A Bellefonte cookie business is turning heads at farmers markets with unconventional treats

If you attend one of Centre County’s farmers markets regularly, or never miss a Happy Valley summer festival, you may have spotted Nick Freed and Inside Out Cookie. The Bellefonte-based business, which launched last winter, is turning heads with its oversized, stuffed cookies that come in a variety of tantalizing flavors, from cheesecake snickerdoodle to Nutella-stuffed chocolate chip.

But when Freed first began planning the business, during the earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he only intended to sell his baked goods online and he looked to an unexpected place — the fitness industry — for inspiration. As for the cookies, though, those were always part of the plan.

“I had heard of one company down in Florida,” Freed said. “They were two fitness influencers that had an online fitness blog and, for some reason, they decided to start a cookie company. ... The more I looked, I realized there are a ton of fitness professionals who have online cookie companies. I never would’ve expected that. You think they’re all eating healthy, but a buddy of mine who owns a gym said, ‘Those people, when they’re taking those pictures, they only look like that for about two months out of the year and, the rest of the year, they’re eating to bulk up on muscle and they eat a lot of this junk food. They love it.’”

As Freed looked at what other online-only cookie companies offered, though, he noticed that many weren’t selling what most would consider a conventional cookie. However, customers can buy a conventional cookie at any grocery store, so Freed began looking for a more unique option. He knew he wanted a soft, almost brownie-like, chewy cookie, but the texture was difficult to achieve with traditional baking methods. Then, he started baking and cooling his cookies in a ring mold and found he could achieve the textures and flavors he wanted; he also began stuffing the cookies to create different flavor combinations.

Soon after launching his business, though, Freed decided the online-only option wasn’t the route he wanted to pursue.

“For online sales, cookies just happen to ship very well. It would be difficult to ship somebody a tiramisu,” Freed laughed. “So cookies were a good choice. They’re versatile desserts. ... My initial intention was to only do online sales, but ... I had only been open about three months before I decided, ‘Hey, it’s kind of silly not to pursue local customers in the community when I’m trying to do a community-focused business.’”

Now, you can find Inside Out Cookie at the Pine Grove Mills Farmers Market and the Downtown State College Farmers Market. Freed also still takes orders online and he says his local online orders have grown.

Inside Out Cookie offers more than a dozen cookie varieties, including a few vegan and gluten-free options. Freed keeps a few staple flavors available at all times, but also introduces new flavors on occasion. In mid-August, he signed a lease for a new production space, which he said will allow for additional new flavor launches. As it stands, on non-event weeks, he said he bakes about 300-400 cookies per week.

For launching new flavors, Freed said, “I’ll find a classic and put it with another one. I know everyone likes cheesecake. Snickerdoodles are the number three favorite cookie in the country, so put those things together. Or, for the oatmeal cookies, think oatmeal raisin, but do they have to be raisins? Why can’t they be cherries?”

His current bestseller cookies include the Nutella and peanut butter-stuffed chocolate chip varieties. The Whole Shabang cookie is also popular, made with chocolate chips, peanut butter, oatmeal, Reese’s Pieces, M&Ms, peanut butter and Nutella. Freed also recently made a change to keep his cookies “clean label,” which means there are no added dyes or artificial flavors.

As Inside Out Cookie grows, Freed hopes the business will play a unique role in the community.

“The goal is to hire people who are maybe in addiction recovery, or maybe with a bad background, who are having trouble finding a job, people with a felony conviction ... I’ve met and known a lot of people who, for one reason or another, screwed up or made a mistake and ended up paying for that forever, and yet they have a lot of capacity … Take that same motivation and put it into something legal,” he said.

Learn more about Inside Out Cookie at www.insideoutcookie.com.