Bubbis Cookies: A Family Recipe, Reimagined

For Shaun Benoliel, Bubbis Cookies started with something surprisingly simple: a search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Not the biggest cookie. Not the trendiest cookie. Not one loaded with unusual flavours just for the sake of being different.

Shaun was looking for the cookie he remembered from childhood — the kind his grandmother, Gloria, affectionately known as “Bubbi,” used to make.

“I could never find it in Toronto,” Shaun explains. “Everything here felt thick, cakey, overly sugary, or chasing the flavour of the week. I wasn’t after novelty. I wanted the quintessential cookie, the one I’d actually want to eat.”

So, rather than settling, Shaun decided to make it himself.

What began as a personal search quickly turned into a serious project.

Shaun spent six months testing hundreds of variations, experimenting with cook times, ingredient ratios and different combinations until he finally arrived at a cookie he felt lived up to the one he had been chasing.

But Shaun wasn’t simply trying to recreate his grandmother’s recipe.

He wanted to take the memory and put his own spin on it.

He began experimenting with ingredients such as miso, soy sauce, brown butter and two types of chocolate. Eventually, he discovered that miso could add the complexity he was looking for without overpowering the cookie.

Then came the fermentation process.

Rather than immediately baking the dough, Shaun began testing different periods of cold fermentation — one day, then two, then three — until he found what he describes as the sweet spot: four days of cold fermentation before baking.

That attention to detail became an important part of what makes Bubbis Cookies different.

“I like a saltier cookie with a bit more complexity,” Shaun says.

The result is a cookie built around balance, flavour and nostalgia, rather than chasing whatever happens to be popular at the moment.

The name Bubbis Cookies carries a much deeper meaning than simply being a catchy business name.

It is a tribute to Shaun’s grandmother, Gloria.

Shaun wanted to share a piece of the person who had such an impact on him and pass some of what she gave him on to other people.

But he didn’t want her influence to stop at the name.

Shaun sat down with his grandmother to digitize her handwriting, incorporating it directly into the company’s packaging and brand identity.

The wordmark people see on a box of Bubbis Cookies is actually hers.

“Her hand is literally on every box,” Shaun says.

It’s a small but meaningful detail that makes the brand feel personal. Every box carries not only a cookie, but a piece of the story that inspired the business in the first place.

For Shaun, Bubbis is ultimately about sharing that story — the love, passion and memories his grandmother represents — while carrying those values forward in his own way.

Entrepreneurship wasn’t an entirely new idea for Shaun.

He says he’s wanted to own his own business from a young age, influenced in part by his father’s “hustle-it-out mentality.”

Professionally, Shaun works in advertising and has spent years working with graphic design and brand strategy.

That experience naturally became an advantage when it came time to build Bubbis.

While the business may be centred around cookies, Shaun understood that building a successful company meant creating a brand with a clear identity and purpose.

“I always wanted to build something from the ground up, something I could put my spin on and truly make my own.”

With Bubbis, he was able to combine his creative background with something much more personal: his connection to his grandmother.

Although Bubbis Cookies officially launched only about four months ago, the business has already experienced some memorable moments.

One of the biggest surprises came when Bubbis caught the attention of Farm Boy.

Being noticed by the well-known Ontario retailer was exciting enough. But what happened next was something Shaun didn’t expect.

Bubbis Cookies sold out in just two hours.

Another unforgettable moment came when Shaun found himself delivering cookies to Drake’s house — a surreal experience for a business that was still in its early stages.

There was also the less glamorous, but incredibly important, milestone of working with Toronto Public Health to have his kitchen certified.

For Shaun, that process represented more than simply meeting a requirement. It gave him confidence that the business was being built properly and that the product he had invested so much time and effort into was being produced safely.

And along the way, Bubbis has continued appearing at markets and introducing more people to both the cookies and the story behind them.

Behind the exciting milestones is the reality of running a young business.

Shaun still works a full-time job while building Bubbis Cookies, meaning there aren’t nearly enough hours in the day.

He has quickly learned that entrepreneurship often means wearing every hat.

“Sales, content, production, all of it,” Shaun says.

Balancing a career with a growing food business can be exhausting, but Shaun describes the experience as equally rewarding.

For now, Bubbis is still in its early stages. But watching people discover the cookies, learn about Bubbi and become part of the story has made the long hours worthwhile.

There are plenty of chocolate chip cookies in the world.

What makes Bubbis Cookies different isn’t simply the ingredients or the four-day fermentation process. It’s the reason Shaun started making them in the first place.

The business began with a childhood memory and a desire to recreate something that couldn’t be found.

It became a six-month pursuit of the right recipe.

And eventually, it became a way for Shaun to share his grandmother’s story with people he’s never met.

Every box carries her handwriting. Every cookie carries the influence of the recipe Shaun remembers. And every sale helps carry a little piece of Bubbi forward.

For Shaun Benoliel, Bubbis Cookies isn’t about creating the next flavour-of-the-week cookie.

It’s about creating the one — the cookie he spent years remembering, six months perfecting, and now gets to share with everyone else.

And if the early response is any indication, plenty of people are happy that he decided to make it himself.