Martin Allred

Greens' Golden Gate Bridge cookies.

Greens executive chef/owner Annie Somerville collaborated with her pastry chef Sandi Sumaylo to create an official commemorative cookie commissioned by Fort Mason Center for the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary.

Burning bridges is always a bad idea, but eating them is good. Cook E. Monster devoured almost two entire bridges that they built out of Madagascar vanilla-enhanced butter shortbread and orange Royal icing -- and we could have happily devoured more. Royal iced cookies can be heavy handed, but the refined touch here is clear and appreciated in both the visual detail and the taste.

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Tamara Palmer

Various tea cookies from Nora's Patisserie.

One might not expect to find pastries from a chef trained by a former White House toque in a City of Repose, but that's part of what makes the Bay Area food scene always surprising.

Nora's Patisserie (29 San Pedro Road), located on a non-descript stretch in Colma, is a hidden treasure for appreciators of pastries in general -- and tea cookies in particular. Seriously, if you want to die in tea cookie heaven, this is the place.

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Tamara Palmer

DeLessio Market's chocolate chip cookie dough in action.

DeLessio Market is the latest local business to offer its chocolate chip cookie dough in addition to finished cookies. Priced by weight ($8.95/pound), each slab is meant to be sliced into eight to 10 pieces, or you can follow the Cook E. Monster's lead and make fewer but bigger cookies.More >>

Tamara Palmer

The Kitchen Sink cookie from Market & Rye and 3-Sum Eats

​When Top Chef alum Ryan Scott opened his first restaurant, Market & Rye (68 West Portal), last week, we learned that the salads and sandwiches are balanced out by a wicked sweets counter of confections that are absolutely a reward for eating such a healthy lunch. Luckily, he's seen fit to include the Kitchen Sink cookie made infamous on his 3-Sum Eats food truck.More >>

Tamara Palmer

Batter Bakery's peanut butter blossom.

​This week, Cook E. Monster was all set to gush about the sand angel cookie at the Batter Bakery, which operates a California Street kiosk in the Financial District and shares a Polk street cafe with healthy prepared food purveyor Square Meals. This soft cookie has a recipe so special, lore has it that owner Jen Musty keeps it strictly to herself. So we're not sure if it's correct to say that it might contain hints of molasses, but we felt it important enough to drive across town to verify that they are still awesome.More >>

Tamara Palmer

Holly Baking's Sweet Ginger Cookie Brittle.

​Upon initial inspection of Holly Baking's Sweet Ginger Cookie Brittle, Cook E. Monster conjured up images of sticky candy getting stuck in the back teeth. Instead, these neatly shatter into piles of sugar, cinnamon, and pulverized ginger. The box touts all-natural ingredients, but the cookies themselves still have the feeling of a naughty binge. It takes a special person with a pronounced form of willpower to stop after eating just one of these bars. More >>

Tamara Palmer

Parker's Crazy Cookies' Pirate Collection.

​Based in Hayward, Parker's Crazy Cookies sells vanilla-flavored cookies around the Bay Area (here's a list of retailers). Parker's sells a wide variety of cookie themes representing holidays, religion (Star of David), politics (Barack Obama), and even the Golden Gate Bridge. We're partial to the treasure chests, parrots, and swashbucklers in the pirate collection.

The cool twist with this company is that they'll create a custom collection of whatever you like (within reason, we assume). Submit a logo or photo via the website, and you'll be able to eat your cookie design within a few weeks.

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Tamara Palmer

DiY: Baker & Banker's frozen cookie dough ($10).

​Baker & Banker Bakery, neighbor to Lori Baker and Jeff Banker's restaurant, packs a lot of potency into a small retail space. Recognizing the addictive power of its cookies, B&BB now offers frozen dough to go in two varieties: ginger and brown-butter chocolate chip. For $10, you can bake up to a dozen small cookies in 12 minutes.

Cook E. Monster is a little bit more indulgent than that, so we grabbed a slab of brown butter chocolate chip and cut only nine big pieces to lay out on a cookie sheet. We also picked up a finished cookie from the bakery so as to be incredibly scientific about comparing their results with ours.

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Tamara Palmer

Chestnut Bakery's oatmeal cranberry toffee chocolate chip cookie.

​The focus at Chestnut Bakery in Cow Hollow is largely on breakfast pastries, breads, and cakes (including cute mini ones decorated with polka dots). When it comes to cookies, though, the limited selection turns out to be a glorious cut to the chase.

Many bakeries make dessert decisions tough to arrive at by packing too many options into the case. Chestnut takes a more appealing tack: offering all those options in one treat. And, thus, the oatmeal cranberry toffee chocolate chip cookie was created.

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Tamara Palmer

Almond Cup by Nina's Nutritious Cookies.

​The "health" corner of the cookie market is dominated by offerings that make better paperweights than desserts. Your voracious Cook E. Monster has wasted unconscionable amounts of pocket change finding out this fact in a vain quest for guilt- (and gluten-) free sweets, but the research has finally yielded a gem.

Nina's Nutritious Cookies of Oakland might actually be costing itself some business with its moniker, at least as far as its Almond Cup is concerned. This tart-like cookie is made with ingredients such as stone-ground whole wheat flour, flax seeds, and almonds, which on paper sounds like a recipe for a dry mess but in practice is surprisingly luscious.

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