Arline Conigliaro, the retired school counselor behind “Aunt Cookie,” understands that good things come in “gifted” packages.
When she launched her business, “Aunt Cookie, Taste the Love,” in August 2020, Conigliaro outfitted the one-car garage of her Lawrenceville home with a double-door convection oven, a 20-quart mixer, and all the ingredients she needed to ship her small-batch products—baked fresh daily—across the country.
A native of Rochester, New York, Conigliaro has lived almost exclusively in Lawrenceville since graduating from college. She was a school counselor for Ewing Township, working at both Fisher Middle School and Ewing High School before switching to the Moorestown School District, where she wrapped up her 26-year career in June 2019.
But Conigliaro is no cookie-cutter retiree.
In her transition from compassionate care to a cottage license, she established an online retail site, auntcookie.com, selling cookies by order in themed gift boxes. Although the company is busiest during the winter holidays, its effortlessly cozy style delivers presents of timeless comfort to doorsteps no matter the season.
“The big gift-giving time of the year is in December, and it’s just bringing a little piece of nurturing childhood memories and all of that into your home and helping you feel the warmth of the holiday season, no matter what holiday you’re celebrating,” Conigliaro said.
Aunt Cookie reimagines classic flavors utilizing higher-quality ingredients like Barry Callebaut Belgian chocolate to create a sentimental throwback for the taste buds with a newly tied bow.
“Everything is done with my two hands, and the recipes have been created and changed up since the recipes from back in the day,” she said, swapping the lard for butter—save for the ginger snaps and the granola bars, the latter of which uses coconut oil—for the finest, yet still reassuringly familiar, baked goods.
Conigliaro said that her bestsellers are the salted chocolate chunk cookies made with both Belgian white and dark chocolate, the rainbow sprinkle-covered NYC confetti cookies, and the range of Italian biscottis.
Each order contains an approximately 1-pound bag of the chosen cookie for $24.95, with other varieties including oatmeal chocolate cherry cookies, lemon poppy seed shortbread, pecan sandies, powdered walnut shortbread, peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies, and gingersnaps that feature pieces of crystallized ginger scattered throughout.
Aunt Cookie also goes beyond its namesake baked goods with a new collection of “retro bars,” a nostalgic return to traditional treats more conscious of health and dietary restrictions. In tastes all evocative of the warm, fuzzy memories of youth, the line includes flourless chocolate brownies, blondies, raspberry shortbread bars, grain-free granola bars with dried sour cherries, and oatmeal caramel bars that play on the gooey layers of carmelitas.
Conigliaro launched the retro bars in October to a positive reception, adding that the raspberry shortbread and flourless brownies became fast favorites. The retro bars are available in a 6-pack drawer box with the customer’s choice of flavors for $44.95 each.
Auntie Cookie also sells themed gift boxes for occasions ranging from birthdays, bereavements, celebrations, expressions of gratitude, and care packages, each containing a selection of cookies paired with accompanying items. Commemorate those special days with balloons, blowers, and a birthday crown, or send condolences alongside packets of forget-me-not seeds that say “Forever in Our Hearts.”
The goal, Conigliaro said, is to present someone with the “taste of love.”
“It’s not just a box of cookies—it’s an experience. I try to create the wonder of first receiving the box, but also when you open the box, there’s real joy, and there are things to look forward to instead of just receiving a box of cookies,” she said. “In my age group, we don’t need another candle; we don’t need another basket of fruit. If you can get these cookies and put them in the freezer, or use them right away for company that’s coming over, or a college kid just dying for some homemade treats, it’s just an eclectic way to give some comfort to somebody.”
The specialty boxes are available in three sizes: small, a choice of two cookie varieties, for $34.95; medium, a choice of four cookie varieties, for $59.95; and large, a choice of eight cookie varieties and recommended for families, for $99.95.
Options like the fall gift box include a cinnamon-scented candle, faux leaves, and Harney & Sons’ hot cinnamon spice tea, a deeply aromatic, rich blend of black tea leaves, three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and cloves known as “the brand’s most popular flavored tea worldwide.”
The only price difference is for the holiday gift box, which comes with an assortment of Hammond’s Candies, a handmade cinnamon-scented candle, a holiday card, and seasonal cookie cutters with a choice of red-and-white or all-white packing confetti. This bundle also offers an incremental selection of cookies and related goodies at $39.95 for small, $69.95 for medium, and $119.95 for large.
All Aunt Cookie orders can be customized with a handwritten message, combining the intimate, personal touches of the past with the professional standards of today, while the recently redesigned packaging is made from “earth-friendly” recyclable materials.
For a full catalog of products, ingredients, and nutritional information, see the Aunt Cookie website at auntcookie.com.
Conigliaro, née Phillips, grew up the second youngest of four sisters with her mother, Jean, and her father, Sheldon, an optical engineer. Sheldon worked for the Eastman Kodak Company, better known as Kodak, for more than 30 years.
