A lot of small businesses start at the kitchen bench and your kitchen bench is exactly where you'll find Antonia Vilardi's products.
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She's the owner of Dough It Yourself, a Canberra-based producer of bake-it-yourself cookie dough, selling five delicious flavours online, at local markets and supermarkets.
"It was in the middle of COVID and my sister and I were thinking of ideas, things that were easy and convenient for people to do during that time," she says.
"We thought cookie dough might be helpful for mums that were time poor and didn't have time to bake and it all just grew from there."
At the start they were making the dough in their mother's kitchen and it was all Instagram based with online orders only. By the end of 2020, they went into Cannons IGA in Googong and then Ainslie IGA.
Now you might find them at the Capital Region Farmers Markets, Haigh Park Markets, and on April 6-7, they'll make their first appearance at the Handmade Market at EPIC.
Vilardi started the business in Sydney and moved to Canberra post-COVID. She's a teacher by training but at the moment splits her time making the dough and her young family.
"I've become one of those time-poor mums I was thinking about," she says.
She admits she was never a great baker herself, but does have a sweet tooth.
"I do prefer sweet over savoury, but I have to say I'm not even a good cook, I really don't enjoy cooking that much.
"I don't mind experimenting with sweet things, I've tried making Oreo pops and doughnuts and things, but I just love cookies."
The dough comes in five flavours: chocolate chip, double chocolate, white chocolate and macadamia, caramel biscotto and cookies and cream.
You can also buy boxes of baked cookies, the loaded box contains flavours that are not available as dough and it changes regularly - think double chocolate Tim Tam, white chocolate and macadamia with Cherry Ripe, over Easter there was even a hot cross bun cookie. Or ramp it up even further and add some small dipping containers, which might include such things as chocolate or caramel sauce or sprinkles.
The 500g rolls of dough are hand-wrapped in baking paper ready to bake. You can slice and bake as needed and even freeze the leftover dough.
If there is any. While Vilaradi doesn't recommend eating it raw, she knows people do. She can't blame them.
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