Come rain or shine, a freshly baked cookie is always the perfect sweet treat to put a smile on your face. You can enjoy it with a coffee for breakfast or an afternoon snack, eat one after your meal as a tasty dessert, or buy a box of delicious cookies to share with your family friends.
It seems like every corner in New York has a bakery wafting delicious smells into the street, so you are never too far away from a warm, gooey cookie. But with so many places to choose from, it can be difficult to know which bakeries do the best cookies and which are just average.
We have put together a list of the best places in New York City to get perfectly baked, delicious cookies. We have also given our recommendations for what you should order. Whether you are planning a cookie tour of New York, or you are looking for a new local bakery to meet your monthly cookie quota, this list should help you on your hunt for the perfect New York Cookie. Keep reading to learn more!
Levain Bakery
Levain bakery on the Upper West Side is arguably one of the most well known spots in New York to get a delicious cookie. This could be because they sell a range of frozen cookies available in many grocery stores in the United States, but nothing compares to the real thing. This award winning bakery makes big, tasty cookies that are so popular there is always a queue out of the door.
However, they have a few other bakeries across the city which tend to be a bit quieter than the original store. They have mastered the classic chocolate chip, but we recommend trying their 6 inch chocolate chip walnut cookie or the dark chocolate peanut butter chip. Both of these cookies will blow you away with their soft texture and buttery flavour.
The Good Batch
This Brooklyn Bakery has an extensive menu of breakfast foods, ice cream sandwiches, and cakes, but their cookies are especially good. The tahini chocolate chunk is particularly good- nutty, salty and with a surprisingly morish savoury edge.
Other popular cookies are ginger molasses and peanut butter. They also have a range of vegan and gluten free cookies to cater for different dietary requirements. If this is your local bakery then you are very lucky!
Schmackary’s
Schmackery’s specializes in cookies, offering more than 75 different flavours. This is the place to come if you are feeling brave and want to try a different flavour, as they love experimenting with different ingredients and combinations. From sweetcorn, glazed pistachio, candied yam, maple bacon, to pumpkin, you are bound to find something you love.
This is also a great place to come with friends, as there will be something for everyone. If you want to make the most of the different flavours, get a sharing box between a big group of you.
Gooey On The Inside
This tasty spot on the Lower East Side makes eye-catching cookies that are so, so good. They are crispy on the outside and so soft and gooey in the middle. The red velvet cookie is to die for, but birthday cake and s’mores are also great.
Make sure you take a picture for instagram before you tuck in to your mouth watering cookie! You won’t find a better looking cookie than this.
Spot Dessert Bar
Spot Dessert Bar serves everything sweet from waffles to cakes, but their cookie game is also very strong. Warm, soft and so indulgent, you will love these cookies. We recommend the matcha lava cookie, oreo chocolate chip, and caramel miso.
This is a great place to bring a friend or a date for a coffee and a few cookies to share.
Chip City
If you are looking for a chunky, gooey cookie that looks good and tastes better, then head over to Chip City in Brooklyn, Queens or Manhattan.
They offer a range of traditional and unconventional flavours, but you won’t get better than the peanut butter and jelly – a peanut butter cookie with peanut butter chips, filled with grape jelly. Just thinking about it is enough to make your mouth water!
Milk Bar
You can find multiple Milk Bar stores across New York, including East and West Village, Soho, The Upper West Side and Brooklyn. They are well known for their truffles and cakes, but the cookies are heavenly.
Choose from cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow, fruity marshmallow, and peppermint pretzel snap. Our recommendation is the compost cookie, made with coffee, oats, butterscotch, pretzels and chips.
City Cakes
City cakes is a great place for purist chocolate chip fans, as they have perfected their recipe for that classic cookie. The red velvet is also delicious, filled with a layer of sweetened cream cheese.
If you are feeling extra indulgent, then go for one of their half pound cookies available in a variety of flavours, including almond matcha, pumpkin doodle pie, and salted double chip. There is a good range of gluten free and vegan options too.
Maman
With multiple locations across the city, you are never too far away from a Maman’s. They only sell three flavours of cookie, but each one has been precisely crafted for the perfect taste and texture. The s’mores cookie and oatmeal vanilla raisin cookie are great, but you just can’t beat the nutty chocolate chip.
It is packed with macadamia nuts, almonds, and walnuts, with a generous amount of french chocolate and finished with sea salt. The cookie is soft and gooey with a golden brown crunch on the outside- cookie perfection!
Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery
Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery in West Village is so popular that they are opening another store in Midtown. They sell a variety of delicious desserts, but their cookies are outstanding. The chocolate explosion cookie is a wonderful crossover between a cookie and a brownie.
It is made with confectioner’s sugar which gives it a crackly coating, and the inside of the cookie is soft with just the right amount of chewiness. We also love the vanilla choux cookie, a sugar cookie filled with vanilla pastry cream.
