Credit: Contributed Photo
Credit: Contributed Photo
Stazzone, a medical technician at an OB-GYN clinic at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, was struggling with panic attacks last summer when she decided to join an outpatient program for first responders. She recalled bringing brown butter chocolate chip cookies to a cookout with the group and receiving positive feedback.
She didn’t think much about it, but when the program ended in September, they begged her to bring them again. Stazzone continued to bake cookies for events at work.
“Most of my first customers were my co-workers,” Stazzone said. “Everybody just fell in love with it and I booked my first market for December.”
Finding her niche in the cookie world
When Stazzone first started, her cookies were nothing like they are today. She recalled posting her bakery on Facebook Marketplace and realizing she needed something to make her stand out.
“It really didn’t pay off until I switched my cookies,” Stazzone said. “I switched my cookies, I think in May, to 5 oz. stuffed cookies.”
Credit: Contributed Photo
Credit: Contributed Photo
A customer favorite is the “Bananarama Cookie,” a banana pudding-inspired cookie with vanilla wafers and white chocolate chips.
Other cookies on her current menu include:
- Butter Me Up (a Lotus Biscoff-inspired cookie with spiced cookie crumbles and a cookie butter center)
- Pink Moon (a strawberry shortcake-inspired cookie with vanilla wafers, freeze dried strawberries and white chocolate chips)
- Lenny Luva (a coconut chocolate chip cookie with rum extract inspired by her grandpa)
“They’re usually specialty flavors — like flavors you might not find,“ Stazzone said. ”You definitely probably won’t find them in a regular grocery store other than my chocolate chip."
She also offers brownie bites.
A love for baking learned from her grandparents
Stazzone is originally from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Before joining the Air Force, she worked in a level one trauma center as a pharmacy technician.
In March 2022, she was stationed at Wright-Patt. Her dad is originally from Ohio as well.
“My grandma lives over in Cleveland, so we would come up here every year and we always baked,” Stazzone said. “I have pictures of me from when I was super little baking with her in the kitchen. My dad’s side of the family is Italian, Hungarian and Polish.”
She also learned her way around the kitchen from her grandpa on her mom’s side who was a chef.
“It never really dawned on me that this could be a career or anything,” Stazzone said. “It was just something I enjoyed.”
The future of Sugar Hex
Stazzone is in the midst of creating a very niche market for her cookies.
“I love reading,” she said. “Starting in the fall, as of September, I will have book-themed cookies inspired by some of my favorite characters in the books that I read.”
For example, she has been into Western fiction romance books, so one of her fall cookies, called “Cowboy Kisses,” is a southern toasted pecan cookie.
Stazzone is planning to attend her last market on Aug. 16 and relaunch with a new fall lineup on Sept. 6.
“I always say the secret ingredient is love,” she said. “I genuinely think you have to like what you do because there are times you really could have such a simple thing and do it, and if you don’t actually want to do it, it will not turn out right.”
MORE DETAILS
Sugar Hex Bakery can be found at the Greene County Farmers Market of Beavercreek, 4051 Indian Ripple Road, from 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. almost every Saturday. She’s also at Second Sundays in Springboro from noon-5 p.m. near the K&W Drive-In, 450 S. Main St.
For more information, visit the bakery’s Facebook, Instagram or TikTok pages (@sugarhexbakery).
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