According to Conigliaro, when a new grant program promised to pay tuition for those who wanted to become teachers because of the shortage during the Vietnam War, Jean decided to go back to school full time to earn her master’s degree in education from SUNY Brockport.
Having grown up around others who enjoyed preparing meals and desserts for their family, Arline began doing the same when she was just 12 years old.
She had always observed her Russian grandmother Sonia, whom she referred to as “the matriarch of the family,” host Sunday night dinners and cook nearly every holiday until she was no longer able to. Watching as she ran the kitchen without recipes, simply relying on feeling and past experience, Conigliaro followed along, measuring ingredients and writing down each step.
“I enjoy the word nurture. The word nurture—through food, through company, through environment, through any form of kindness—is just something that I really thrive on, so I think watching her enjoy feeding people was a big inspiration for me, and the joy that it brought,” she said.
It should come as no surprise that to fully “taste the love” of Auntie Cookie, one should try the plain, toasted almond biscotti adapted from her grandmother’s recipe for mandelbrot, or mandel bread, a traditional Jewish cookie derived from the original Italian treat. Both are baked twice as a log, then cut into individually crunchy slices, perfect for dunking in tea or coffee.
Although mandelbrot directly translates to “almond bread,” Conigliaro’s grandmother, who lived through the Great Depression, used walnuts, which were less expensive at the time.
“She used them very sparingly. I am a big personality, and I like things big, and I like things luscious and making a statement, so mine are just jam-packed with toasted almonds, then I did variations on it by adding toasted almonds and chocolate chunks, and then toasted almonds, chocolate chunks, and cherries,” she said. “Last year, I came out with the double chocolate, so the dough is chocolate, as well as having the toasted almonds and the chocolate in the chocolate chunks and the dough.”
Conigliaro also shared that the lemon poppy seed cookies follow a recipe from one of her mother’s friends, but with an added lemon powdered sugar coating.
“The pecan sandies were supposed to be like drop cookies, and I made them more into a bar that I could slice and bake, just trying to streamline some of the waste as opposed to scooping everything,” she added.
“Aunt Cookie” comes from Conigliaro’s godchildren, who affectionately call her by the nickname when they visit and bake cookies together. Since the title “Aunt Cookie” was already in use, Conigliaro started her business under the full trademark “Aunt Cookie, Taste the Love,” yet she was able to secure the coveted auntcookie.com domain.
Conigliaro studied to be a recreational therapist at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, a co-op school where she worked at both the University of Washington Hospital’s spinal cord injury center in Seattle and for Eunice Kennedy Shriver at the Special Olympics main headquarters in Washington, D.C., to get an understanding of the occupation.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Conigliaro worked at the Carrier Foundation in Belle Mead, a behavioral health facility now known as the Carrier Clinic under Hackensack Meridian Health.
But Conigliaro, in all of her spirited energy, still found herself fatigued.
“I wanted to take all the patients home with me. At 22 years old, you think you can save the world, but you can’t. You can try, and I tried, and I just got a little burned out a little too quickly,” she said, acknowledging how this initial exhaustion led her to realize how important change is.
“I’m of the belief that when you get burned out or you’re not happy at work anymore, it’s time to reinvent yourself and go do something else. Because life is too short,” Conigliaro explained. “You can’t be miserable.”
While at the Carrier Foundation, Conigliaro had started a catering business on the side, High Expectations Catering, and continued to run the culinary operation after she left. She then designed community maps for cable television installations and sold subscriptions door-to-door.
Conigliaro eventually returned to school for her teaching certificate from The College of New Jersey and worked in a vocational school, where she taught students in a special education program about food and basic healthcare services.
According to Conigliaro, the owners of the Princeton Charcuterie, a new gourmet deli and catering business on Nassau Street, then “approached” Conigliaro “to open, manage, and be the face of the establishment.” But a year and a half into a demanding 16-hour, seven-day-a-week schedule, she left in 1987 to manage a short-lived gourmet grocery store, Kaufelt’s Fancy Groceries, in the newly opened MarketFair shopping center on Route 1.
She worked in the admissions department of a nearby technical school, the former Cittone Institute in Princeton, before continuing her studies at Rider University, where she earned a master’s degree in counseling services with a concentration in school counseling.
Her mother started teaching kindergarten in Rochester, but when its principal switched to the suburban district where the Phillips family lived at the time, he invited Jean to join him there, where she taught fourth grade until retirement.
Conigliaro explained that her mother’s actions not only encouraged her to see food as an expression of love, but also inspired her to embark on an educational journey of her own.
Conigliaro expressed a similar sense of fulfillment in combining these interests, adding that a shared activity like baking can be a way to get younger children, “especially boys,” to open up.
“You’re working side by side, and it became a therapeutic environment in many ways,” Conigliaro said. Since not everyone responds to traditional methods, these creative “diversions,” or alternative methods, may just be the communication style that “helps heal the soul.”
