The 5 Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in NYC
May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Day! You can celebrate by pouring a cup of chocolate chips straight out of the Nestlé Toll House bag into your open mouth, or you can eat them baked with butter, eggs, flour, and sugar in a warm chocolate chip cookie. Either way, it’s #selfcare.
Everybody’s got a chocolate chip cookie preference: Crispy? Chewy? Underbaked or a little burnt at the edges? Nuts, or no? Whether you want a cookie that looks amazing when you split it in slo-mo for your Instagram or a dough so stuffed with sweets it hurts your teeth, New York’s got a bakery for you. There’s really no such thing as a bad chocolate chip cookie -- just good cookies, very good cookies, and the absolute best cookies. This week, I’ve rounded up my five favorite chocolate chip cookies in the city so you can try them all.
Chip
Astoria, QueensChip’s cookie offerings -- each as big as your fist and stuffed with gooey fillings -- change daily, but chocolate chip is almost always on the menu. Flavors like Funfetti and Ruby Matcha are clearly Instagram-bait, but they really do taste as good as they look. The classic chocolate chip cookie is golden on the outside and, when you break it open, manages to maintain a cookie-dough-like consistency inside. It’s dense, super-sweet, and best served on your couch after a twenty second spin in the microwave.
Maman
Multiple LocationsThis New York mini-chain with six locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn mixes its dark chocolate chips with crunchy walnuts, macadamias, and almonds. The resulting cookies have the sort of deep caramelization and almost-burnt edges that call to you from the pastry case when you really just meant to get a 3 o’clock coffee. They’re big enough for sharing, but not so big that you can’t polish one off all by yourself while walking back to the office. Not for nothing -- Oprah named these cookies one of her Favorite Things. Don’t disrespect Oprah. Eat a chocolate chip cookie.
Seven Grams Caffe
ChelseaWith tahini instead of eggs and olive oil swapped for butter, these vegan cookies are every bit as luscious as their lacto-ovo counterparts. Although they’re crispy on the outside, they’ve been slightly underbaked to leave a chewy center. (You can recreate this effect at home by baking your cookies in an extra-hot oven for a short period of time). Dip them in some almond or oat milk for a vegan reimagining of the milk-and-cookies experience.
L'imprimerie
BushwickIf you come down on the crispy side of the crispy vs. chewy debate, L’imprimerie’s sea-salt-sprinkled chocolate chip cookie will satisfy. Reasonably sized (both in width and in diameter), the cookies are baked flattish, leaving crispy edges that give way to a soft core. The giant chunks of extra-dark chocolate are just a little bitter; order it with a coffee if you want to eat your chocolate chip cookie like the goddamn grownup that you are.
Levain
Multiple LocationsThe one. The only. The Levain chocolate chip walnut cookie. This cookie’s claim to fame isn’t only its size -- although it is as gigantic as its $4 price tag demands -- but also its dense, nearly scone-like center packed with nuts and semi-sweet chips. If you absolutely have to have more chocolate, order the dark chocolate chocolate chip cookie, which is made even richer with extra-dark cocoa in the dough. Hopefully, National Go to the Dentist Day is next week.
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