With Massachusetts being the birth place of the beloved chocolate chip cookie, perhaps it is no surprise Bay Staters are celebrating Chocolate Chip Cookie Week from March 3-9.
The classic cookie came to be after a Massachusetts woman, Ruth Wakefield of Whitman, added chunks of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate to cookie dough in 1939.
According to Nestlé, Wakefield believed the chocolate would melt and transform into chocolate cookie dough.
Instead, Wakefield created a happy-accident that would take Massachusetts, and the country, by a chocolatey storm.
Almost 90 years later, the chocolate chip cookie is still as popular as ever.
It’s not hard to find a chocolate chip cookie. They can be found at most bakeries, grocery stores and convenience stores. But MassLive has put together a list of cookie shops with raving chocolate chip cookie reviews, whose cookies go above and beyond when it comes to baking up the classic.
Whether it be the chocolate they use, the size of the cookie or unusual ingredients, these bakeries offer truly epic chocolate chip cookies.
Levain Bakery, Boston
Levain Bakery, at 180 Newbury St., Boston, is well-known for its “New York-style cookies.”
The bakery considers itself “New York City’s most famous cookie,” and has been recognized in publications such as The New York Times.
This world-class cookie has made its way to Boston and into the bellies, and hearts, of Massachusetts cookie lovers.
Levain Bakery is a woman-owned business whose renowned chocolate-chip cookie beat Bobby Flay’s in a bakeoff in 2008, and has inspired countless cookie connoisseurs to try and replicate it.
Levain’s official website describes it as a “decadent take on a classic chocolate chip cookie,” – possessing a “perfectly” crispy exterior and “satisfyingly thick and gooey,” interior.
It is made with semi-sweet, dark chocolate chips for a “rich depth of flavor.”
In addition to Levain’s take on the classic cookie, it also offers a chocolate chip walnut cookie, which is the bakery’s signature dish.
“Packed with semi-sweet chocolate chips and chunks of walnuts,” Bay Staters have several options to choose from when celebrating chocolate chip cookie week at Levain’s.
Cookie costs start at $5.65.
Hours: Open daily from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Chip City Cookies offers over 40 unique flavors of gourmet cookies.Chip City Cookies
Chip City, Watertown, Boston
Located at 104 Bond Square in Watertown, and 97 Causeway St. in Boston, Chip City offers guests a brown sugar cookie mixed with dark or milk chocolate chips.
This cookie-joint features a rotating menu – providing guests an opportunity to try nine of 46 cookie flavors.
Chip City considers its cookies “ooey-gooey,” with the classic chocolate chip always on deck at $4.75 per cookie, plus tax.
Hours:
Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Friday, 2 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Saturday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Insomnia Cookies in Worcester’s Kelley Square.
Aviva Luttrell
Insomnia Cookies, Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, Amherst
Just as its name suggests, Insomnia Cookies is up-all night, serving guests until 1 a.m.
According to Insomnia Cookies, the concept was conceived in a dorm room in 2003 when several college friends were “craving for something delicious.”
As the story goes, “they wanted to satisfy not only their late-night cravings but their insatiable hunger for adventure; for those stories that can only happen when the sun goes down and the Insomniac comes out.”
More than 20 years later, the concept has taken-off and the company has more than 200 locations – six of which are in Massachusetts.
Insomnia Cookies offers at least three variations of chocolate chip cookies: Vegan Chocolate Chunk, Gluten-free Chocolate Chip and a Deluxe Triple Chocolate Cookie.
Classic cookies — such as the Vegan Chocolate Chunk and Gluten-free Chocolate Chip — are $2.95 each.
Deluxe cookies — such as the Triple Chocolate Cookie — are $4.95 each and are considered to be “extra big cookies with extra good stuff,” according to Insomnia Cookies.
Hours vary by location:
30 Main St., Amherst
Sunday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. – 3 a.m.
222 Clarendon St., Boston
Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. – 12 a.m.
Thursday through Friday, 11 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Saturday, noon- 1 a.m.
Sunday, noon- 12 a.m.
Other locations:
61 Bromfield St., Boston
65 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge
708 Commonwealth Ave., Boston
One Kelley Square, Space 1B, Worcester
Cookies in the kitchen at Hot Oven Cookies in Springfield. (Don Treeger/The Republican)
Hot Oven Cookies, Chicopee, Springfield
Hot Oven Cookies, located at 28 Center St., Chicopee and 1209 Parker St., Springfield, is a woman-owned cookie shop offering rotating flavors “to keep the menu fresh and fun.” Weekly offerings are announced every Sunday via social media.
