Imagine a cold, winter night, bundled up in a warm blanket. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a sweet treat to enjoy? “It gives that feel of home and warmth. It’s a little bit of a more Christmas seasonal cookie that you just eat with a cup of hot chocolate while watching it snow outside,” is how Sam Bedont describes her seasonal Chocolate Peppermint cookie.

Samantha’s Cookies is a household-run bakery by junior Sam Bedont. Each of the cookies are made from scratch with Sam’s own recipes. “The idea of Samantha’s Cookies started back in 2019 when we started selling cookies to neighborhood friends in a lemonade stand type way,” Sam’s website says. “Then we opened in May of 2020 and have been working hard ever since.”

Sam has a variety of options in her bakery. You can order cookies by the half dozen ($8), dozen ($16), and in her ‘three dozen minis box’ ($25). Each of these options can come in a variety of flavors including a classic Chocolate Chip, M&M, and other seasonal flavors. Samantha’s Cookies offers in-person delivery to students at Taylorsville High School, and $5 shipping to anyone in a 15-mile radius.

Sam’s most recent seasonal flavor, and her most popular option, was her Chocolate Peppermint cookie for the December Holiday season. “Otherwise, in May it’s definitely my birthday cake cookies, which is my anniversary month,” Sam said. When Sam doesn’t have any seasonal cookies on her website, Chocolate Chip cookies are her most popular order. 

Sam first discovered her passion for baking at just eight years old when her grandma gifted her a cookbook for Christmas. “I was flipping through it and found this chocolate chip cookie recipe that I saw. I loved baking those cookies. They tasted horrible. They were always terrible!” Sam said. “But I loved baking so much that I was just constantly making them, so I just altered the recipe and made it my own.”

On top of a small gift from her grandmother, Sam enjoys watching her dad cook and bake, and takes a lot of her inspiration from him. Without these wonderful people in her life, Samantha’s Cookies would not be possible. 

“My parents definitely help me a lot. I couldn’t do this without them. [They] have helped me a lot through the financial aspect of it,” Sam said. “I’ve also got a lot of help and support from my friends that when I post they just spam Instagram with my post and get people to come to me.”

Through her business, Sam has been able to meet and connect with all of her friends, new and old. “I do a lot of theater […], so for tech week or show weeks when we have all day shows I take a plate of cookies […] with me,” Sam said. “It just helps me get closer to so many people and it helps me expand who I know.”

One of Sam’s most memorable experiences is the older couple in her neighborhood that will buy dozens of her cookies at a time. They keep them in their freezer until another dozen needs to be taken out. Every single night before they watch TV they will split one of Samantha’s Cookies.

According to Sam, the hardest thing about running your own business is the amount of work she has on her plate. “It’s a lot of time that you have to put into it to make sure you can do all you need to do schoolwise and workwise,” she said. “I have a job outside of school and my business. But it’s just putting in that time and making sure my customers are happy.”

To learn more about Samantha’s Cookies and to help support Sam’s business, you can visit her Instagram (@samanthas.cookies), Facebook page, and website. Sam is also hoping to appear in local pop-up shops in the near future.