// FOOD & DRINK //
Major’s Cookies A Successful Startup That Gives Back BY LESLEY KENNY
Soft-baked, scrumptious vegan cookies delivered to your home, office, favourite friends and clients
T
hree cookies walked into a bar…
Technically, it worked the other way around. When Covid sent Sanford Almahda home from his job as a bartender, he spent hours on his couch, bingewatching Netflix and ordering through Uber Eats and Door Dash. One day he’d had enough and decided to bake a batch of cookies for himself and friends. For the first time. Ever. “When I started making cookies, I noticed the correlation between my passion for bartending and my growing passion for baking,” says Sanford. The owner of Major’s Cookies speaks in thoughtful, deliberate sentences: “In bartending, thousands of flavour profiles need to be measured in small amounts. The key to being a good bartender is paying attention to the notes, the flavour profiles of every spirit. I applied that skill and way of thinking to baking. I knew what I liked and disliked about cookies I’d bought. I asked myself if I made my own version, what would I change? So, I came up with my own recipe.” Sanford says he’s a pretty good cook, and worked in restaurants right out of high school. But where cooking is forgiving – a touch more salt, a squirt of lemon – baking is not. “The initial steps in the process are the most important. But honestly, I winged it, I really just winged it,” he admits. “I was very determined and I had time. I had nothing else to do but obsess about this one thing.” The results of his pursuit of the perfect vegan cookie are softbaked, not-too-sweet cookies that come in three flavours, with plans for more. Sanford sources his ingredients locally where possible: “I really make an effort to get the best vegan chocolate I can.” For their size, they pack an impressive amount of fibre and just enough protein. You can indulge in a couple without feeling you’ve blown that New Year’s resolution.
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