Unleashing the inner Sesame Street Cookie Monster is getting easier in Lake Charles. One “cookie” franchise opened here before the end of 2022, another will open soon and Cash and Carry Farmers Market has recently added a cookie vendor. Lindsey LeBleu, Le Macaron; Priscilla Healy, Crumbl Cookies and Jerica Balket, Janae’s Cookies, tell why each of their business models is far from cookie cutter.

LeMacaron

Lindsey LeBleu, LeMacaron, didn’t blink twice at being included in a “cookie” article.

“Americans tend to call the macaron a cookie,” she said, “and no, you’re not alone in asking about the pronunciation. That’s part of my job, to educate people on what the macaron is and make them comfortable with their pronunciation.”

Macaron is pronounced MAC-UH-ROHN. The “n” is silent as it is in many French words such as mon chéri.

The ingredients and especially the texture are quite a departure from say, a chocolate chip or sugar cookie. It is a meringue-based sandwich “cookie” made with almond, flour, egg whites, confectioners’ sugar and food coloring. Common fillings include butter cream, ganache and fruit-based jam.

Le Macaron founders, originally from France, realized that the true, delicate and delicious macaron wasn’t available in the United States. Instead, they found sugar spun into a cookie or Americans who  confused the macaron with the macaroon, a coconut cookie.

Thanks to LeBleu, another bit of French culture can be found in Southwest Louisiana, but it didn’t happen overnight. In August 2020, when the order came to evacuate, LeBleu and her family went to Baton Rouge. Two days later, she had her third child. He was placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the LeBleu family spent two months in Baton Rouge “enjoying the different amenities, food, restaurants, flavors, styles and ethnicities,” LeBleu said.

When they moved back home, LeBleu and her husband talked about how they might become involved in the Lake Charles small business comeback. During a weekend getaway to Houston, they discovered LeMacaron. LeBleu had her answer.

“My wonderful husband said, ‘Make it Happen,’” LeBleu said.

She started small, and opened a kiosk in the Prien Lake Mall to introduce these light-and-crispy on-the-outside-and-smooth-and-creamy-at-the center treats. Birthday cake and red velvet were top sellers. Her favorite is mango. Those three flavors represent only the tip of the egg white peak. Availability varies but flavors could include mint white chocolate, strawberry key lime, champagne, lemon cream, Sicilian pistachio, and Columbian coffee, just to name a few.

LeBleu celebrated the opening of LeMacaron at 2020 Country Club Road in Lake Charles in December. It’s in the Kroger-anchored shopping center across from Hocus Pocus. In addition to macarons, Le Macarons is modeled after a French patisserie and sells croissants, light lunches, soup of the day, quiche, cakes, pies, tarts, gelato and the “most amazing line of coffee” according to LeBleu. LeMacaron is considered one of the top French Pastries and Macaron franchises with 67 locations nationwide. Headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, the brand began franchising in 2012 and has since grown to more than 64 locations across the U.S. Le Macaron French Pastries is ranked on Inc. 5,000 2016, #17 on the 2019 Top Emerging Franchise List as well as ranking on the Top 100 Food and Beverage category by Entrepreneur and holds a No. 9 ranking in the baked goods category.

Crumbl Cookies

Priscilla Healy said it was the Cumbl Cookies mission statement that drew her attention.

“It’s bringing friends and families together over the best box of cookies in the world,” she said. “We plan to fulfill that mission and we have added our own vision statement, ‘creating meaningful moments with those who matter most.’”

Her Crumbl Cookie franchise will open in March at 1704 West Prien Lake Road (Target-anchored shopping center).

“The process started two years ago and would have moved along much faster if not for the hurricanes and COVID,” Healy said.

The Southeast Texas teacher and coach who had the credentials to get into administration, and was thinking about doing just that, decided to take a huge leap of faith. She started with a Crumbl Beaumont franchise.

One of the features that sets this business apart from other great Southwest Louisiana places to buy sweets is the setting and atmosphere.

“It’s like walking into an open kitchen with all the great smells and sounds associated with that experience,” she said. “You’ll see us measuring ingredients, cracking eggs.”

Six different gourmet cookies will be offered every week to include two unchanging staples, the chocolate chip and chilled sugar cookie. After much trial and error,  Crumbl founders took their cookie quest to the people until they created the best chocolate chip cookie. Recipe testing and customer feedback continues to be gathered from customers.

“The recipe vault has over 250 cookie recipes,” Healy said. She named the Lucky Charm and Birthday Cake cookies as two popular recipes. One Crumbl website shows a cornbread, German chocolate and carrot cake cookie.

“What brings joy like a cookie?” Healy asked. “Cookies have a place in many great childhood memories. We can see people dropping by to get these cookies to bring to someone in the hospital or to someone who has had a bad day at work. We care deeply about this community and want to bring something amazing to Lake Charles,” she said. “Cookies are a catalyst.”

Crumbl Cookies is new to the Top 500 list this year, with a quarter-billion dollars in sales in 2021. The cookie franchise has taken the internet by storm, and is based in Utah, and has 327 locations across the United States. Cookies come in a now-signature pink box.

Janae’s Cookies

Twenty-six-year-old  Jerica Balket started baking about seven years ago. The part time cashier decided to put her skills to the test after her family insisted her cookies were so good, she should open a cookie business.

She decided they were right. Currently, she sells her cookies at the Cash and Carry Farmer’s Market, 801 Enterprise Blvd., in Lake Charles on Tuesdays.

“Right now the king cake cookies are a best seller,” she said. “In the spring it was the lemon blueberry cookie. Right now I am working on a special Valentine Day flavor, chocolate-covered strawberry cookies.”

Familiar with the Sesame Street Cookie Monster song, “C” is for Cookie, Balket’s hoping she’ll see more “C” in her future, in the form of Cash.