When the Apple personal assistant Siri is asked the question, “what is zero divided by zero,” she responds with the answer: “Imagine that you have zero cookies and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? See? It doesn’t make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies, and you are sad that you have no friends.” — Wikipedia entry on Cookie Monster
There’s almost no problem that a cookie can’t solve. Hungry? How ‘bout a chocolate chip cookie? Depressed? Oatmeal raisin will cheer you right up. Tired? A protein-packed cookie will put pep in your step.
Memphis has plenty of great cookies, from the standard to the sublime, sprinkled all about town. Go grab you a dozen or two.
Did we miss your favorite? That’s how the cookie crumbles. But let us know in the comments.
And, now, in no particular order … the best 11 cookies in Memphis.
Oatmeal Cream Pie
A crowd pleaser, this cookie includes two perfect oatmeal cookies crushing on some super-sweet buttercream icing. It’s a take on Little Debbie’s oatmeal cream pie. From Muddy’s, which knows a thing or two about sweets. For your sweetest tooth.
Muddy’s Bake Shop, 5101 Sanderlin (683-8844)
Marranitos from La Espiga
You, a porch, temps in the 60s, a steaming cup of coffee, a marranito from La Espiga on Summer. This cookie, sweetened with molasses, has long been an obsession of ours. Will do for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
La Espiga, 3967 Summer (454-9220)
Butter Cookies
We could sing the praises of this cookie all day long — buttery and so rich as to knock you to your knees. Bring a tray of Makeda’s butter cookies to any event and you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Their peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies are excellent, too.
Makeda’s, 488 2nd (295-0901)
Lemon Blueberry Sugar Cookie
Large and bold. This cookie is no ordinary sugar cookie. This one has zing. The bite of the lemon is tempered by the sweet of the blueberry. It’s a beautiful thing and is available at Dessert Therapy, a relatively new sweets shop in East Memphis.
Dessert Therapy, 6645 Poplar, Carrefour Kirby Shopping Plaza (567-8837)
About as close to a Platonic ideal of a cookie as one can get. Crisp bottom, fluffy center — salty and peanut buttery. Terrific. From Lucy J. Bakery in the Crosstown Concourse. They pay their workers a living wage, which makes this cookie all the sweeter.
Lucy J Bakery, 1350 Concourse (257-9206)
Macarons
Pretty and delicate — in both taste and appearance. These dainties are for Memphis’ best ladies and gentlemen, mane. A real treat from 17 Berkshire.
17 Berkshire, 2094 Trimble Place (729-7916)
— Susan Ellis
Acorn Cookies
Nostalgia lovers might remember the home-made “acorn” cookies at the old Seessel’s grocery stores. They were acorn-shaped.cookies with raspberry filling dipped in chocolate with sprinkles. Milk Dessert Bar owner Sharon Cohn re-created the cookies from memory. As one who worked at Seessel’s for three years, I can say Cohn did a good job. They evoke those great days at Seessel’s, when children were given free ladyfingers when they passed by the store’s bakery with their parents.
Milk Dessert Bar, 1789 Kirby Parkway No. 10 (730-0893)
Gingerbread Men
Kay Bakery sells its gingerbread men all year ‘round, but the cookies are more popular during Christmas, says Queo Bautista, one of the owners. That’s when they sell “10 or 12 dozen daily,” he says. They still decorate them the way they were decorated back in the 1950s and they still use the same cookie cutters, he says.
Sugar Cookies
The sugar cookies in Halloween shapes of a ghost, pumpkins and a black cat with an arched back at Kay Bakery evoke Halloweens past, particularly for Baby Boomers. And, like the gingerbread men, these are the made from the same cookie cutters as the ones made decades ago.
Kay Bakery, 667 Avon (767-0780)
Butter Cookies
You might think of a butter cookie as something shaped like a daisy or just a thin beige cookie, but the butter cookies at Frost Bake Shop are thick, white cookies with yellow rivulets. If you’re into texture along with great taste, these are for you.
Frost, 394 Grove Park, Laurelwood Shopping Center (682-4545)
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Maybe it’s because they’re rectangle and small instead of big and round in addition to tasting great, but whatever it is the chocolate chip cookies at Ricki’s Cookie Corner & Bakery are addictive. It’s hard to stop eating them. Owner Ricki Krupp says her chocolate chip cookies are made of flour, sugar, eggs, and canola oil, but she puts her personal touch in each cookie. Krupp says she took a basic recipe and over the years tweaked it. She now sells 4,000 of her chocolate chip cookies a week.
Ricki’s Cookie Corner, 5068 Park Avenue (866-2447)
— Michael Donahue