incoming bedford cookie shop the product of one maritimer's unique recipes
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workers install a sign for a new gourmet cookie shop called the cookie jar in the bedford commons on wednesday.
ryan taplin
/
chronicle herald
gabrielle leger didn’t know how much of a passion she had for baking until the covid-19 shutdown.
with hours of idle time to kill at home, leger and her mother started experimenting with different recipes. it wasn’t long before word of her decadent cookies spread around her small hometown just outside of moncton. the next thing she knew, online orders from around the area were pouring in.
“i had a licensed kitchen in my basement and i was taking orders through instagram and facebook,” she said. “people would come to my place in greater lakeburn to pick up their order. so i started from the bottom. it was just me and my mom back then and we could not handle the amount of people that were ordering, so i decided we might as well open a shop. it’s been going really well, actually. it was fun to see something little grow from home to an actual location.”
leger launched the cookie jar in 2021 in dieppe, where she got in on the front end of the exploding gourmet cookie scene. big chains like crumbl and craig’s cookies have landed in halifax in the past year after rapid growth across the country.
things have gone so well for leger that she is now expanding to nova scotia. she is a few weeks away from opening a new shop in bedford commons.
“i had tasted stuffed cookies in montreal, maybe two years prior to opening my business,” leger said. “back then, there wasn’t this big craze in cookies like there is now so i thought, ‘wow, i need to bring something like this to moncton or dieppe’ because there wasn’t anything like that here back then. i was excited to bring gourmet cookies, as i called them, to greater moncton and it’s been going great ever since.”
location, location, location
the cookie jar owner, gabrielle leger, displays some of the gourmet treats she bakes and sells at her shop. – supplied by gabrielle leger
“i actually was looking for our (nova scotia) location back in 2022 and i had contacted a few people but we weren’t ready at the time,” she added. “we were looking at dartmouth crossing because that’s a very popular spot. but at that time, we were just looking at what could be options. now in 2026, we’re finally ready to open a shop and it was actually very hard to find a good spot. everything is booked or you have to be on waiting lists.
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“so this one in bedford was a pizza co. before and something happened with the franchisee so it came up and it was perfect. the location is good and there’s lots of parking. i feel like people want to stop and just grab the cookies and go, so it was very important for us to have parking available for customers because you don’t want to pay $5 for parking and then you’re inside the shop for five minutes and you leave. most people don’t sit down; they just grab their cookies and take them home or to parties and stuff like that, so that’s why this was perfect and everything aligned for us at the bedford location. we’re very excited.”
‘it’s all my own recipes’
leger does not have any formal culinary education, just a love for baking sweets. she is constantly trying new combinations and searching for something unique.
“it’s all my own recipes that i developed over the years,” she said. “i’ve been studying a lot by myself about what the ingredients do together and just trying to find the perfect texture. i do offer brownies and cinnamon rolls as well. i’ve been working on those recipes to get them the way i wanted. i hear really good feedback, so i guess i’m doing something right. i’m a self-taught baker so everything is really trial and error, and all stuff that i develop because i love it myself.”
a sample of the cookies gabrielle leger will be selling at her new gourmet treat shop, the cookie jar, in bedford commons. – supplied by gabrielle leger
because she has such a curiosity for what she does and is forever experimenting, leger is constantly changing the treats and cookies she sells.
“we have 12 flavours that we rotate every week,” she said. “some of them i keep all the time because they’re good sellers, just a classic. and i use a lot of chocolate so that’s probably why they’re more gourmet than just a regular cookie you buy at the grocery store. they’re stuffed with all kinds of chocolate and i do some with cheesecakes inside. and i go by seasons as well. like in the fall, i’ll make a pumpkin spice cookie, and in the summer i’ll make blueberry cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, lemon — all of that. it’s fun to do those seasonal flavours.”
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“i would say the most popular one that we keep on the menu and it sells out every time, is our skor cheesecake one,” she added. “obviously, the classic ones are always very popular as well. a lot of people just like something classic without too much going on, but we’ll also do some little things to them to make it special, like putting little flakes of salt on top so it balances out with the sugar.”
end of june opening
leger is targeting the last week of june for her bedford grand opening.
a decorated wall inside the cookie jar. – supplied by gabrielle leger
“it’s going very fast,” she said. “we’re receiving most of our equipment at the moment and then we’re going to start training our employees. i’m currently hiring and then we’re going to go from there.
“lately, i’ve been taking myself out of the dieppe location, just to see if they can handle everything without me, and they’ve been amazing, so i’m comfortable opening a new shop. dieppe is going great, completely on their own. my manager and assistant manager are doing a great job. i’ve already hired a manager and assistant manager for the bedford store and i’ll be there helping when we open but everything is working well right now.”
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