Two of my dearest friends are visiting this week. They’ve flown from quite a distance for us to be together: one from Oxford, England and another from Sydney, Australia. And as fate would have it, my husband happens to be out of town for the next two weeks, so the timing is perfect. We’re having an all-out girls’ week.
In the past five days, we’ve had cocktails and sushi, mani/pedis. We’ve watched two romantic comedies (Going the Distance and Love and Other Drugs) and the Oscars, read gossip magazines, had lunch at The Plaza. We’ve gone sightseeing and shopping (followed by shopping and more shopping). But I knew that before the girls left, I wanted to take them to Levain Bakery, reputed to have the best cookies in New York City. So this afternoon we went with a few other friends.
What I love about Levain’s Bakery is, there are just four kinds of cookies: Chocolate Chip Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip.
I love that. When I’m at restaurants with four-page menus I want to say, “Just do what you do well and just that.” That’s what Levain’s does in spades.
Let’s start with size (because when it comes to cookies, size matters). I bought a half dozen cookies to my husband’s work last week. Shortly after I left, I got an e-mail from one of his co-workers: “Mags, these are not cookies! They’re muffin tops.” The man’s not wrong. Apparently no one at Andy’s office could finish a whole one themselves. I don’t know what’s wrong with them—because we did!
They are crispy on the outside and oh-so ooey, gooey, chewy on the inside. Two of the four cookies we bought were still warm and the center of the cookie was precariously straddling the boundary between dough and cookie. Now that’s perfect.
To date, these are the best cookies I’ve had (aside from my mom’s chocolate-chip cookies and Ben’s Cookies in Oxford, England). Not everyone can pop in to pick up a fresh cookie, but they do ship anywhere in the U.S. I’d like to share the experience I had with someone else. And also celebrate the fact that Andy and I just signed a lease for an apartment on the Upper West Side 12 blocks from Levain Bakery. So today, 3MC is giving away a gift box with four cookies.
To enter, just tell us: “What’s your favorite cookie?”
(Giveaway ends Monday, March 7 at 9 AM)
And the winner is #149 – SUSAN! We love her answer: “My favorite cookie is anything I can dunk”
Send me your address, Susan! I’ll get your cookies posted to you as soon as possible so you can get dunkin’ 🙂
Oatmeal chocolate chip!
Hands down, Toll House Chocolate Chip!
soft and chewy oatmeal raisin.
Soft and chewy chocolate chip and pecan!!
Warm, Soft, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin
I have never met a chocolate chip cookie that I didn’t like!!
Oatmeal chocolate chip…mmmmmm!!!
Regular ol’ chocolate chip for me! (but really, any cookie is good as long as it’s got chocolate)
Chocolate chip for sure!
Peanut butter and chocolate chip!
Peanut butter chocolate chip!
Peanut butter cookies, hands down the best ever 🙂
My Nana’s oatmeal cookies.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal chocolate chip!
out of the levain cookies, i think my favorite would be the plain old chocolate chip walnut! it just looks delectable. but widening my horizons just a bit, my favorite cookie would probably be a thinner, crispy-around-the-edges and soft-in-the-middle chocolate chip cookie, or even a gingersnap 🙂 . just yummy.
Monster cookies. Yum! 🙂
I’m a cookie baking grandma. My favorite cookie is chocolate chip followed closely by a cut out sugar cookie topped with frosting or glaze.
chewy chocolate cookies from cook’s illustrated. YUM.
Warm & gooey chocolate chip walnut!
snickerdoodles, or anything with chocolate!
My new fav is cranberry-white chocolate chip. Yummm!
My favorite is oatmeal chocolate chip (semi-sweet) with added white chocolate chips. So good!
I love white chocolate macadamia nut. Thank you so much.
rolled sugar cookies from Joy of Cooking with grated lemon peel added to the dough — a holiday special for the last 40 years
My favorite cookie is always the last one I enjoyed – which was a mini chocolate chip (melt-in-your-mouth) meringue cookie.
i love gingersnaps. and chocolate chip!
Sigh, bring them all on!! But the rules say–pick one–so-its a favorite family one! Spice cookies
PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL!! YUM YUM
PEANUTBUTTER OATMEAL!! YUM YUM.
I love plain old chocolate chip, usually without nuts. However, I desperately miss Levain’s from my NYC days and their addition of walnut is just perfect. YUM!
Gotta go with the classic chocolate chip but I’ve made some chocolate pixie cookies with cardamom that I was addicted to for quite awhile!
Recently I’ve started making the old fashioned (VERY 70’s and 80’s) Oatmeal Scotchies. My teenagers LOVE them! I had forgotten all about that recipe on the back of the Butterscotch Morsels bag – but now I make them on a regular basis.
http://www.food.com/recipe/nestle-oatmeal-scotchies-215128
Definitely the classic chocolate chip!
Nothing beats fresh-out-of-the-oven, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookies!
chocolate chip!
Oatmeal raisin with a hint of orange.
Although it’s tiny, an iced thumbprint!!
Oooh…..all of them! But if I had to pick one, it would be a traditional chocolate chip. 🙂
Chocolate chip with craisins…but of course, I have yet to meet any cookie that I didn’t like! 🙂
I think it’s gotta be Amaretto Choc Chip Coconut cookies – sooo delicious!
Can I choose more than one? All of the Levain cookies sound divine, but at home the faves are choc chip (natch) and citrus cookies with glaze using zest and juice from our lemon and orange trees outside. Having our own citrus is the happy flip side to living in the blast furnace that is the Phoenix summer.
I made a rich dark chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips – almost like a brownie cookie. It’s awesome and perfect for my friends that don’t like nuts in their cookies (crazies!).
Hmmm, one is hard….maybe oatmeal chocolate chip….
Oatmeal with cranberries and white chocolate chips
peanut butter blossoms!
I absolutely love all oatmeal cookies but oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies are my fav!
Chocolate chunk cookies with dark chocolate and walnuts, yum.
My favorite cookie is anything I can dunk.
Chocolate Chip Cookie