Debbie Wexler of Two Fat Cookies. (Photos by Libby Volgyes/The Palm Beach Post)

Debbie Wexler wakes up every morning with the goal of making hundreds of Globs. Or Fatsos, Chewies, Leopards, Chip Monsters, Fantasies or Sniglets.

These funny-sounding names belong to delicious cookies. Millions of cookies. They await Wexler each day when she steps into her brightly lit commercial kitchen, ready to be formed from sugar, butter and flour, along with the hundreds of cakes and thousands of tartlets.

Wexler isn’t afraid of them – not after baking all her life, owning two bakeries and producing millions of cookies. But she is afraid of the calories.

“I try very hard to stay away because I really don’t want to be a fat cookie,” says the owner and baker of the Two Fat Cookies company based in Boca Raton.

The cookies, cakes, pies, cookie pops, cupcakes, bars, and whatever else she can come up with go to country clubs and stores throughout the area.

From skirts to cookies

Wexler was born in New York and lived half her life in New Jersey, majoring in fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. But then she married a chef, who might take claim credit for launching her baking career when she took over the baking at his gourmet market in New Jersey.

“I decided I was going to bake cookies instead of design skirts,” Wexler says.

They moved to South Florida in 1989 and she opened a bakery in Boca called Dessert Design, which she owned for 15 years. She sold that bakery in 2003 to spend more time with her two children. But it was the kids who convinced her to open another bakery in November 2007 – and Two Fat Cookies was born.

“They missed the cookies,” Wexler says.

They weren’t the only ones. Former clients would stop her in the street and ask when she was coming back. When she finally did, she hoped to concentrate just on cookies but her clients kept pushing for cakes, tartlets, cupcakes, midnight cheesecake.

Key lime tartlet (left); Fatsos (top right) and Cheesecake lollipops (bottom right).

“I didn’t know how to say, ‘no,’” she says.

She creates 25 to 30 different cookie varieties as well as cakes, pies, cookie pops and her latest venture, being the exclusive baker for PopsyCakes, a cupcake on a pretzel novelty developed in Miami.

Family recipes

Wexler uses family recipes for some of the items, such as, her Hungarian Jelly Bars, Thumbprints and Coffee Cream cookies, which she remembers making with her mother as a little girl.

Slammed in season, she works 60 to 70 hours a week, even with the help of her three employees. As her bustling bakery only gets busier, Wexler often wishes she had her daughter, Zoey, in town to help out. Zoey is a pastry chef in upstate New York. When she’s in town, she works alongside her mom, lending her expertise in fondant and decorating.

“There’s always work to be done here. Always,” says Wexler, who can make 150 to 200 pounds of cookies on any given day, though the more intricate cookies – the ones that require dipping, topping, rolling, toasting or drizzling – can cut down on production.

But in the end, there are never too many cookies because they vanish quickly.

“A hot cookie out of the oven – there’s nothing like it,” she says.

Hungarian Jelly Bar

1 pound unsalted butter, cut into chunks

2 cups granulated sugar

4 egg yolks

4 cups flour

2 cups almonds, finely ground

Apricot preserve, to spread between layers of bar

Raspberry jam, to spread between layers of bar

Preheat oven to 325º. Grease a 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish.

Place butter and sugar in a mixer bowl and mix briefly. Add yolks and mix briefly again. Add flour and ground almonds. Blend until mixture forms a crumble. ( Do not over mix.)

Divide the crumble into three equal portions. Sprinkle one portion of crumble into bottom of baking dish. Press lightly. Spread a thin layer of apricot preserve over pressed crumble. Sprinkle second portion of crumble over apricot preserve. Press lightly. Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam over second layer of crumble. Sprinkle remaining crumble over raspberry jam.

Bake uncovered for approximately 25 to 30 minutes until top crumble is golden brown. Let cool. Cut into squares.

Recipe by Debbie Wexler, Two Fat Cookies

Two Fat Cookies

Debbie Wexler’s baked goods can be found at Boca Grove Country Club, Mizner Country Club, The Grille on Congress, Vino Wine Bar in Boca Raton, at Temple Beth-El and through various caterers.

To order: Call (561) 362-7705, or visit www.TwoFatCookies.com.

Two Fat Cookies is at 127 N.W. 13th St., Suite 2, Boca Raton | Bakery Listing: Directions, invite friends, more