A Ballard business is being nationally recognized for a different take on an old tradition.

Krista’s Baking Company is a finalist in the 2015 Martha Stewart American Made Audience Choice Awards. The baking company in the running for an award in the food category.

“It’s just really exciting for me. Even if I don’t win just the fact the business is recognized at that level is amazing. There are so many good brands nominated, and I’m glad to be along side them,” said Krista Nelson, owner and founder of Krista’s Baking Company.

Martha Stewart’s American Made is a nationally recognized awards program that celebrates new American small businesses making unique products. The Winner gets $10,000 to grow their business and a trip. One winner is picked through voting and judges pick nine others. Voting has already started and will end on October 19. Winners will be announced Oct. 23.

Nelson makes artisan cookie mixes using non-GMO ingredients sourced from the Northwest. Nelson, 22, launched her company just seven months ago. She’s from Ballard and went to Ballard High School, and Nelson recently graduated from Seattle University majoring in marketing.

Nelson grew up baking her grandmother’s recipes. She said she came up with the concept for her company after thinking how people love baked goods made from scratch but don’t have the time; she wanted to make it easy for people to enjoy homemade cookies.

“When I came up with the concept I was thinking people are busy, and they don’t want to take the time to bake, but they still want to make things from scratch.”

To prepare her baking bundles, Krista rents time at the Fat Hen in North Ballard where she used to work while in college. Nelson does the rest of her preparation work at her home in Ballard where there is a warehouse space verified by the State of Washington.

Nelson specializes in cookies and makes baking them easy by he measuring out all ingredients from her recipes for prepackaging. All the ingredients are boxed up with an instructional guide and recipe. The only thing left to do is pre-heat the oven and mix everything together.

“All the ingredients are measured and packaged individually, so all the steps are done, yet you are still making them from scratch. …I live for when I make the finished product for people and see the look on their faces when they bite into a cookie that I made.”

Nelson offers five recipes year round and three seasonal recipes. What makes Krista’s cookies so good is not only in the preparation, but also because of the high quality locally sourced ingredients she uses. Her baking bundles include things like Jacob’s Salt from Portland, Organic Brown Sugar from Wholesome Sweeteners and Theo’s Chocolate from Fremont (Seattle).

“I’ve never compromised in my ingredients. It’s something that’s really important to me.”

Krista hopes to win in her category and use the money to grow her business to one day offer other recipes for other types of baked goods.

“This business is the hardest yet most rewarding thing that I have ever done. … I’ve had a lot of requests for brownies and cakes, so it’s definitely in my mind but need to wait to grow the business a little more. It’s in the future for sure.”

To vote for Krista go to
http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/103534/food/kristas-b…