The Best Thing I Ate All Week: PB Squared Gluten-Free Cookie from Beaucoup Bakery

Sweet dreams are made of peanut butter and jelly.

When I first started to realize gluten was my nemesis, I still had semi-regular cheat moments I’d called “worth-it” days. Something had to be really, really, really great for me to decide the side effects were worth it. And just about anything from Beaucoup Bakery (almond croissant, kouign aman, and OMG the chocolate rosemary cookies with fleur de sel!) easily made the list.

Ah those sweet, pain-filled days. Well, I quit doing that and gave up the loveliness that is Beaucoup… until this week, when I discovered their new plant-based gluten-free PB Squared ($3.95), a ridiculously awesome peanut butter sandwich cookie. It’s the plant-based part they’re particularly excited about—French bakeries, as you know, are very all-butter, all the time—but Beaucoup owners and siblings Betty and Jacky Hung have managed to make a cookie here that’s lacking in nothing, delivering in everything.

Credit: Rich Won

If I didn’t know it was plant-based, I’d swear it was two very buttery peanut butter cookies sandwiching a sweet and creamy peanut butter filling. It’s buttery, but it’s not butter, you know? And there’s a lovely raspberry currant jam in the centre, bringing all my PB&J loves into one sweet treat.

It’s also, as you can see from this tiny-handed person in the photo, huge. But I did not let that get in my way, and had a very satisfying half of it for lunch, another half for dinner. And best of all, I experienced zero migraines, because it’s basically good for you, this PB Squared.  

The new plant-based treats (which also include an almond cruffin and an “eye of the tiger” chocolate bonbon) will be at the bakery as of June 25, but there’s also a sneak-peek at Arc’teryx Kitsilano (2033 W 4th Ave) this weekend – on June 13, 2021 starting at 12 p.m.