Jacques Torres Chocolate
This chocolate themed cafe serves up mouth watering hot cocoa as well as some delicious, freshly baked cookies. Jacques Torres chocolate is well known all over the world, so it’s no wonder that their cookies packed with their own chocolate chips are a big hit!
The soft, chewy cookie is made with a combination of bread and cake flour to give it the perfect texture.
Dominique Ansel Bakery
The Dominique Ansel Bakery is known as the birthplace of the cronut, but this innovative bakery also has an interesting take on cookies! The chocolate chip cookie shots are shaped like shot glasses and lined with chocolate.
Fill it up with madagascan vanilla milk, down the milk, then eat the delicious cookie. This inventive and unique menu item has earned this bakery a place on our list!
Chip NYC
This bakery in Astoria, Queens is known for the heavenly smell that wafts out of the front door. Less than 5 years after opening they expanded and opened multiple locations across the city, all serving up top quality cookies to eager New Yorkers.
All the flavours are delightful, but the chocolate peanut butter is especially good, with rich chocolate and gooey blobs of peanut butter. We also love the Nutella sea salt cookie, which is soft and gooey with the perfect balance between sweetness and saltiness.
Culture Espresso
Culture Espresso has multiple locations across the city and is an ideal place to get a freshly baked cookie. Their signature chocolate chip is crispy on the outside but soft and buttery in the middle with the perfect amount of chocolate.
Insomnia Cookies
Insomnia Cookies started out as a food truck business back in 2008, but now have over 100 shops which are always busy with both new and returning customers. They also ship their tasty cookies across the US, so you can order a box of treats for your family or friends.
Ovenly
Ovenly is an award winning bakery in Brooklyn that has some truly delicious flavours on offer. The gluten free hot chocolate cookie is filled with milk chocolate chunks and vegan marshmallows, recreating the cozy feeling of a rich, milky hot cocoa.
The salted chocolate chip cookie is the perfect treat for people who like a bit of sweet and savoury with each bite. Perhaps best of all is the flourless peanut butter cookie, made with plenty of peanut butter, eggs, and brown sugar and topped with flakes of sea salt. Whichever cookie you choose, you won’t be disappointed!
Sweet Rehab
Sweet Rehab is a dessert shop in Soho that has created the ultimate chocolate chip cookie.
They use coconut sugar, three types of chocolate and finish off their crunchy cookie with flakes of sea salt. The result is a deep and satisfying flavour that will keep you coming back for more.
Duchess Cookies
Duchess Cookies at Penn Station is home to the iconic Cookie Monster cookie. It’s bright blue, with a sugar cookie outing filled with gooey cookie dough. The contrasting textures and buttery, sweet flavours will blow your mind.
All of the flavours at Duchess Cookies have their own gooey filling, and they are all fantastic. We definitely recommend paying this place a visit to satisfy your inner cookie monster!
William Greenberg
The black and white cookie was invented in New York and is part of the city’s unique culture, and there is no better place to get one than William Greenberg’s. The cakey base has a subtle sweetness, and it is topped with vanilla and chocolate fondant.
They are so good that you won’t be able to eat just one, so we suggest buying a few at a time so you don’t have to get back in the queue!
Russ & Daughters
Russ & Daughters is a Jewish Deli that offers a range of baked goods. They also make an excellent black and white cookie, with hints of lemon and almond in the base. Some other sweet treats worth trying are the rugelach and the chocolate babka.
Balthazar Bakery
Balthazar Bakery in Soho is known for producing some of the most perfect French Patisseries in New York, but we just love their chocolate shortbread. These elegant, thin cookies have a delightful crunch and a rich buttery flavour.
They are the ideal companion to a cup of strong coffee, and a great alternative to the traditional chocolate chip cookie.
Summary
We have narrowed down your search for the perfect New York cookie, but there are still so many options to choose from.
There are a few more special cookies that are worth a mention. The pineapple linzer from Te Company with pineapple jam and shredded lime is the perfect accompaniment to the range of Taiwanese teas on offer in this shop. Smile To Go makes an excellent gluten free peanut butter and jelly cookie which is so soft and gooey it almost falls apart in your hands.
The white chocolate grapefruit cookie from Red Gate Bakery is a mouthful of sweet, citrus heaven. Elisa’s Love Bites has a great range of gluten free cookies which don’t have that cardboard texture that some gluten free treats have.
Besfren is a Korean bakery and cafe with a lovely selection of cookies. Seven Grams Caffe has a delicious, buttery chocolate chip cookie which is just perfect, as well as a lovely vegan cookie. The cookie dough bomb from Cookie Do, a cookie dough bar that has become an internet sensation, is incredible.
Whatever kind of cookie you are looking for, you will find it in New York. From traditional chocolate chip cookies to gooey filled cookies, whacky flavours and colors to traditional black and white, this city has it all. Hopefully you can get around to trying all of the mouth watering cookies on this list, so you can pick your ultimate favourite New York Cookie.