Conigliaro explained that she loves helping people and bringing positive changes to the world, which has likely been her “impetus” for every occupation along the way.
This wide range of career choices, from cartography to catering, relates to her endless zeal for finding the joy in life—never one to dwell on a chapter that no longer serves her or fails to spark that same infectious joy she so easily passes on to others.
But Conigliaro also gets her ambitious nature from various role models throughout her life, citing an “entrepreneurial” aunt with a similar disposition who had opened several stores of her own.
Conigliaro’s Polish grandfather ran a dry-cleaning and tailoring business in Rochester. After it burned down during the race riots, he continued to operate on a client-by-client basis.
“I’ve always wanted to have my own successful business, and when you’re paying a mortgage, and you have responsibilities, it’s not necessarily the time,” she explained, noting that although she opened side ventures before her full-time professional commitment to the Princeton Charcuterie, “Aunt Cookie” was a perfect match in both timing and interest.
Conigliaro said that although the pandemic was undoubtedly a major factor in shaping the early trajectory of her business, her shift to the modern cottage industry presented an even bigger opportunity for growth. Although “technology was my Achilles heel,” she said, Conigliaro was able to create a brand through connecting with others across the world—a web designer in Idaho, an artist in Texas, and another in Japan—and a treasured friend close to home.
All of Conigliaro’s promotional images on the website were professionally shot by commercial photographer Gale Zucker, her best friend since 11 years old. Zucker has worked for entities like the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Penguin Random House, and the Berroco yarn company. For more from Zucker’s portfolio, see her website at gzucker.com.
Arline’s husband is Sebastiano Conigliaro, better known by his nickname “Iano” (or “Uncle Pizza” to the godchildren), who moved from Sicily to America at the age of 21 and started making pizza.
He owned Iano’s Rosticceria on 86 Nassau Street—now the location of MTea Sushi & Dessert, which opened this year—from 2005 to 2012. Arline noted that Iano could go out in Princeton and recognize people by their orders, complete with perfectly memorized preferences.
While they no longer have the storefront, Iano remains his wife’s greatest advocate.
When Arline realized how much physical strain the motions of cookie-making were putting on her shoulders and neck, Iano, with his over 30 years of pizza experience and ability to “scoop a 20-quart batch of dough in minutes,” stepped in to assist.
“He’s just a huge source of help for me,” she said. “It’s just getting so big that I couldn’t do it all on my own.”
Conigliaro is currently focused on the upcoming holidays, which includes planning social media promotions with her former colleague Chuck Gill, a Moorestown teacher who became a full-time professional Santa after retiring.
She is still in the early stages of developing the next collection, and while she expects to expand to a larger location in the future, Conigliaro has no interest in opening a brick-and-mortar store. Instead, she wants to focus on what Aunt Cookie means to her—delivering a sincere “warmth in the heart” sensation that encourages everyone to indulge in nostalgia and cultivate community.
When schools closed at the beginning of the pandemic, Conigliaro explained, she went to her garage bakery and assembled “home economics boxes” for all the neighborhood children.
Toting three pounds of sugar cookie dough, cookie cutters, five colors of sprinkles, parchment paper, and instructions, Conigliaro, joined by Iano and their new puppy, dropped off a package at each home with children and listed her own number as the “bakery hotline” for any questions.
They also ordered a case of toilet paper—a hot commodity at the time—and distributed 48 rolls with invitations taped to each roll, all of which welcomed a household to the Conigliaro backyard for fresh, brick oven pizza.
While the neighbors congregated around the back gate of the house at a safe distance and chatted, Arline delegated the orders to Iano, who churned out pie after pie.
Both Conigliaros recognized that these much-needed moments of normalcy were forged through coming together, conveying that message through grand gestures and gregarious, warm personalities, as well as their respective trades in dough.
“For me, it’s all about building community, and that’s why we do the things we do, so the cookies are part of that,” Arline said, adding that strengthening those relationships and sharing a mutual “sense of belonging” is what drives her.
Food, according to Conigliaro, is the perfect way of doing so—a “united front.”
Aunt Cookie, Taste the Love. auntcookie.com.
Arline Conigliaro runs the 'Aunt Cookie' business out of her Lawrenceville home, where she bakes shippable sweets that elevate classic recipes with modern flair. (Photo by Gale Zucker Photography),
Conigliaro's toasted almond biscotti is loaded with rich, nutty flavors. (Photo by Gale Zucker Photography),
Conigliaro's salted chocolate chunk cookies are one of her bestsellers. (Photo by Gale Zucker Photography),
Conigliaro's parents, Jean and Sheldon Phillips, left and right, are pictured in a family photo with her grandmother, Sonia, center, who taught her the recipe for the mandelbrot with walnuts that eventually became the toasted almond biscotti.,
The blondie retro bars from Aunt Cookie feature generous chunks of Belgian white and semi-sweet chocolate. (Photo by Gale Zucker Photography),
