First Class Cookies

Jou’s Cookie Jar is all about homemade, fresh out of the oven cookies.

We caught up with the bountiful baker who recounted her ongoing relationship with her oven. “I grew up baking with my mother. We’d make cookies, cakes and, if we had lots of fruit left over, pies,” says Joumana. “We were never good with Oriental desserts!” Disappointed in the quality and consistency of sweet snacks in Cairo, and the fact that many people didn’t know what they should really taste like, she took to baking her own. Graduating from the faculty of finance, the fact that there were no suitable jobs available to her in times of economic turmoil proved to be a blessing in disguise. “I began baking for my friends and told them I was going to open my bakery. They loved my products but many people still think it’s a waste of my education, unfortunately,” says Joumana. Not one to rest on her laurels, she headed to Dubai to take some professional courses and came back to start Jou’s Cookie Jar.