Cookies for a cause: Reg Chapman creates his own cookie at T-Rex Cookie Company
T-Rex cookies have been making an oversized splash with their half pound and five pound cookies for more than a decade.
The Minnesota-made treats get national attention, which eventually caught WCCO's Reg Chapman's attention.
Reg thought to himself, "If Henry Lake has a cookie, how come there is not a Reg Chapman cookie?"
That got the attention of T-Rex Founder and CEO Tina Rexing.
She invited Reg Chapman and Adam Del Rosso to her company's kitchen to make a "T-REG" cookie that captures Reg's cookie-loving spirit.
Here is what Reg had to say about his experience:
From the moment you step out of the car into the parking lot of T-Rex cookie's kitchen in Eagan, you can smell cookie goodness.
That smell gets stronger once you are inside. There you can see all the different flavors created by Tina Rexing and her crew.
She was in house to help Adam and me create a cookie, made of my favorite ingredients.
"Were going to make you dough that you came up with so we have milk chocolate chunks, we have caramel bits and we have your marshmallows we have a raw dough for you to put all this stuff in," said Rexing.
But before we start, we must put on gloves and of course hair nets.
"Nothing looks better than people in pink hair nets," joked Rexing.
We pour in the ingredients and the start the mixer.
"And once we make the dough, we will shape them into a half pound cookie," directed Rexing.
Now that the dough is ready, its time to make cookies.
"[The] team lifts about 80 pounds of dough 80 pounds," said Rexing.
Of course Adam and I had to taste the dough and all the ingredients we added, then T-Rex employee, Julie, gets us started by showing us how much the dough should weight and how to roll it into the perfect size for the perfect T-Rex cookie.
"We take a little ball and then we weight it out we want it to be between 8.1 and 8.2 ounces and then we shaped it like a hamburger or a hockey puck and we put it right there," said Julie.
Once the cookies are made, they are ready to go into the oven, an honor bestowed upon Adam.
While we waited, Rexing gave us a tour of her kitchen and the things she uses to make T-Rex cookies special, including freeze-dried Skittles.
Rexing ships her cookies world wide.
She started her company and ended up on a network morning show, that changed the trajectory of her business. Now whenever fans of her cookies see a T-Rex, it reminds them of Tina's now famous cookies.
Proceeds of a purchase of the "T-REG" cookie will go towards the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, an organization that aims to end veteran homelessness.
