I am devastated. Le Gourmand in Brookfield Place closed up shop. And my daily trek through the PATH no longer features the small joys of a buttery croissant, an authentically French café au lait and, of course, its famous cookies. I have many memories tied to these melty, chocolatey cookies that require two napkins, from cookie runs for the office crew when I worked at Best Health and Glow magazines, buying and $200 boxes for a week at the cottage (better than s’mores I tell ya). Before you feel gutted, know that the Spadina Le Gourmand location is open! Just feel bad for me as I make my way to the office, through the underground along Yonge.
A few weeks ago, Enjoy Life sent me bags of gluten- and allergen-free baking chocolate, from semi-sweet chunks to chips and mini chips. It felt like a punch in the gut, prompting me to make cookies while I was dealing with my own cookie loss. Over dramatic, sure. But I need mega motivation and a free morning to even try to bake. My lack of baking skills would deepen my saudad.
So, I came back to my longtime, tried-and-true recipe for Lisa’s cookies.
Love cinnamon rolls? Love Nutella? Then you will love, love, love this recipe.
Lisa’s (mum’s) chocolate chip cookie recipe
Makes as many servings as you want or need.
Ingredients
- 3 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips, mini chips and chunks
Instructions
Step 1: Drive to mom’s house and drop off ingredients.
A real chocolate chunk cookie recipe
“What do you want me to do with these?” my mum asked me of the three bags I handed to her. All I could think about was the closed up shop and how I really need to head to Le Gourmand on Spadina. I went down an internet rabbit hole and found this recipe from Toronto’s Finest.
Taste-testing chocolate chunk cookies
How did they turn out? A bit smaller than expected. Not nearly as large as Le Gourmand’s two-hander cookies. But damn, they are delicious, especially when warm. When you don’t have the OG in front of you, they taste pretty close. But it could never replace the real treat of getting the real thing. But it sure was fun to have cookies magically appear at my mum’s house.