a very clean, neat, and bright store. The first thing I noticed about the store is that it’s not like a typical cookie store that have lots of bright colors and other baked goods. Kelley’s Kookies store was very nicely organized with the cookies clearly in display in neat packages. There was a clear connection between the way the cookies are packaged and the store — I think anyone who receives a package of these cookies will know exactly the feeling and look of the store before even walking in. I didn’t bother the 3 gentlemen maintaining the store at first.. I wanted to take a walk around and breathe in the cookies! Kelley’s Kookies pride themselves on containing only natural ingredients and no preservatives. There were so many different kinds:

Lemon shortbread, macadamia chocolate chip, shortbread, sugar cookies, Kelley’s Delight, melting moments

Pecan shortbread, Guava dreams, krispy oatmeal, neapolitan delight

Guava Dreams

Neapolitan Delight

Others I saw are chocolate chip krispy oatmeal (actually contains crispy rice cereal), raspberry dream (the “dream” cookies are a shortbread sandwich cookie with fruit filling), pecan shortbread, and macadamia ice box (mac nuts and vanilla). Varied and unique.

Here was my present, just in time for my birthday!

This box was like a little version of the store, I told you! When you take off the sleeve and open the box, you’re greeted by a little paper that tells you how much love went into making each of the cookies and that they are all natural and don’t contain preservatives:

Past the paper obstacle is what you’ve been waiting for:

The first package of cookies were my favorite:

This was kind of like a shortbread with a little more flavor. Of course, being a chocolate lover, I wish that the whole thing was covered in chocolate, but I get that this is prettier. This tasted great! And that chocolate layer was thick:

I thought the ratio of chocolate to cookie was great in that half of the cookie. My only criticism would be that the cookie is too thick. I think it would have been better if there wasn’t so much height to the cookie; it added thickness and cakey-ness.

The sugar cookies were by far the prettiest:

(Don’t mind the powdered sugar.) The sugar cookies had sprinkles on top which was such a nice addition to an otherwise plain cookie. Firstly it’s very visually pleasing. I love bright colors! Secondly it was a good partner in terms of texture; the cookie itself was crunchy with small crumbs and pieces while the sprinkles were slightly bigger and harder.

Next, macadamia chocolate chip:

More macadamia nuts!!! These were the favorite among most of the people I shared these cookies with.

You can see in the image specks of the macadamia nuts. I don’t feel like the flavor of the macadamia nut stood out enough. Need more macadamia! I’m not sure if anyone who didn’t  read the label knew that there were macadamia nuts. But like I said, people had the most compliments about this cookie; everyone seemed to love the bite-sized aspect about this cookie, and hey, they tasted great too. If you don’t mind crunchy cookies, this cookie is for you.

These powdered cookies were the most messy! But what can you expect from cookies that have powdered sugar huh:

Each paper cup contained two of these cookies:

These were the least “cookie” of the four. This is a walnut mixture covered in powdered sugar. They were my least favorite for a variety of reasons: they didn’t really taste like anything and they were super crumbly, but I’ll admit the reason I didn’t like these cookies was because the powdered sugar got EVERYWHERE. And I don’t mean only while I was eating it. My friends and I didn’t eat these cookies in one sitting which means I put the cookies back in the box to transport them and when I opened the box again, powdered sugar was all over the inside of the box. I know this doesn’t have anything to do with the taste of the cookie or anything, but it did have an effect on my, erm, cookie experience. I would have liked a resealable bag to house these cookies. Luckily, the box itself didn’t allow for leaks (that thing is sealed shut when it’s closed!), for which my car seat and dining room thank you.

…and the best part! Mention my blog in one of the bakeries, spend $10 and get an awesome dawesome spatula!!!! You know you need one!!!

• Taste: 6-7: pretty average
• Crust and center moistness: crunchy cookies
• Value: $4.50 – $5.50 per pack; $18 for something like I got above and goes up to $43 for the Grand Gift Box, which contains 9 packs of cookies (a savings of an entire $2! but you get the nice box with a bow in which to package them.). A little much for my wallet, despite the “natural” and “no preservatives” claims — I mean what does “natural” mean anymore? I’ll admit everything on the ingredients list was everything I could pronounce.. including “hydrogenated oil.”
• Overall: These cookies provide for a great-looking present, and I love the variety of flavors. The gentlemen in the store were incredibly nice and helpful. I just wish that the powdered cookies would have resealable packaging because that’s something that would discourage me from buying those specifically. My friends and I enjoyed eating these. While they weren’t exactly spectacular, I think they’re worth a visit!

