The Milton Point Sweets Story
Milton Point sits west of the Long Island Sound and east of the Marshlands pine forest. It's a place where dinner is served at 6:30 and dessert is often on the porch. There's usually a fire going in the winter and a baseball game in the summer. Life is good here, simple and honest, with a touch of genuine sophistication. People here like good food and treat themselves well. When they find an indulgence they like, their loyalty is unwavering. Milton Point is just as much an emotional place as it is a real place. It's a relaxed sense of time, a pace that lends itself to meeting friends for coffee and sitting in the garden. There's a little Milton Point in all of us-we just have to find it and enjoy it. And once we do, we never want to leave it.
In a sun filled kitchen on Milton Point, a talented baker began to make a uniquely different sweet that was unlike any other. A cross between a biscotti, a cookie and a brownie, the baker gave her delightful treats to her friends and family. She then invented the "CrumbDaddy", the top of a crumb cake made into a cookie. The response was overwhelming. Soon, she was baking them at the request of all of her friends, her kid's teachers, and most anyone who tasted them. Baker Larraine had a real following and Milton Point Sweets was born. At Milton Point Sweets, we all share the same belief-that honest, hand-made sweets that lack pretense and taste great are all that matters. Once you taste our products, we think you'll agree.
Who's your daddy?
from NBC's Today Show • July 20, 2009
You can finish the feast with a bang if you pack a top-notch, tasty dessert that's also easy to serve and eat. A newly discovered option is all-natural CrumbDaddies. A very sweet lady in upstate New York had the brilliant idea that the top of a crumb cake would make a decadent cookie. She makes them herself using just four ingredients, so they are simply delicious.
Gimme Some Sugar
with Lauren from Daily Candy • June 19, 2009
First came the muffin top (thanks, tight jeans). Then came the muffin top (sheer genius).
And now, for the first time ever, we bring you—drumroll, please—the coffee cake top, in cookie form, as created by Milton Point Sweets in Rye, New York.
In today's video, we get to know adorable Larraine Nathanson, the ad exec-turned-baker behind the treats, and see the kitchen where the magic began.
Whether you have a hankering for the original CrumbDaddies, CrumbMamas (with chocolate and caramel), or any of the bakery's other offerings, you won't be disappointed.
Except for the fact they don't offer elastic-waist pants.
CrumbDaddies? Think muffin tops
By Doug Yuan • For The Journal News • March 11, 2009
Think of Larraine Nathanson's CrumbDaddies like Jerry Seinfeld's "muffin tops."
Just as muffin tops are the best part of the muffin, Nathanson's CrumbDaddies are the best part of a crumb cake - the crumb topping - made into an irresistible cookie.
"Every time people taste a CrumbDaddy, they always say, 'How come I never thought of this before? I always eat the top of a crumb cake!'" explains Nathanson's business partner, Cathy Donovan.
The two women, along with Nathanson's husband, Larry, own Milton Point Sweets, a new baked-goods business that's been selling its cookies and bars to specialty shops around Westchester and Connecticut ever since the three booked a table at the Rye Sidewalk Sale in July.
Sweet Bars were the first creation - biscotti look-alikes with a softer texture and unique flavors like ginger-white chocolate chip. Toffee Priddles, a shortbread with bittersweet chocolate and a toffee topping, are affectionately coined after Nathanson's pet name for her daughter. They also make light and crumbly Sables, and Rocky Rileys with peanuts, marshmallow and caramel, which are just like rocky road. But it's the CrumbDaddies that are the company's best seller. So she added another flavor: CrumbMamas, which add chocolate or caramel to CrumbDaddies.
To hear Nathanson and Donovan tell it, starting a cookie business eight months ago was controlled chaos: 4 a.m. wake-ups, juggling of business and family, and the overwhelming task of baking batch after batch of cookies in Nathanson's home oven.
"We were like Lucy and Ethel," she says with a laugh.
These days things are calmer, but no less hectic. They're still juggling, but now they're doing the bulk of the baking off-site at The Bread Factory in New Rochelle.
You might say that Nathanson and Donovon, both advertising professionals, got into the baking business by way of a cookie perfect storm.
After leaving the cutthroat world of advertising, Nathanson, who fell in love with baking while living in France, found herself searching for a new direction. She ran into Donovan, a former colleague, and the two started talking about Nathnanson's baked goods and the potential for a new business.
"I brought over some things to her house, and she said, 'God these are amazing,' " Nathanson said.
"They were unbelievably good," says Donovan.
Nathanson's husband, also unhappy in his career, took a leave of absence from his job to lend his food-business expertise.
"We were all at a crossroads and we all kind of converged and said, 'Let's do this,' " says Donovan.
They named their business after the neighborhood where the Nathansons live in Rye, and Larraine Nathanson went to work, using natural ingredients to put a contemporary twist on familiar cookie recipes. The cookies are all available online and can be found at gourmet food stores, including Cafe Mozart in Mamaroneck and Aux Delices in Greenwich, Conn. And Nathanson and Donovan are proud to announce that they just got into the big tuna of gourmet food sellers, Dean and DeLuca.
It's a major step forward for a small company. Even in these tough economic times, Nathanson believes there's a market for delicious cookies.
"People are cutting back in so many big ways, but they still want something that's a little special. And that is where we're finding our niche," she said.