Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookie Recipe Copycat

Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookie is a nearly half-pound, chocolate-covered treat, and today’s copycat is just as decadent—a bakery-style chocolate chip cookie packed with three types of chocolate and topped with sea salt flakes.

If you prefer thinner, crispier bakery-style cookies, you’ll love these Bakery M&M Cookies!

Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookie Recipe Copycat

Gideon’s Bakehouse began as a small bakery in Orlando’s East End Market, quickly gaining fame for its nearly 1/2 pound cookies. This iconic bakery has earned international acclaim, being hailed as having the best cookies in Orlando and even on Earth. Trip Advisor named Gideon’s cookies as “One of the Five Foods You Have to Eat in the U.S. Before You Die.”

The creator is the only person who knows the entire recipe, stating on Instagram, “No one alive, outside of myself, knows the complete recipe. Every Gideon’s Cookie is handmade from scratch and takes over 24 hours to prepare. The Original Chocolate Chip Cookie took 15 years to perfect.” These cookies are known for their overload of multiple types of chocolate chips and a strong vanilla flavor from real vanilla beans in the dough.

While I can’t claim this recipe is an exact replica, I’m offering you a gooey, thick, and massive bakery-style cookie you can make at home—no long lines required! This cookie is ridiculously rich, thick, chewy, and seriously overloaded with chocolate.

Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookie Recipe Speciality Ingredients

While I tried to keep the ingredients as mainstream as possible, there are two unique ingredients (still accessible at most mainstream grocery stores) which we’ll discuss below:

• Cake flour. Cake flour is responsible for giving the cookies a fluffier, more delicate, and tender crumb. It helps keep these cookies soft and chewy. We combine cake flour with all-purpose flour to get the perfect texture. Cake flour is typically found in the baking supplies aisle in the grocery store near other types of flour. I don’t recommend a different flour substitute or making “homemade” cake flour — it doesn’t work the same in this recipe.
• Vanilla bean paste. To replicate the strong vanilla flavor and get those vanilla bean speaks in this cookie recipe, we use vanilla bean paste. If you can’t access vanilla bean paste or real vanilla beans, you can use vanilla extract, just know the flavor won’t be nearly as present.

The Three Types Of Chocolate In These Cookies

Once we’ve got the cookie dough whipped together, we add in a mixture of three types of chocolate. The dough balls will then get rolled in this chocolate blend to ensure that the chocolate-encased cookie Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookies are famous for!

• Milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips. First off, your standard chocolate chips. Gideon’s uses top-notch chocolate chips — Callebaut® and Ghiradelli® are referenced on their website. I typically use Guittard ® or Ghiradelli since those brands are more readily accessible and affordable. We prefer milk chocolate chips, but it does make for a very sweet cookie. Use semi-sweet if that is your preference or to control the sweetness of the cookies.
• Miniature chocolate chips. Next, we’ve got miniature chocolate chips. To complement the milk chocolate chips, I like to use semi-sweet miniature chips.
• Heath milk chocolate English Toffee Baking bits. Last, but not least, we add in crushed Heath® English Toffee Baking Bits. While these aren’t in Gideon’s standard chocolate-chip cookie recipe, they are in their toffee-pistachio cookie that is also wildly popular. After randomly throwing them in the batter during the testing process of these cookies, we couldn’t make them any other way!

Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookie Recipe Tips

• Use fresh ingredients. For the softest and best possible bakery-style cookies, use fresh, soft brown sugar and fresh baking agents.
• Let the melted butter stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to cool down. If the butter is hot, it will melt the brown sugar and cause greasy cookies that spread more than intended.
• Measure the flour correctly. If you pack in too much flour, these cookies will puff up and end up more cakey, rather than soft and chewy. Spoon flour into the measuring cup and level with the back of a table knife. If you press a measuring cup into a bag/container of flour you’ll pack in a lot more than intended.
• While it’s not necessary to use a food scale to make these cookies, you’ll be surprised at what a difference it makes. The more even the sizes of cookies, the more perfectly they will all bake. Plus, they’ll all look so nice — like straight out of a bakery!
• Speaking of a beautiful bakery-esque appearance, here’s another tip: Working quickly, right out of the oven, use the back of a large metal spatula to press the edges of the cookies in towards the center. This not only improves the texture (thicker and chewier center), but it also makes the cookies more professional looking. You’ll need to work quickly, as the cookies set up fast and resist being pressed inwards after sitting out for more than a minute or two.
• Leave ample room on the baking sheet. These cookies are ginormous! They spread a good amount on a cookie sheet which is why we typically only bake 2-3 cookies at a time on a standard-size cookie sheet.

Chilling The Cookie Dough

Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookies take 24 hours to make because they allow the dough to chill overnight. This intensifies the flavors (especially the vanilla bean flavor) creating an even more delicious cookie.