Kelley’s Kookies (they’ll ship, too!)
Bakeries located in the Westside Pavilion, Santa Anita Mall, and a location in Stanton on Katella. Their cookies are also sold in Mitsuwa and Marukai and a variety of other places: Kelley’s Kookies locations

This cookie was so big and fragile I couldn’t hold it in my hand. Since you know the size and shape of my hand and palm, imagine my hand with my fingers spread out; the cookie completely encompassed my palm and went all the way out to almost the ends of my fingers:

This cookie was huuuuuuuuge. And it better have been, I paid $3.25 for that thing!! Man I cannot believe I paid >$3 for that cookie. I guess this is meant to be shared, so a little over a buck per person, I guess that’s reasonable. After I finished my sandwich, I dug into the cookie. It’s not light but much to my surprise, it’s not dense. There’s kind of a familiar taste about this cookie too. Tastes buttery and soft. It is *actually* pretty good! Nothing super spectacular that really sets itself apart from others.. or so I thought. It wasn’t long (probably two broken pieces of cookie in) before I got to the really soft and gooey part of the cookie. Take a look:

Can you see that? Can you SEE THAT?!?! This cookie was baked to the ultimate perfection. This cookie was so perfectly undercooked that when it came out of the oven, it baked for just the right amount on the baking sheet to get that consistency you normally get only when you just take it out of the oven. They clearly compensated for that extra baking baked goods do after they come out of the oven. I will admit that this cookie was the most gooey, soft and chewy, cookie dough-y cookie I’ve ever had in a store.

• Taste: 8
• Crust and center moistness: soft and gooey on the inside. 10
• Value: $3.25 for a ginormous cookie. I really wish they would break these into thirds and sell them for way less. But this is Larchmont, so whatcha gonna do.
• Overall: They are too pricey and big (stomach ache) for me to buy again, but will satisfy your craving! Your craving and the cravings of 1-3 of your friends…

Larchmont Bungalow
107 N Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004
323.461.1528
Open everyday from 7:30 AM – 10 PM

Babycakes has its origin in NYC and has since opened up a shop in downtown LA. All of their products are vegan and most are gluten-free! Their non-gluten-free products use spelt flour, which I know has been the topic of some gluten vs. non-gluten debates, but they list spelt under their non-gluten-free products, so good for them for naming it that way. (I guess you can tell which side of the argument I stand on.) I have tried their cupcakes and cookies. Their cupcakes are delicious, but the review on that needs to go on another blog. Supposedly, their donuts are phenomenal as well!

The bakery isn’t in the middle of downtown; rather, it’s kind of on one edge of downtown. But as long as you’re on this side of Los Angeles street, you’re fine. The bakery is small but they made do with what space they had. Baked goods line up and stack up in display cases taller than me to your left, a few tables and chairs are on your right, and the cash register sits at the end of the walkway.

A co-worker of mine told me that Babycakes’ cookies were some of the best cookies he’s had, vegan and gluten-free or not. Well, I told him, I’ll be the judge of that. I walked in and immediately ordered a chocolate chip cookie, eyes widened and appetite whetted by the thought of eating every single donut, pastry, cookie, loaf of bread, cupcake, muffin, brownie, and whatever else they had in the entire store. I’ll bet even the paint and tile in this place are vegan and gluten-free.

The cookie smelled delicious:

but was the thinnest cookie ever:

The flatness of the cookie was a definite turn-off. How could a cookie this flat possibly be good? In cookies you look for that moist, soft & fluffy, light-as-a-cloud center with pockets of air in between the structural integrity that is individual crumbs. I didn’t have faith. I was a non-believer. But dude, I paid for this cookie, and hell will freeze over if I don’t eat something I paid for.

Have you ever had one of those moments where your brain turned upside down? Or you got slapped in the face? Or an internal volcano dispelled lava of disbelief all over your body? Metaphorically speaking, at least? A moment where you realize you were dead wrong, that you asserted yourself so unkindly,  and are so embarrassed to admit it except on your cookie blog? Well, that’s me right now.

