Mother and daughter find sweet success with gourmet gingersnap cookies

The idea, hatched as one of them was fighting cancer, is now a booming business.

December 7, 2018, 12:48 AM

This Christmas, a mother-daughter duo in Atlanta are already hard at work like Santa's elves, hoping their family's cookies will reach families across the U.S.

Susan Stachler and her mother, Laura Stachler, came up with the idea for Susansnaps gourmet gingersnap cookies in their kitchen.

More than 10 years ago, Susan Stachler and father Ken were each diagnosed with cancer.

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As the father and daughter received chemotherapy, the family said they kept hearing about a natural remedy for soothing upset stomachs: ginger. And an idea was hatched.

PHOTO: The Susansnaps cookie company out of Atlanta, run by mother and daughter team Susan and Laura Stachler, is just one of the made in America companies being featured this Christmas holiday.
The Susansnaps cookie company out of Atlanta, run by mother and daughter team Susan and Laura Stachler, is just one of the made in America companies being featured this Christmas holiday.
ABC News

Even during Susan Stachler's treatments, she and her mother worked side-by-side baking up batches of their soon-to-be-famous cookies for other patients to eat.

"Cookies make people smile," Susan Stachler said.

They called the cookies Susansnaps for Laura Stachler's sister Sue who died from Hodgkin's disease.

Both Susan and Ken Stachler are now cancer-free.

The Stachlers said that in the three years since ABC News first spoke to them, things have really "blown up" around their business.

They've heard from about 5,000 people across the country and one of their biggest orders came from a San Francisco tech company that ordered 3,000 boxes -- or 60,000 cookies.

They also wrote a book called "The Cookie Cure."

These days, the duo has grown to a team of 15 workers, including a new hire. And, Susansnaps is baking more than 1 million cookies a year.

"It's been absolutely incredible," Susan Stachler said.