This cookie shop is known for its unique take-on a classic chocolate chip cookie: The Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cookie.
It is described as possessing a caramel cookie dough with “hand-chopped Belgian chocolate and extra, extra vanilla.”
This flagship cookie has become a staple at Hot Oven Cookies, earning its way onto the weekly offering list alongside The Boozy Cake Batter Sugar, Coquito Snickerdoodle and the Guava Cheesecake.
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. or until sold out.
Sheila Coon, owner of Hot Oven Cookies, with a few of her cookies in her former Allen Street store in Springfield. That store moved to Parker Street. (Don Treeger/The Republican)
Top Shelf Cookies, Boston
Top Shelf Cookies, located at 516 Gallivan Blvd., Boston, offers 12 cookie flavors daily, six of which are regularly available.
One repeat contender is Top Shelf Cookies’ popular Boston Lager Chocolate Chip.
This cookie combines “two revolutionary and vital discoveries from the state of Massachusetts: Chocolate Chip Cookies and Boston Lager.”
It is made with Samuel Adams Boston Lager, brown sugar, milk chocolate chips, vanilla extract and cinnamon.
Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Cookie Time Bakery, Arlington
Cookie Time Bakery, located at 1375 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, offers guests a variety of more than 40 cookie flavors from which to choose.
According to Cookie Time Bakery, what makes its cookies “so special” is butter.
Cookie Time Bakery offers several chocolate chip cookie variations such as the traditional chocolate chip, chocolate chip M&Ms, vegan chocolate chip shortbread, orange chocolate chip and coconut chocolate chip shortbread.
Hours:
Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
The Bean Counter Coffee Bar and Bakery in Worcester
Bean Counter Bakery, Worcester
Bean Counter Bakery Café, located at 270 Grove St., Worcester, offers several chocolate chip cookie options, including a Chocolate Chunk cookie, Peanut-Butter Chocolate Chip and “Not Your Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookie.”
Gluten-free and vegan-friendly chocolate chip cookie options are also available.
This bakery describes the Not Your Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookie as a French style, all-butter cookie with Callebaut chocolate, finished with Maldon sea salt. It costs $4.50 per cookie.
For the chocoholics, the Chocolate Chunk Cookies features large chunks of Belgium chocolate, providing more semi-sweetness in every bite.
Hours:
Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m
Sunday, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Crumbl Cookies expand to encompass nearly 1,000 stores.
Jessica Jones-Gorman
Crumbl Cookies, various locations
Crumbl Cookies is well-known for its cookies, with nearly 1,000 locations throughout the country.
Massachusetts is home to 16 of those locations, with shops in Attleboro, Dartmouth, Foxborough, Millbury and West Springfield.
Crumbl Cookies offers a rotating menu with at least six unique flavors on-hand daily. The classic Milk Chocolate Chip Cookie and Chilled Sugar Cookie are always available.
Crumbl’s Milk Chocolate Chip Cookie is described as “thick, soft, and packed with milk chocolate chips.”
Each cookie costs $4.78.
Hours vary by location. Find a store near you.
Cookie Monstah, various locations
While it all “started with a food truck and an oven,” Cookie Monstah has caught the attention of various media outlets, including Bostonia, Boston Magazine and the Travel Channel, and has grown to encompass six stationary locations in addition to the Monstah truck.
According to its official website, Cookie Monstah’s chocolate chip cookie features Callebaut Belgium chocolate, bourbon vanilla and farm-fresh butter.
The cookies are “put to rest, hand scopped, then baked to perfection.”
Cookie Monstah offers five variations of chocolate chip cookies – chocolate chunk, double chocolate, gluten-sensitive chocolate chip, peanut butter chocolate chip and vegan chocolate chip.
Cookie Monstah has taken this treat up another notch, offering an array of cookie sandwiches stuffed with “Richardson’s Cow-to-Cone farm-fresh ice cream.”
Single cookie costs start at $2.75, with cookie sandwiches start at $7.
Locations:
111 Turnpike St., North Andover
43 Dodge St. Unit A., Beverly
1257 Highland Ave., Needham
505 Paradise Road, Swampscott
76 Burlington Mall Road, Burlington
75 Newbury St., Danvers
Hours vary by location. Find a store near you.