This cookie was crispy on the outside, soft & moist on the inside — baked exactly right. I almost got over how flat the cookie is real fast. There are enough chocolate chips in there, but a few more wouldn’t hurt. Out of all the vegan cookies I’ve eaten, this tastes the closest to a regular cookie, which isn’t that big of a deal, but I know eating vegan AND gluten-free is scary to some people. If everyone could have this cookie as an introduction to this alternative less-cruelty eating style I think people would be more open to trying new things.

• Taste: Delicious + the smell was super enticing. 10
• Crust and center moistness: crispy crust, soft interior. if it were not as flat it would be better. 9
• Value: $1.50 for a cookie that’s vegan and gluten-free AND TASTES GREAT!! 10
• Overall: My first choice for a cookie now. 10

Babycakes NYC
130 East 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(213)623-5555

Hours of Operation
Monday: 10am-8pm
Tuesday-Wednesday: 10am-10pm
Thursday-Saturday: 10am-11pm
Sunday: 10am-8pm

As you can tell from the picture, it’s quite a large cookie. This is going to be a short post because unfortunately there’s not much to write. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Just the right type of moistisosity (that is TOTALLY a word). Average amount of chocolate chips. Soft, but not too soft. Mm, I’d come back because she has a lot of other goodies, but the cookies aren’t much to write home about.

• Taste: I actually prefer the vegan cookie over this one. 6
• Crust and center moistness: Just right. 8
• Value: $1.50, I believe, for a large cookie. Quite pricey for a cookie, but then again it *is* West LA. 7
• Overall: Pass. 7

Jamaica’s Cakes
11511 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310.478.1971

I have an awesome e-mail pal, Jamaica. When I was looking into going to baking, I e-mailed a bunch of people and she was BY FAR the MOST helpful and gave me the MOST insight and most insight out of all the tens of people I contacted. Ashamedly, I took this long to review a cookie of hers!!

I grabbed the LAST vegan chocolate chip cookie (non-vegan to be reviewed in a couple of weeks!). It was wrapped up in plastic wrap and let me tell you: when I unwrapped this cookie the smell was SO inviting. I’ll be honest — I bought this one day and ate it the next, and the strong smell of freshly baked cookie was still there! The smell was comparable to a cookie I baked in the oven myself. First impression was looking GREAT.

Oh, minus the one thing that made me hesitant; it was a pretty flat cookie:

I got over it really quickly, though, thanks to the smell and taste. This cookie was delicious. There was something “different” about the taste of this cookie that I could not put my finger on, though. It was evident in the first few bites but I suppose I got used to it after that. Other than that one different taste, this cookie tasted like any other cookie! And I cannot get over the texture: it was super moist and very soft. This is a blurry picture, but it shows the middle of the cookie + the chocolate chunk distribution:

…okay, not a great picture of the texture, but you can make out some of the round pieces that make up the entire cookie, rather than cookie crumbs that stick together and make the cookie tough and hard. This piece is a section of the cookie that had a LOT of chocolate chunks in it, but as you can see the chunks are layered, so you’re sure to get at least a couple of pieces of chocolate in every bite.

• Taste: Loved it, and despite that odd flavor, I would still give this a 9
• Crust and center moistness: VERY moist, even the next day. 10
• Value: $1.75 for a large cookie. Quite pricey for a cookie, but it is vegan, and in West LA. 7
• Overall: Definitely a must-try. 9!!

Jamaica’s Cakes
11511 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310.478.1971

The boyfriend went to Eagle Rock Italian Bakery and grabbed a bunch of cookies for me

It was an entire box FULL of cookies. That I took a picture of in poor lighting, because of course, I knew I had to take pictures before they were all eaten. Here are pictures of a select few:

These chocolate chip cookies were thick!!

My favorite one was the heart with red sprinkles!!

This sandwich was a second favorite!

This sesame seed one was okay. Not my favorite..

The chocolate chip cookies were very buttery, and quite dense. The rest of the cookies were more or less sugar cookies with a hint of sweetness that let the filling (or sprinkles) take over. As you can tell from the pictures, they are nice and bite-sized, so you don’t have to feel so bad about eating four at once! On the down side, they are quite crumbly and on the dry side, but you should be okay if you eat outside Oh, another cool thing about this place is that they sell these cookies by the weight, about $1.10 / lb if Armando can recall correctly.

