A ranking of the city’s best new cookies
10 This bakery is all about using hardier flours like spelt, rye and kamut to create upgraded versions of familiar recipes. Here, rye, white wheat and tahini provide a toasty and flavourful setting for a romance between white chocolate and figs—a grown-up take on chocolate chips and raisins, for the refined sweet tooth. $3.50. 6 Brock Ave., robinsonbread.com
9 Trendy stuffed cookies can be a little bit extra, but when you’re at Leslieville’s artisanal single-origin chocolate factory, which makes its own graham crackers and marshmallows, they’re exactly what you want. Their s’mores cookie is perfectly chewy, caramelized and chocolatey without being too sweet. Three torched mini marshmallows bring the campfire component. $4.20. 20 Wagstaff Dr., unit C, soulchocolate.com
8 The cookies here are designed to sandwich the bakery’s house-made ice cream, but they’re also excellent on their own. Add a scoop of jasmine taro to the black cocoa sablé with shards of caramelized white chocolate, and it turns into a big, out-of-this-world Oreo with a twist. $2.05. 1695 Dundas St. W., moonmilktoronto.com
7 What sets this cookie apart is its texture: crispy edges, a chewy interior with chopped-up chunks of dark chocolate, and a generous pinch of Maldon salt on top all combine into a single intense but balanced bite. $2.75. 806 Bloor St. W., ba-noi.myshopify.com
6 This is the ultimate tribute to the Lotus Biscoff, a Belgian spiced shortbread cookie you may recognize from your last international flight. Soft cinnamon dough is strewn with white chocolate and bits of the famous cookie, slathered with creamy cookie butter, and topped with Biscoff two ways (an entire cookie and a dusting of crumbs) for a comforting bouquet of winter spices. $4.50. 1632 Bloor St. W. and 166 Ossington Ave., andreascookies.com
5 This Harbord Street bakery has achieved the impossible: improving upon the already perfect peanut butter cookie. Bits of deeply roasted miso-laced peanut brittle speckle a bed of peanut-buttery dough, which gets a hit of flaky sea salt after it’s baked. The result is a cookie with loads of umami—never mind dessert, this is dinner material. $4.25. 161 Harbord St., emmertoronto.ca
4 It should come as no surprise that the sister bakery to the country’s best cocktail bar makes superior cookies. The tender inner workings of their pecan-caramel confection are enveloped by a thick, crunchy, buttery crust, like one giant roasted nut. The disc is irrigated with dollops of gooey coffee-infused caramel and pecan-praline sauce for a truly indulgent bite. $3.95. 655 College St., pompette.ca/bakery
3 It’s easy being green at this East Chinatown spot. Their verdant grown-up cookie is made with top-notch ingredients treated respectfully. The matcha is smooth and vibrant without a hint of bitterness; the milk chocolate is creamy and not cloying; the dough is buttery and soft. Rich yet light, it all but melts in your mouth. $3.65. 583 Gerrard St. E., isshobakery.com
2 The sourdough starter used at this Ossington bakery adds depth to the kamut and wheat flour dough and results in a lighter crumb. Tahini, a dash of sesame oil and an eye-catching two-tone sesame seed shell give it some serious halvah vibes while keeping it surprisingly moist and light. $3.95. 48 Ossington Ave., deargrain.com
1 This nutty, milk-chocolatey cookie contains a multitude of textures: crispy, crunchy, chewy, creamy. Despite its heft, it’s perfectly delicate, light yet substantial and possibly the best delivery mechanism ever devised for walnuts. Ingredient-wise, this may be the simplest cookie on our list, but the care with which it’s prepared puts it in a league of its own. $4.50. 1715 Bloor St. W., instagram.com/cosette_coffee
NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY
Sign up for The Vault, our free newsletter with unforgettable long reads from our archives.
Nick Zarzycki is a freelance writer living and working in Toronto. His articles about the city’s hidden culinary gems have appeared in Toronto Life, and his blogs about tennis on Defector.com. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Vancouver Magazine, Maclean’s and the National Post.