For the closest possible Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookie experience, chill the dough for around 24 hours. If you’d rather not chill the dough that long (we get it, you want those cookies ASAP!), chill the cookie dough balls for 45 minutes up to 1 hour instead.

More Cookie Recipes

• Maple Cookies with a maple glaze
• Magic Cookie Bars with a graham cracker crust
• Salted Caramel Cookies with a cream cheese frosting
• Gingersnap Cookies with the perfect blend of holiday spices
• Avalanche Cookies no baking required!

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5 from 6 votes

Gideon's Bakehouse Cookie Recipe Copycat

By Chelsea Lords

This copycat Gideon’s Bakehouse Cookie is a chocolate lover’s dream—a bakery-style chocolate chip cookie loaded with three types of chocolate and finished with flaky sea salt!

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Chilling Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 large cookies

Equipment

• Sheet pan
• Parchment paper
• Cooling Rack

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ▢ 1 cup light brown sugar tightly packed
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt reduce if using table salt or if sensitive to salt
• ▢ 1 cup cake flour see note 1
• ▢ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 cup chocolate chips semi-sweet or milk chocolate; I like milk chocolate
• ▢ 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• ▢ 1 cup Heath milk chocolate English Toffee Baking bits
• ▢ Maldon Sea Salt Flakes optional, for a salty-sweet treat!

Instructions 

• In a medium bowl, combine the chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, and toffee baking bits. Stir to evenly mix. Set aside for now.
• Melt the butter in a very large, microwave-safe bowl. Once melted, let stand to fully cool, about 5–10 minutes. Hot butter will melt the sugar and make the cookies flat/greasy. Once butter has cooled to room temperature, use a whisk or wooden spoon to stir in the light brown sugar. Mix until smooth and integrated. Add the egg and vanilla paste or extract. Stir again until smooth.
• Add in baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Again, stir until smooth. Add the correctly measured (see note 2) cake flour and regular flour and mix until just combined. Dough will be thick! Don’t overmix. Gently stir in 1 and 3/4 cups of chocolate chip mixture until combined.
• Form 6 cookie dough balls. Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, pack dough into the cup to get an accurate measurement. Alternatively, weigh the dough on a food scale; each ball should be around 155 grams (5-1/2 ounces). You should get 6 cookie dough balls.
• Press the remaining chocolate chip mixture generously onto the top and sides of the dough balls (but not the bottoms of the cookies where they’ll burn.) It’s okay if you don’t use all the chocolate chips; set aside leftovers to press into the tops of the cookies after baking. Place the chocolate-chip-coated dough balls on a parchment-paper-lined plate or sheet pan, cover, and chill for 45 minutes up to an hour. Or place in an airtight bag/container and chill for 24 hours (Gideon’s chills their dough for 24 hours).
• Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a pan with a silicone liner or parchment paper; don’t line with foil. Place 2–3 dough balls at a time on a sheet pan, giving the cookies plenty of space to spread. Bake for 15–23 minutes, erring on the side of underbaking to keep them soft and chewy. (I like them right around 16–17 mins.) The cookies will “bake” a little more out of the oven as they set. Visual cues: edges should be slightly browned and tops should not be wet/gooey looking.
• Remove the tray of cookies from the oven and, working quickly, immediately press the edges of each cookie slightly inward with the back of a metal spatula. Press any remaining chocolate chips/toffee bits onto the tops of the cookies. Allow cookies to cool on the tray for 10–15 minutes before using a metal spatula to transfer them to a cooling rack. If you like salty-sweet flavors, add a few flakes of salt on top while the chocolate is still a bit gooey.

Video

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Cake flour gives the cookies a fluffier, more delicate, and tender crumb. We combine cake flour with all-purpose flour to get the perfect texture. Cake flour is typically found in the baking aisle in the grocery store near other flours. I don’t recommend a substitute or making homemade cake flour—it doesn’t work the same in this recipe.

Note 2: If you pack in too much flour, these cookies will end up more cakey, rather than soft and chewy. Spoon flour into the measuring cup and level off the top with the back of a table knife. If you press a measuring cup into a bag/container of flour you’ll pack in a lot more than intended.

Storage: These cookies are best fresh but can last up to a week. Store in an airtight container at room temp once fully cooled. Rewarm in 10–15 second microwave bursts.

Freezing: Instead of freezing baked cookies, freeze the dough! Place dough balls on a sheet pan, freeze until solid, then transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake straight from frozen, adding a few extra minutes until edges are browned and centers are soft.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 983kcal | Carbohydrates: 129g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 48g | Saturated Fat: 29g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 118mg | Sodium: 519mg | Potassium: 298mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 91g | Vitamin A: 1048IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 132mg | Iron: 4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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