• Taste: Fulfills that sweetness craving, and the chocolate sandwich one had a lot of flavor! 7
• Crust and center moistness: it depends on what you get, but most of the cookies were more on the crumbly side.
• Value: $1.10/lb, good deal!
• Overall: Would have the boyfriend buy me again. 8!

Quick background story before I get to the video: Moms Nguyen went to Penn State in the 70′s as a refugee, married my dad, had my sis, quit college, had more of us, became an amazing amazing amazing single parent, all the meanwhile dreaming of the day she could go back and obtain her degree but putting us first (and putting UP with us first) always. FINALLY in 2007 my younger sis went off to college as a Triton (UCSD!) which gave my mom the go ahead to go back to school. After some mild drama getting back into school; LOOONG nights; walks in the hard rain, wind and snow; and LOTS of papers (emphasis on LOTS), she not only obtained her bachelor’s but my mother now holds a Master’s degree in American Studies from Penn State University — a dream my mother has held for over 30 years!! (Fun fact for you college football buffs: In the 70′s, Joe Paterno was coaching the Nittany Lions. When my mom went back, he was still coaching!) This is a HUGE deal to the fam, and we are all so proud of her. Thus, the cookie tin. Watch and see! (Remember my mom didn’t know who it was from or what it was or anything!)

And here is Moms saying thank you to Fresh Beginnings

One thing we found out after is that there was a handwritten card accompanying the cookies! Ok, I’m special, but not *that* special. A handwritten note comes with all of them. Soooo personalized!

And some shots of the tins. Really, the pictures don’t do the tins justice:

The great thing about it is that I supplied the company with the picture and what I wanted it to say. They chose the design and the cute background! They certainly have an eye for what looks good.

And now for the cookies! As mentioned in the video, there were chocolate chip and chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies in here. Here’s what I dug into first, the chocolate covered chocolate chip cookie:

I read the reviews on the Fresh Beginnings site that highly praised the cookies, but I don’t believe it until I taste it. And now I believe it. They definitely deserve the 5 stars. My work friend commented that there is one THICK layer of chocolate on this cookie.

I’ve had chocolate covered sweets before, but none that taste like this. The chocolate complements the rest of the cookie so well in such a way that adds another level of taste to it, unlike other foods where the chocolate layer is really much more independent and doesn’t fit the rest of the treat exactly right.

Now, about the actual cookie:

(Apologies for slightly lower photo quality.. I took this picture with my camera on my phone) This is one of those cookies where you do a double take and go, “holy crap, this IS good!” I think the best thing about these cookies is that they’re soft and gooey on the inside (thanks to the fact that they’re freshly baked). They’re not crumbly and they hit the sweet craving (you know, the one you didn’t know you had until you bit into this cookie) just right. Funny thing is that even though there is only a medium amount of chocolate chips in here (and I require a LOT), I’m not complaining about that this time around. It’s probably because the rest of the cookie tasted so good.

Oh, and by the way. THE COOKIES ARE ONLY 90 CALORIES EACH!!! The chocolate covered ones have 170. I totally ate one of each today but it was SO worth it. And the tins are so awesome and totally reusable. For more cookies, of course.

HOWEVER. One thing I don’t like is that these cookies have partially hydrogenated oils in them. Probably one of the reasons why they taste so good! If they did away with the hydrogenated oils I would like them so much more. Also, the chocolate gets on your hands when you touch it. For normal people it would be ok because you would just hold it by the non-dipped part. But for us cookie bloggers who hold the cookies in the palm of our hands for comparison purposes, it’s just something we’re bound to notice.

Fresh Beginnings
More custom designs: http://www.freshbeginnings.com/Photo-Tins-W8C23.aspx
Twitter: @FreshBeginnings
Facebook: Fresh Beginnings
Or, you can message me / leave a comment if you want me to hook it up for you.

