Best Cookies In The Twin Cities
Rustica
3220 West Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55416
612-822-1119
Website
Most people think of Rustica as a place to get wonderful, chewy, yeasty breads; and it is. But there's a hidden gem there too: the Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie. For chocolate lovers, this is the cookie of all cookies. It's deceivingly simple looking, like any other double chocolate cookie, but it's not. It's rich, but not too sweet; it's decadent, yet simple; and it tastes of really good quality chocolate, unlike so many. Be sure to buy the half-dozen pack to save you the trouble of having to return 15 minutes later after eating the first, to buy another. Trust me; it's that good.
Cake Eater Bakery
2929 E. 25th Street
Minneapolis, MN
612-354-7178
Website
Cake Eater is a cute, little shop tucked into a residential neighborhood. I loved all the cookies I tasted from this bakery, but the Peanut Butter and Sugar Vanilla Spice were my favorites. These cookies had just the right amount of chew and crunch. Great customer service here too; the man working even carried our drinks out to the car for me.
Bread & Chocolate
867 Grand Ave
St. Paul, MN 55105
651-228-1017
Website
This bakery has a number of delicious bar cookies, as well as drop cookies. A few of the perennial favorites here are the Famous Fudge Bars, the Seven Layer Bar and the cake-like Frosted Brownies. The dropped cookies are also tasty. The Chocolate Chunk Cookie was really good with big flat pieces of chocolate. Bread & Chocolate also has a scrumptious, chewy gluten-free Chocolate Brownie Cookie. I taste-tested it and found it to be very good.
Bars Bakery
612 Selby Ave
St. Paul, MN 55102
651-224-8300
Website
Bars Bakery is a quaint, little shop on a quaint block on Selby. Inside the pristine shop, the baked goods are prettily displayed. While they specialize in bar cookies, they have other types of cookies and pastries too. The Fudge Brownies were amazing. A rich, moist chocolate confection with salty, sweet caramel drizzled on top. They are cut in large slabs and easily shared by 3 or 4 people. The other masterpiece of those I tried is the chocolate-drizzled Coconut Macaroon. Not only was it perfection in taste and texture, it's also gluten-free.
Sarah Jane's Bakery
2853 Johnson Street
NE Minneapolis, MN 55418
612-789-2827
Website
If you are looking for an old-fashioned bakery with traditional, little, dainty cookies, this is the bakery for you. I sampled a miniature Date Filled Cookie, a delicate Chocolate Chip Macaroon Cookie and a pretty Sugar Cutout. These are the perfect choices for wedding and baby showers; or for those wanting to walk down memory lane and taste a bit of childhood.
St. Paul Classic Cookie Co.
2386 Territorial Rd
St. Paul, MN 55114
651-227-4840
Website
This tiny, hole-in-the-wall bakery has a long list of old favorites and interesting new combinations. The selection changes each day with a sampling from the list of flavors. I lucked out and arrived shortly after the cookies had come out of the oven and were still warm, which is how I like my cookies. My favorite was the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, but Sugar and Double Chocolate Chip were also mighty tasty. If you are on Twitter, be sure to follow @spclassiccookie. The baker live tweets which cookies are coming out of the oven.
A Piece of Cake
485 Selby
St. Paul, MN
651-846-0016
Website
A Piece of Cake is another traditional bakery. Here you will find a few cookies that other bakeries don't have. Two of my favorites: the Aunt Sally Cookies and the Melt-Away Cookies. The Aunt Sally is an old-fashioned, thin, very crisp molasses cookie with a thin, hard, white icing. It's a great cookie to have with coffee or tea. The Melt-Away Cookie is a small mound of sugar cookie with a poof of buttercream frosting and dash of colored sugar sprinkled on top and it does melt in your mouth. This is a beautiful and tasty, buttery, sweet cookie. If you go, please have the Melt-Away.
Keys Café
1682 Lexington Ave N
Roseville, MN 55113
651-487-5397
Website
Keys has a large variety of huge cookies and bars of scrumptious cookies. My favorite is the Monster Cookie. It's a combination of all things wonderful: oats, chocolate chips, M&Ms, peanut butter, etc. It was the only Monster Cookie I encountered during this tour of cookies and it was the largest cookie too. It's tempting to order a piece of cake when at Keys, but next time you're there, try a Monster Cookie. Keys Café has a number of locations around the metro area. I went to the Roseville location, but check the website for the other locations.
Patisserie 46
4552 Grand
South Minneapolis, MN
612-354-3257
Website
I love Patisserie 46 for a lot of reasons, and one of the reasons is the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. My favorite is when they are made with small, black currants, but it varies with what is on hand in the kitchen. These cookies are thin and crunchy and so flavorful. They are perfect with a hot cup of coffee and chat with a friend.
Pizzeria Lola
5557 Xerxes Ave S.
Minneapolis, MN 55410
612-424-8338
Website
Lastly, this is not a bakery, but I tasted a good number of chocolate chip cookie over the last month, and none compare to the Chocolate Chip Cookie here. These Chocolate Chip Cookies come slightly warm with the right amount of crunch and chew. It's apparent from the taste that the chocolate used is of good quality. The cookies are buttery, not too sweet and topped with a dusting of sea salt. Heaven.
-- Anna Berend is an attorney and the author of Motherly Law Blog. On Motherly Law, Anna writes about legal issues that affect families and offers tips and resources that pertain to those legal topics. On occasion, inspiration strikes and Anna writes about something totally unrelated to the law. Originally a Texan, Anna now resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, two young sons and a menagerie of pets. You can find Anna at www.motherlylaw.com, on Facebook at Motherly Law and on Twitter @MotherlyLaw.
