Matt Rosen’s entry into baking is thanks to the community around him, and now baking is helping him deepen the community among other bakers. The founder of Sergeant Shortbread remembers the trip that started it all:
“I walked across the street and completely fell in love with shortbread cookies.”
On the last day of a family vacation to Hawaii in 2017, Rosen was watching football when his wife called him from across the street, urging him to come to the Honolulu Baking Co. for a free cookie sample.
Quickly realizing he didn’t want to have to pay to ship his new favorite cookies from Hawaii to Minnesota, Rosen started looking up recipes before even leaving the store. Zero baking experience didn’t intimidate him. “I’m good,” he thought. “I was in the military for 23 years so I know how to follow orders and read a recipe.”
As soon as they got home, he got to work, testing his first batch of shortbread. “I baked one time and it just clicked,” he said.
After rave reviews from family, the baking volume increased and so did the audience. Producing too much for one family to consume, Rosen began to take batches to work. Coworkers added to his community of support and soon requested batches for their own family events.
A friend encouraged Rosen to look into Minnesota’s cottage food laws so he could start selling, and in April 2018 he registered his first business, The Bakerz Dozen. That summer, he brought shortbread cookies, granola bars and other treats to local farmers’ markets, entering a community of local food producers.
In the summer of 2020, Rosen finally did what coworkers had started teasing him about – he quit to bake full time. Around the same time, he rebranded as Sergeant Shortbread, a nod to both his service in the U.S. Army and Minnesota Army National Guard, and his baking specialty: shortbread.
He credits baking with helping him find the right fit after he retired from the military in 2015. While the military gave him no baking skills or knowledge, it did instill the practice of completing orders.
“When I get an order, I just do it,” he said. “There is no ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get the order done, I’m going to be three days late delivering your cookies.’ That’s just not an option. In the military, if you get an order and you say you’re going to do something, you do it. We can’t just say ‘Oh shucks, I missed being at that location at this time. Sorry about that.’”
While the orderliness of the military certainly helps follow a recipe, Rosen’s comfort with flavor experimentation has grown over the past few years.
Inspiration for his flavors comes from everywhere.
“I was at a farmers market and I tasted a blueberry lemon scone, and that was like the best thing I ever tasted in the world,” he recalled. “I was completely in love with that.”
Out came a blueberry lemon cookie, Rosen’s personal favorite and one of his most popular flavors.
Not all flavors have been a success though. Sometimes, it takes a lot of trial and error.
Take the case of the dill pickle potato chip cookie.
That briefly popular flavor came out a few years ago when the Minnesota State Fair had its big pickle moment. Inspired, Rosen created a dill pickle potato chip cookie. Failed batches encouraged him to keep tweaking ingredient ratios to account for extra oil leaking from the potato chips.
Today, Rosen has nearly 50 flavors in his recipe book and no telling how many more he’ll create.
Now, though, his time is split with his next adventure – deepening community with other cottage food producers.
“I’m starting to feel a pull and a passion towards helping other cottage food producers … help get their names out and grow the cottage food community,” he said.
A year ago, Rosen launched a national database called thecottagefoodie.com to help cottage food producers connect with one another and reach new customers. Next April, he’s taking that effort a step further by hosting CottageFoodieCon 2026 – a national conference for cottage food producers – in Eden Prairie.
Between running his own business and connecting with others, Rosen is busier than ever, working longer and harder than when he was in the military. But he says he is “100% happier.” The passion for baking that found him just seven years ago and the community it’s brought continues to energize him.
“That’s what keeps me going, just knowing I’m bringing a little bit of happiness because, heaven knows, we can use a little bit of happiness in the world these days,” he said. “There’s just so much negative going on and so if I can just bring a little bit of peace and happiness and a little bit of joy by selling somebody a shortbread cookie that they think is absolutely amazing, that’s what it’s all about for me, spreading that kind of happiness and joy.”
- Have an upcoming event that needs cookies? Contact Rosen at sergeantshortbread.com.
- To join or explore the national database of cottage food producers, visit thecottagefoodie.com.
Editor’s note: This article is part of a series highlighting home bakeries in Eden Prairie. To suggest a bakery, email editor@eplocalnews.org.
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