• Taste: 10
• Crust and center moistness: soft and gooey!
• Value: $20 for 20 chocolate chip cookies; $33 for 40 chocolate chip cookies. It’s an extra $3 for the customized tin, then there’s shipping from Georgia. GREAT price!!! TOTALLY worth it!
• Overall: I’m pretty picky about my food, so the partially hydrogenated oils are a turn off. But on the other hand, this would be more about the cookies AND the tin rather than just the cookies. (Also, it’s worth mentioning that the hydrogenated oils wouldn’t stop me from buying them from others.. nor does it stop me from eating them.) Anyway, I know that most other people don’t care about the hydrogenated oil, so this would make a wonderful gift for family or corporate! BUY! 9 for the partially hydrogenated oil, 10 for everyone else besides me.

Cookie Showdown 2010 was put on by Hello Drama and Nylon Pink and took place in August’s Downtown LA Artwalk. If you’ve never had the pleasure, DTLA Artwalk has become a MASSIVE event for hipsters, yuppies and normal people too to hang out. Art galleries stay open late but they have to since it’s so crowded it takes forever to get inside one and see everything (ok, that was only a little exaggerated). There is live music, restaurants stay open later and a HUMONGOUS array of food trucks that have taken over LA streets.

I lost track of how many cookies I ate but I think I ate around 9 (my record is 11). AAAAAAANNNDDD I didn’t get a stomach ache!!! Since we walked around and revisited bakeries over and over, I’ve organized this blog post by bakery and not chronological order. I also must apologize for the bad picture quality. My camera’s been having issues lately and inside it was either too dark or too light to take good pictures. (I didn’t want to put ALL the pictures on the blog, so more pictures can be found on my Facebook album.) Also, I’m pretty sure all of the sample cookies weren’t true to size of real cookies you’d buy, so I didn’t take that into consideration in my review except for one of them (see below).

BAKING BETTY’S

If you remember my post about Baking Betty’s S’Mores Cookie, you’ll remember that I received a scrumptious lookin cookie in the mail and.. did not eat it all because I don’t eat marshmallows. I was SO stoked to hear that they were here! And OMG, ok, Baking Betty’s def gets the award for BEST OUTFITS EVER:

Emily and Taryn were the sweetest and let me in on their secret cookie that they had been tweeting about all day: white chocolate oatmeal cinnamon. Or oatmeal white chocolate cinnamon. Not to sound ungrateful but I thought I had the worst luck with them. First I get a non-vegetarian cookie, then they give me a cookie with oatmeal in it. But ‘OLY CRAP that was not what I was expecting. This cookie was freakin good! Hah, I actually ate the whole thing this time.. even after begrudgingly offering Scott some.. I think he knew how much I was enjoying it so he said no.

(That is the secret: take someone on a cookie outing with you who doesn’t eat cookies. Luckily Scott is a cutie so I hang out with him. I don’t normally associate with people who don’t like cookies.) I have ALWAYS had problems with cookies with cinnamon in them. There’s never, ever, ever enough cinnamon, and this includes cinnamon sugar cookies. I’m like, dude, if you’re going to make a cinnamon cookie, put some freakin cinnamon in it. Baking Betty’s got this one right and the soft, moist interior of the cookie had exactly enough cinnamon for me to say FINALLY! A cookie with enough cinnamon! The white chocolate complemented the oatmeal very well (which is HUGE coming from someone who doesn’t like oatmeal). I will admit though that the oatmeal in this cookie was downplayed (otherwise I probably wouldn’t have liked it). I do love the fact that they focused on the cinnamon and white chocolate aspect of this cookie as they were in danger of completely overpowering the flavors with each other. I would totally get this cookie again. I got this cookie out of the sweetness of their hearts, without using one of my tickets. At the end though I wanted another… so I used my ticket this time

A legit chocolate chip! Just as soft and just as tasty as the white chocolate oatmeal cinnamon. I will admit that this cookie is better than the select cookie parts of the s’mores cookie. Perhaps it was fresher? thinner? softer?

