The H-Triple-C-P Cookie
This take on the classic chocolate chip cookie is my loving rendition of Superbaba's and Mishmish's signature Halva, Cornflake, and Chocolate Chip cookie.
I had been sitting on this particular Reverse recipe for a while.
I did not know how to write about this particular cookie without properly crediting this cookie’s origins. Truth is, it is no secret that Superbaba—a popular, fast-casual Middle Eastern1 eatery located on Main Street here in Vancouver, BC—is a big favourite of mine. Everything they make is nutritious, nourishing, fairly-priced, and delicious. Leah Christ, one of Superbaba’s owners, also happens to be a friend of mine. We met while working at a coffee shop in Chinatown back in 2016, where she was the head baker, and I was a barista. Leah is an extremely talented and passionate baker, and—in my eyes—a very dedicated student of traditional Levantine baking and sweets. I will never forget the time she gifted me some Turkish delight she had made from scratch, going as far as to source mastic gum from overseas. She once told me that she would head deep into online recipe rabbit holes armed with Google translator in an attempt to decode recipes written in Arabic that have no exact quantities—only ingredients (Leah is also currently learning Arabic). Back when the pandemic was in full force, she would publish IG Stories on her at-home baking forays, and in one of her videos, she showed off these impossibly thin phyllo sheets she made from scratch on her not-at-all-restaurant-sized kitchen counter! Hardly anyone makes their own phyllo dough anymore, much less make them in a home kitchen, but Leah really is on another level.
Leah’s life and business partner, Dallah El Chami, is Lebanese, and is, I suspect, a massive influence on her too. I met Dallah years before I met Leah, back when he was putting on and organizing pop-ups under his catering moniker The Dallah Menu. The Dallah Menu introduced people to Lebanese cuisine through a diasporic lens; the food Dallah made had modern twists, but ultimately, his dishes were still very much deeply-rooted in tradition and are heavily-influenced by his mother’s home cooking and the food he grew up eating in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. I regret not attending some of these early pop-ups—life had me going in a completely different trajectory back then—but I lived through some of my friends’ experiences in his pop-ups through Instagram posts of his food. Though Dallah and I are likely acquainted with the same people we know in the industry, I never really got to know him the way I got to know Leah, but my admiration for him—and of him and Leah as a team—runs deep.
When Dallah announced that he would be opening a fast casual restaurant called Superbaba in Victoria, BC, I was excited, but also initially disappointed that such a place wasn’t yet opening in Vancouver. Word spread, however, and the word said that their food is good, so when my husband, our mutual friend, and I happened to be in Victoria visiting in 2019, we made it a point to eat there, and promptly fell in love at first bite. I, being a bit of a cookie fiend, ordered both Superbaba’s signature cookies—their turmeric cookie and their halva, cornflake, and chocolate chip cookie. I fell in love with both, but I thought their halva, cornflake, and chocolate chip cookie was a refreshing stroke of genius amidst the ubiquity of the chocolate chip cookie. Halva—a type of confectionary similar to fudge—can be made out of sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, or even plain flour. The nuttiness and sweetness of the halva lends itself well to a chocolate chip cookie recipe. Their addition of cornflakes also gives the cookie a nice textural and flavour boost! I quietly filed this flavour combo away in my mind, and there it lay dormant until about a couple of years ago.
When Superbaba finally opened their Vancouver location in Mt. Pleasant in the middle of the pandemic, my husband and I rejoiced. I kid you not—we ordered take-out from them two, maybe three times every week for a few months straight during the early days. Jeff and I couldn’t get enough. There were times when we would head to the restaurant maybe an hour before they closed, only to get turned away because they had run out of components to make their bowls and wraps. The Vancouver love for Superbaba was intense during their first few operating months, exacerbated by a global pandemic that allowed only take-out, not dine-in. Still, we relished eating their food whenever we could, which was often.
Their oven broke—I am not sure when—and remained broken for some time. So while they were able to churn out their pitas, for a while there, I was without my favourite chocolate chip cookie. In the spring of 2022, I attempted to recreate their cookie out of a deep-seated craving for them. My H-Triple-C-P Cookie was born.
Before I go any further, I wanted to send out a very hearty congratulations to Dallah, Leah, and the rest of the team for the highly-anticipated opening of Mishmish in Fraserhood! When I first got wind of this bakery from Leah herself, I was stoked, mostly over the possibility of not having a cap on my weekly orders of their signature fluffy pitas, of which my husband is also very entirely addicted. He can eat four of their fluffy pitas in one day, maybe more. So you see, a dozen of their pitas will disappear in a matter of a couple of days. Oftentimes I would reach out to Leah directly for orders up to four dozen at a time if I am entertaining. It was a little embarrassing to be ordering so much in one go, and mostly for my husband. My sheepishness and embarrassment are all self-inflicted, of course; their staff only ever regarded me with understanding and amusement over my comically large pita orders!
Recently, Jeff and I were very lucky to have been invited to Mishmish’s Friends and Family opening, where we purchased one of each of their desserts. Their osmalieh is my new favourite sweet treat from them! It might make an appearance in one of my future Reverse posts, if I even dare take that on!
This cookie recipe won’t likely exist without my being directly inspired by Superbaba and Mishmish’s halva cookie. I highly encourage a visit to Superbaba or the newly-opened Mishmish to try their cookies out for yourself! My rendition isn’t exactly like theirs—not even a little bit—but perhaps their cookie could light a fire in you to take on those flavours and experiment in your kitchen!