Best Store-Bought Cookies Ever

I pride myself in not regularly eating store-bought cookies. I mean, if I'm gonna "waste" calories, I'm gonna waste them on some home-baked, fresh-from-the-oven sweets -- not crunchy, crumbly, flavorless yuckies from the grocery store.* I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm a cookie snob.

So when I decided to give Candy Cane Oreos a whirl on Sunday, I had fairly low expectations. I thought, "Creme with crunchy sprinkles? I dunno . . ." But I tried one, anyway, 'cause who can resist a mint/chocolate combination, and lo and behold! I was forever changed. That cookie was magical. I. Wanted. More.

So more I got. Four bags more, in fact. Yes, that's right -- the following day I bought the last four bags (that I could find) at Wally World. I didn't eat them all . . . That would just be ridiculous. I gave two bags away and am considering giving the fourth away. Why? Because the world has to know about these cookies. They are the best, and I can't keep that knowledge to myself. (That does not mean I haven't eat at least six Oreos every night for the last three nights. A girl has got to eat, after all.)

Anyway, buy a bag.** Or don't. Because they're like Pringles that way: Once you pop, you can't stop!


* It's quite amazing that one company can produce both the best cookie and the worst. (See Food Review: Mint OREO Fudge Cremes.)
** Incidentally, the bag is extremely user-friendly. You can re-seal it after you've had your fill of cookies. It really locks in that crisp Oreo freshness.

I Heart Chocolate Silk

A couple of weeks ago, a friend suggested I buy Chocolate Silk. He said it was life-changing. I didn't believe him, but I bought it anyway. I thought maybe he knew what he was talking about.

He knew what he was talking about.


The first time I had soy milk was years ago. My sister-in-law drinks the vanilla-flavored Silk, so I tried it and hated it. (I felt so bad for people with lactose intolerance and thanked my lucky stars that I could pour as much milk on my cereal as I wanted without hesitation.) I thought Chocolate Silk would taste just as bad, especially since ready-made chocolate milk is, in my opinion, gross. (It's always too chocolatey!) Boy, was I wrong! In fact, I love the stuff so much that I drink it nearly every day. I like to have some when I get home from school or work; it gives me something to look forward to. Yesterday, however, I had to go home in the middle of the day, and I was more than a little excited that I'd get to "cheat" and have my glass of Chocolate Silk in the afternoon.

I'm probably addicted now, but there are worse things to get addicted to, right? I mean, I don't eat enough protein as it is . . . And if I'm going to have a chocolate fix each day (which I almost always do), at least it's in the form of soy milk than say, a candy bar. Right? Right??? Can I get a AMEN? ;)

A New Kind of Chocolate . . . In Peru!

Did you know that chocolate is influenced by the region where it's grown? Depending on the country from which it comes, a cacao bean can have complex changes in flavor. Recently, scientists from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service reported discovering three previously unknown varieties of wild cacao in Peru.

But what does this Peruvian chocolate taste like, you ask?

Sadly for chocoholics, it will be several years before we get to find out. Cacao is a slow-growing tree; it takes at least five years for a tree to bear pods. So it will be a long while yet before the saplings now growing at a central collection spot in Tarapoto, Peru, yield enough beans to turn into chocolate.*

I think the takeaway from this news is twofold:

1. Be on the lookout for Peruvian chocolate in a few years.
2. Try chocolate from other regions of the world! (Apparently, Bolivian chocolate is amazing.

*Source: In Peru, A Hunt for Chocolate like You've Never Tasted It.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies I've Ever Eaten

Chocolate chip cookies are hard to get right. It's such a simple cookie, really, so you'd think there wouldn't be much to it. But that's precisely why I think good chocolate chip cookies are so hard to come by. Besides chocolate, there aren't many complex flavors going on in that cookie, You can't hide, for example, a bland base flavor by adding the excitement of M&Ms or butterscotch chips or coconut. It's just the base and the chocolate chips.

It may seem odd, but for a long time, the best chocolate chip cookies I had ever had were the Nestle Toll House cookies sold at Subway. They definitely had the best flavor. Still, they were always too flat for my liking.

I've tried chocolate chip cookies from all sorts of places. I even try to make my own, when I can't find the best recipe, but I can never get them quite right, either . . .

I finally found the best, though. At a hole-in-the-wall deli in Austin. Specializing in sandwiches, salads, and soups, Fricano's Deli is an unlikely place to find the best chocolate chip cookie. It's a tiny place just north of The University of Texas' campus, and it's fantastic. To be sure, the sandwiches are delicious, but I was surprised to find that they made desserts from scratch.

When I was there the first time, I saw one of the employees mixing the cookie batter. She said something about how she put her "heart and soul" into the cookies. At first I thought it was sort of a silly thing to say, but a while later, after I had devoured my cookie, I realized that she wasn't kidding!

If you are in Austin, get your chocolate chip cookies from Fricano's only! I don't care what anybody else says about other bakeries in town -- trust me, they're not as good!


Update: Not long after publishing this post, I went to Fricano's to buy more cookies. I asked for the recipe, and they told me they used the one on the back of the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip bag! I couldn't believe it, but the guy I talked to assured me that's what they used. I'm betting that they use a bit more flour than the original recipe calls for . . . And maybe that woman I talked to before really does put her heart and soul into the batter! :)