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Enchanting. That’s the word I’d use to describe Gideon’s Bakehouse, the bustling little bakery tucked inside Orlando’s East End Market. The shop seems like something out of a Harry Potter movie: Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves covered in old books line one wall, with wrought-iron lights and rustic wood tables contributing to a sense of old-world charm you don’t see in most bakeries today.
Yes, like many things in Orlando, it’s a carefully curated aesthetic, rather than items collected over decades. There’s no need for dozens of hardcover books in a bakery, but it all works to create a transporting vibe that only adds to the surprise and delight of uncovering their nearly half-pound cookies. And those cookies! A moment, please, to take them in.
Gideon’s Bakehouse only offers a handful of flavors each day, and they tend to sell out quickly. (When I visited one Sunday morning, the socially distant line wrapped around the storefront and almost out the door, but it moved quickly.) I was immediately drawn to the chocolate-chip-barnacled cookies, so covered you could barely see the dough. They looked delightful, but I worried the cookie itself would be dry—or that the dough inside wouldn’t have any chips inside. I was wrong on both counts. These cookies are firm on the outside, doughy and gooey on the inside, with the kind of chocolate-to-dough ratio that’d make any cocoa addict gleeful.
During my visit, I tried the triple chocolate chip cookie (which technically features five kinds of chocolate, including ganache poured directly into the dough), the original chocolate chip, the cookies and cream (a vanilla bean cookie stuffed with Double Stuf Oreo bits and covered in crumbled Oreo dust) and one of Gideon’s Bites, a quarter of a chocolate chip cookie dipped in melted chocolate. At any given time, Gideon’s typically sells six to seven types of cookies, in addition to the bites, though as they sell out for the day, they’re gone.
You’ll want to swing by Lineage Coffee Roasting beforehand (located just down the hall in East End Market), both for something to sip on as you wait in line and so you have something to cut the sweetness of each bite. A single cookie is enough to split with two to three people easily, though it’s hard to resist ordering a sampler pack of every flavor you can get your hands on. Even if it takes you a few days to eat them. (On that note, day 2 cookies were every bit as soft and doughy inside, though we kept them wrapped in parchment paper and boxed, so the air wouldn’t get to them.)
At $5 per cookie, these babies aren’t cheap, but when you see how massive they are—and the sheer amount of chocolate that goes into them—you can see why. If you’re in the Orlando area, hit this place up now—Gideon’s is opening a second shop in Disney Springs this fall, and I can only imagine the hype will explode from there.