Originally published in the Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat September 2024
Those who only know Famous Amos from the supermarket and vending machine cookies bearing his name probably scrolled right past the news of his recent passing without sadness or chocolate chip lust.
It was different for those of us who bit into one of his luscious bite-sized nuggets from a gourmet shop or one of his cookie stores, or experienced the joy and imagination with which Famous Amos hawked his cookies in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Wally Amos was a Tallahassee native who attended Old Lincoln Elementary-High School, and grew up to become a talent agent who discovered Simon and Garfunkel and represented the Supremes and Dionne Warwick before he decided to make the chocolate chip cookie his client.
He staged the 1975 opening of his first cookie shop like a movie premiere, with cookies, champagne, music and 2,500 guests.
New department store placements prompted state visits: Bags of Famous Amos cookies arrived in Tucson, Arizona, in a helicopter dubbed “Cookie One,” with Amos stepping out on the tarmac holding a cookie nestled on a satin pillow. The cookie was then placed in a huge fan-shaped chair “throne” in the back of a pickup for the “motorcade” ride to the shopping center where it was serenaded by a pickup kazoo band “honor guard” recruited from curious passersby.
This is how Famous Amos paved the way for current popular cookie chains Crumbl and Insomnia, gourmet brand Tate and maybe, just maybe, one Black woman’s exuberant presidential campaign.
Famous Amos’ supermarket cookie brand has long been in other hands. So what’s the best way to remember and celebrate Tallahassee’s and America’s most “Famous” Black businessman today? Make chocolate chip cookies from his original recipe, printed below.
Famous Amos recommended talking to your cookies as they bake. “Tell them you love them. … Let them know they are about to bring a lot of joy and pleasure to people.”
Just like their Famous maker.
Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 2 sticks (1 cup) margarine (Wally used Blue Bonnet)
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 to 4 tablespoons grated coconut (depending on how much you like coconut)
- 1 cup pecan pieces
- 3 cups (18 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips (Wally used either Nestle or Ghirardelli)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Unwrap the margarine and grease cookie sheets with the margarine paper. In a large bowl, cream margarine, eggs, vanilla, sugars, soda and salt. Gently add flour, coconut (Wally’s surprise ingredient) and pecans, in that order. Add chocolate chips (which Amos called “the most important ingredient”) only until the chips are well blended. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet about an inch apart. (Famous Amos cookies should be bite-sized.) Bake in the center of the oven between 8 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are brown top and bottom, turning the baking sheets several times to ensure even baking. Leave on the sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to complete cooling.
Yield: 80 to 100 cookies
(Photo is of an original Famous Amos cookie bag.)