Marsha Pener Johnston

Marsha Pener Johnston, owner of Browniepops, a company that makes 11 varieties of gooey brownies on sticks covered with a crisp chocolate exterior, learned early from her mother the fine art of baking. She later honed her skills at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, taught cooking classes in Los Angeles after college, and eventually moved to Chicago to start her own business. Going door to door with homemade, chocolate mousse pies, she eventually landed foodservice accounts from Lettuce Entertain You to the Levy Brother’s chain of restaurants in the famous Watertower Place, and began her first business. The Mousserie wholesale bakery supplied more than 40 of Chicago’s finest restaurants with various flavors of mousse pies, chocolate cakes, carrot cakes, brownies and blondies.

Three years in, she decided to shutter the business and move home to Kansas, where she started a catering business known for its luscious cakes, cookies and brownies. It was there that she focused on creating the perfect brownie. After two years—and a stint studying at Anne Willan’s famous La Varenne cooking school in Paris—she knew she had nailed it. “My pops are an anomaly. They’re a rich chocolate brownie dipped in dark chocolate, making them both a bakery item and a chocolate item. And they’re easy to eat because they are on a stick,” she says. “As someone else coined the phrase, ‘They melt in your mouth, not in your hand!’”

Johnston shared more of her story with us:

How did you come up with the idea for the BrowniePops?

I was in the catering business for many years and couldn't seem to get my petit fours exactly right. So I took my brownie and dipped it into chocolate. First they were squares and slowly morphed in circles on sticks.

How did your days selling your mousse pie door-to-door impact your approach to your business?

I try to approach everyone with the same courtesy and kindness that I treat my personal friends. Meeting new people all the time is what life is all about. I learned not to be too shy as everyone has been so kind and helpful to me along the way. I try to give back to someone else building a business, as those before me were helpful to me.

What is the most satisfying or challenging part of your job today?

The most satisfying is also the most challenging—creating new designs that are easy to produce, yet whimsical for each holiday season.

If someone could shadow you for one day, what would surprise that person most?

The speed at which I am able to work. For some reason I know nothing about how or why my hands can work quicker than most, which is frustrating for my artists and for myself when I expect them to try to keep up.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I started out in life as a dancer. I danced professionally in my favorite venue: musical comedy. I can tap dance with the best of them! My mom always had homemade goodies, which is why we claim to have never met a cookie we didn't like in our family.

Aside from your products, what three food items can you always find in your kitchen?

Pasta, cheese of all varieties and marshmallows. —Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.

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