8 slam-dunk cookie recipes from some of Philly’s best bakeries and restaurants
From stunning sourdough chocolate chips to creamy cranberry swirl cheesecake bars, this holiday cookie plate bucks tradition, but it’ll win you over anyway.
Thanksgiving is over. The nice silverware’s put away, the leftovers are gone, and holiday shopping has commenced. That can only mean one thing: It’s cookie season again.
As in years past, The Inquirer set out to collect cookie recipes from a range of Philadelphia’s excellent bakeries and restaurants. This year’s assortment skews less traditional holiday (no gingerbread, no sugar cookies), but it’s chock-full of big-name showstoppers and seemingly humble sleeper hits.
There are black and white cookies from Essen, sourdough chocolate chips from Her Place, cranberry swirl cheesecake bars from Flakely, and bourbon-pecan cookies from Small Oven Pastry Shop. The eight recipes also showcase the diversity of our sweets scene, from Manna Bakery’s barazek-inspired honey-sesame cookies to Mamie Colette’s aromatic madeleines and Merenda Box’s Fig Newton-esque goiabinha. And this year we added a savory entry: sesame-cheddar crisps from Third Wheel Cheese Co.
Whether you make one or all, you can’t go wrong. So break out the mixer and get baking.
While many home bakers use measuring cups and spoons to whip up a batch of cookies, professional bakers almost always measure ingredients by weight, using a scale. In fact, most of the original, unedited recipes sent to us used grams or ounces.
For convenience, we have included most measurements both by weight and volume. Use whatever you feel comfortable with, but know that we tested all the recipes (and had great success) using weight measurements.
If you have not yet invested in a home scale, there’s a compelling reason to do so: It makes cleanup easier. When measuring something sticky like maple syrup or honey, you can simply put the bowl it’s destined for on the scale, zero out its weight, then (slowly) add the ingredient directly to the bowl. No mess involved.
You’ll likely need to plan ahead to make these wonderfully thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies from Her Place and My Loup chef-owner Amanda Shulman, but trust us, they’re worth the effort. Get one cup’s worth of sourdough starter discard in order first. You can make your own starter, of course, but several Philly bakeries, including Lost Bread and Mighty Bread, will give you a hunk of theirs for free so you can grow it. (Or take a shortcut and ask your homemade bread-baking neighbors.)
Citric acid helps bump up the sourdough flavor, but it’s optional. Shulman’s recipe calls for a ton of chopped chocolate (3½ cups’ worth), so buy a handful of bars. Chocolate chips are easy and they work, but we wish we had gone with chopped, because it distributes more evenly and has a more striking appearance.
Also, if you think you’ll make this recipe, brown the butter, let it cool, and set it aside in the fridge so you’ll be ready. Like we said, there’s planning involved — would you expect anything less from one of Food & Wine’s best new chefs? — but these might be the chocolate chips of the year. Plus, baking them is a surefire way of trying Shulman’s food without vying for a near-impossible reservation.
You can download the recipe here.
Yields 40-ish cookies
230 grams (2 sticks) unsalted butter
220 grams (1 cup plus scant tablespoon) white sugar
220 grams (1 cup plus 2 teaspoons packed) light brown sugar
1 pinch citric acid (optional)
385 grams (3 cups plus 3 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla paste (or extract)
245 grams (1 cup) sourdough starter discard
600 grams (3½ cups) 60% dark chocolate, chopped
Flaky sea salt for garnish
In a medium saucepan, brown the butter over medium, until it smells fragrant, nutty, and the milk solids at the bottom have browned. Keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Transfer to a bowl or a container. Let cool until no longer melted and nicely tempered; this can be done well in advance.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the cooled butter, both sugars, and a pinch of citric acid on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue to mix 2 to 3 minutes longer.
Add the sourdough starter and mix on medium until incorporated, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl once.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer gradually and mix on medium, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice. Mix in chopped dark chocolate.
Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days. (The dough keeps 2 months in the freezer.)
When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350°F. Scoop and roll the dough into 50-gram balls (about 2 generous tablespoons), spacing the dough evenly apart on a lined sheet pan. Top each with a pinch of flaky salt.
Bake at 350°F, rotating the pan after 8 minutes. Bake for another 4 to 6 minutes, until edges are set and center is gooey. Cool on a wire rack.