SNOOKIES COOKIES

Thankfully they have nothing to do with that Snooki girl from Jersey Shore. Whew. Now that I got that out of the way, we stopped by the half Laker-colored booth and the girls there were SO sweet and gave us cookies without taking our tickets. I grabbed a white chocolate chip and Scott got a chocolate pecan cookie:

The chick there was my type of girl. When Scott refused a free cookie, she MADE HIM. THAT is a WOMAN I ADMIRE!! She put it in a plastic bag for him and we walked around. FAUX PAS! He dropped the cookie. Well, no, the cookie is just so soft and moist that when he was holding it by one end, half of the cookie fell off onto the floor. THAT is how soft it was. Both cookies were DELICIOUS.  There weren’t that many pecans in the chocolate chip pecan cookie though. Or maybe the floor ate them. There was definitely enough chocolate to go around in these cookies and their recipe is top notch. Just like with Baking Betty’s, I went back later and used my ticket to get a milk chocolate chip cookie:

…which of course was excellent. Soft, moist, buttery delicious.

PLATINE BAKERY

My sister told me to get cookies from here for Moms, and also when we were checking ourselves in, there was a random girl outside who told us that we had to eat their sandwich cookies. So that is what I got!:

They have a few varieties of these. They have one that is like an Oreo, this one like a Golden Oreo and another that has I think chocolate filling. This was good! It kind of looks like a macaron huh? But it’s denser and not as fragile. I took a bunch of these + their regular cookies home, planning to take pictures for this blog when it was daylight. …But the cookies are now gone (and not by me!). I estimate I bought around 10 or so cookies and there were two left 24 hours later. I guess that shows you how good the cookies are!

ESSENTIAL CHOCOLATE DESSERTS

This table was on the more quiet side. They got my attention because they had a really cute Cookie Monster stuffed animal advertising their ice cream sandwiches! But since ice cream has too much ice cream and too little cookie, I opted for the chocolate chip cookie:

and ew. This cookie was hard and dry and tasteless. I could have done without it.

FRESHLY BAKED

Freshly Baked defines themselves as making “gourmet cookies with attitude.” Their non-conformity leads them to special creations with funny names rather than the run-of-the-mill chocolate chip. They have oatgasm, demolicious, your mom, kiss my rosie white… I was really annoyed with them though because they gave us LITTLE ITTY BITTY TINY samples on a TOOTHPICK in exchange for a ticket.

Since I had extra tickets and I wanted to try cookies from all of the bakeries, I tried their chocolate pretzel cookie. It was good. I think. Yeah, it was good, had a crunch and nice flavor. …kind of wish I had more of it, like the other bakeries gave.

HYGGE BAKERY

Hygge Bakery is a Danish bakery in downtown. They had a bunch of European pastries on their table! We got this “empenada” as Armando called it:

which was actually a raspberry.. or strawberry… filled pastry with almond slivers and sugar on top. It was very sugary! Crispy and crunchy, but not enough filling. It was yum Our ticket also allowed us to get another since they were small. The dude behind the table had me at “cocoa powder”:

This one was not incredibly tasty. The other one was better. Kinda hard, kinda not, nuts and sugar on top.. nothing too exciting.

B SWEET CATERING

Somehow B Sweet got their own little room with a window display, of which we promptly found out we weren’t supposed to stand in front. Uh, okay, sorry for blocking the view of all of your cupcakes. The place was so crowded as it was but nooooooooo standing in front of the window. I grabbed a cookie from inside:

This cookie was good, nothing too crazy, just a cookie with chocolate syrup and a white chocolate chip on top. Soft, moist, tasty.

It was really hot and crowded inside so we emerged from the building after 2 hours of stuffing my face with cookies. As we stood on the sidewalk I realized I was double fisting. I had my two favorite cookies of the night in my hand and we started debating about which was better: Baking Betty’s chocolate chip or Snookie’s chocolate chip:

Baking Betty’s / Snookies

Armando liked Snookies’ more because it was more buttery. I preferred Baking Betty’s because I thought it tasted better. We did a blind taste test with Scott.. that did not turn out to be so blind because due to our descriptive arguing, he knew which one was which. and eventually sided with me. YEAH BABY! And Chloe the Cookie Monster wrapped it up.

RESULTS:
B Sweet Catering won the contest with their red devil cookie sandwich and angel chocolate chip cookie (which is I guess what we got?). In my opinion either Baking Betty’s or Snookies should have won. Ah, you win some, you lose some; such is life! I had a great time! One of the best nights of my life (uh oh, I hope none of my ex-boyfriends reads that..) Onward to Cookie Showdown 2011!

and don’t forget.. you can re-live the experience vicariously through me here.