the whole point of this.
I knew that I wanted to do a bakery business, but I didn't know exactly what that was going to look like. I've never really run a business before and certainly not started one myself. I wanted to do cookies that were unique. There would be no reason to buy cookies from me if they were just cookies like you could get anywhere else. So I was shooting for something out of the ordinary. I wanted to stuff them, fill them.
One of the batches that I made one day working at home, I don't know exactly what I did wrong with it, but the dough was way too loose. You'd put it in the oven, it would just lay down flat. So I put one of those dough balls in an egg ring that you use for making egg sandwiches to hold it in shape. And I took it out of the oven, and it was wonderful. It was great. And so I was like, you know, I'm going to make them all that way. And so I do.
That became my product, the results of a fortunate accident. And yeah, I just-- I rolled on from there.
The first year, I did online sales because it was the tail end of COVID when I started.
I took on...Pine Grove Mills Farmers Market was my first one, and then I got Downtown State College Farmers Market. So I was doing those two and those proved to be a better outlet for selling things than relying exclusively on e-comm.
So I started doing more events because the response that I got from those was so good. I started booking as many events as I could, but now I have more demand, I need more equipment.
So I made the decision to scale up, buy some actual, like, real bakery equipment, bigger things. We're still getting used to using it, but it's real stuff. It can make cookies faster than we can handle them.
It's surreal. This is all new. I can't believe I own these things. Like, these are things that some institution or company has. This is mine. That's really weird. I'm still getting used to the idea that I own a business, that I'm, like, in charge of things. But I'm growing into it.
I would like this brand to be in stores, respected, recognized and sought after, of course. I guess every business hopes for that. I'm not trying to make a million dollars or billion dollars, buy a Lambo. I just want to have a good, comfortable life that I feel good about and help the community and other people around me at the same time. That's it.
Watch the full Keystone Stories episode about Pennsylvania sweets online.
