It happened by accident. We were looking for something outside of the Orlando theme park norm to film for our Website and Newsbreak channels when we came up with the East End Market. The East End Market is in the awesome Audubon Park Garden District. The Audubon Park Garden District is an award-winning shopping and dining eco-district in Orlando, Florida. Located near Winter Park, The Audubon Park Garden District is known for having lots of entertainment options as well as outstanding food everywhere. We wanted something unique to film and we definitely found it, but it wasn’t what we initially went for!
In all honesty, I was there to feature two things, a Japanese Mochi Donut Chicken Sandwich and Giant Rainbow Smores for my kids. However, when we arrived at the East End Market, we found that the Japanese Mochi Donut Chicken sandwich was a limited menu item and that the s’mores place was a kiosk, or pop up, that hadn’t been there in some time. Defeated, I bought some delicious Dochi Donuts to help ease the pain and went downstairs to review them. Fortunately for us, Nat had heard about a cookie place that had a ridiculous reputation for awesomeness. Luckily, we arrived at the East End Market early enough that the line hadn’t wrapped around the building like it did before we left. When Nat came out with a triumphant look on her face I had no clue what she had. She sat down and said,” This is what I came here for- Gideon's cookies! ” She opened up the cool-looking decorative box and said,” Look!”
Not being the biggest cookie guy, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I have just eaten way too many cookies in my day so it's rare for me to get excited over them, but I have never seen a cookie as interesting as this. Nat bought three cookies for us to review, regular chocolate chip, pistachio toffee chip, and coffee toffee (limited time item).
I’m going to keep this short and sweet! All three were AMAZING! The first words out of my mouth were, “ Damn, these things are huge! ” Gideon’s cookies weigh in at around a whopping half-pound each! Needless to say, our kids were flipping out! Once we removed the packaging all we saw were thick balls of dough and chips galore. It was a battle to keep the little hands off of the cookies long enough for us to film. In the words of my son, the cookies themselves are made so differently that they seem more like little pies than cookies. The bottom is actually a perfectly baked cookie with an excellent crisp. Then there is a fantastic layer of what I thought was cookie dough. The outer cookie was unbelievably covered in chips and toppings, to a ridiculous degree. One very unique thing that happens when you eat Gideon’s cookies is that the aftertaste of the cookie stays in your mouth for a while so one bite of the cookie lasts for like 5-10 phenomenal minutes. In other words, you are able to slowly eat them over two or three days due to this effect and the cookie stays just as soft and delicious as when you purchased it. However, most of the people we saw eating them devoured them in one sitting! Gideon’s cookies were so good I wanted to go back the next day to get more but was shot down.
In summary, Gideon’s cookies were the epitome of overkill and deliciousness. I’m talking more chocolate chips per square inch than I have ever seen on a cookie in my life! They were crispy on the bottom, soft in the middle, and need I say, super thick too! I just want to be honest and say that I’m not sure that I have tasted a cookie on this level before. It was incredible and I now have an understanding as to why people from all over the world line up and wait for 3 hours at Disney Springs to get a taste of one of these monsters! However, if you don’t mind driving about 20 minutes away you can head to The East End Market, the original Gideon's Bakehouse location, and cut the wait time drastically. If you get there early as we did, you can pick up one to six (six is the limit they allow you to purchase) of these incredible treats without a huge wait or you can also preorder up to six cookies at the East End location from the Gideon's Bakehouse website! Your tastebuds will thank you!
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