Consider these irresistibly chewy cookies an introduction to Saif Manna’s style of treats: They’re big, beautiful, and absolutely delicious. A longtime home cook and baker raised in Dubai, Manna launched his eponymous online bakery business while still a student at Temple; he’s currently eyeing brick-and-mortar spaces. Cookies aren’t his only thing — he makes fluffy brioche doughnuts and a stellar Basque cheesecake — but he makes them so large (usually 6 ounces) and decadent, they’re bound to become his calling card. He based this recipe on crunchy barazek cookies, which he sometimes had (but disliked) as a kid visiting his grandparents in Jordan. He’s reinvented them as gooey but crisp-edged sesame-coated cookies that have beautiful rippling thanks to the “pan-banging” method he’s borrowed from baker Sarah Kieffer. If you haven’t browned butter before, Manna suggests staying by the stove while it cooks — first melting, then boiling, then foaming — to avoid burning it. Whole spelt flour adds complexity to the cookie’s flavor; you can swap it out for whole wheat or all-purpose if it’s too hard to find.
Buy it instead: Manna Bakery sells honey-sesame cookies for pickup at the link in its Instagram bio (@mannabakery1324).
120 grams (1 stick plus ½ tablespoon) butter
100 grams (5 tablespoons) honey
105 grams (½ cup) white sugar
105 grams (½ cup packed) light brown sugar
1 large egg
170 grams (1⅓ cups plus 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
30 grams (⅓ cup) whole spelt flour (or whole wheat or all-purpose flour)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
30 grams (3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons) sesame seeds, toasted
¼ cup freeze-dried raspberries, crushed into a coarse powder (optional)
2 to 3 tablespoons pistachios, roughly chopped (optional)
In a small saucepan over medium, melt the butter, then cook — it will boil, then foam — stirring occasionally, until it smells caramelized and the milk solids in the butter are browned, about 5 minutes total. Once the butter begins to foam, it should only take 20 to 30 seconds for it to caramelize. Tilt and swirl the saucepan or use a spoon to check the color of the milk solids at the bottom; you want them to be a deep golden brown. Remove from the stove and add the honey. Set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, spelt flour (if using), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
In a large bowl, combine the white and light brown sugar. Add the butter-honey mixture. Whisk together to combine. Add the egg and mix until smooth and homogeneous.
Add the dry ingredients to the sugar-egg mixture and fold everything together with a spatula until no streaks of flour remain. The dough will be sticky. Place in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably for a few hours and up to overnight. (If you are in a rush, place in the freezer for 20 minutes.)
Using a scoop or a tablespoon, measure out 50 to 55 grams (2 generous tablespoons) of dough and roll into a smooth ball. Dip each dough ball into the toasted sesame seeds; only the tops need to be coated. Arrange 4 balls on a parchment-lined sheet pan, evenly spaced. Place in the freezer while the oven heats. (You can also store shaped dough in the freezer for up to a month in sealed plastic bags and bake whenever. Let frozen dough balls stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before baking.)
Heat the oven to 350°F. Bake for 5 minutes, then carefully remove the pan and bang it on the counter a few times. Return to the oven and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, until the edges are browned and crisp and the centers are set.
Remove the cookies from the oven and bang the pan on the counter again a few times. Allow the cookies to cool a few minutes more. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and crushed freeze-dried raspberries, if using.
Try not to eat all of the (ridiculously good) raw dough for these icebox-style cookies from Small Oven Pastry Shop’s chef-owner, Chad Durkin. Durkin — who cranks out gorgeous sweet things for Small Oven and epic sandwiches for its sister business, Porco’s Porchetteria — says this is a go-to holiday recipe because it’s easy to make and just works well. For a little flourish, he lacquers the sliced cookie dough with egg wash; garnishes each with a whole pecan, thumbprint-style; then drizzles a boozy bourbon glaze over them when they’re completely cool. You could skip all of that and still have excellent cookies. This recipe doubles well and the dough can sit in your freezer or fridge until you’re ready to slice it up and bake.
Buy it instead: Small Oven will include these bourbon-pecan cookies in its holiday cookie platter. Buy them come December at 2204 Washington Ave.
For the dough:
6 ounces (1½ cups diced) pecans, plus more for decorating (optional)
6 ounces (1½ sticks) butter, cold
7 ounces (1 cup) white sugar
1 egg yolk, plus 1 large egg, lightly beaten for the egg wash (optional)
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, scraped and seeds set aside (or 1 tablespoon vanilla paste or extract)
1 ounce (⅛ cup) bourbon
8 ounces (scant 2 cups) all-purpose flour
For the bourbon glaze (optional):
4 ounces (1 cup) powdered sugar
¾ ounce bourbon
In a large skillet over medium-high, toast the pecans until fragrant and lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Cool completely and then pulse in a food processor until the nuts are the size of coarsely ground cornmeal.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolk, salt, vanilla, and bourbon; scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add the ground pecans, followed by the flour, and mix just until incorporated. The dough will be homogeneous and slightly sticky.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and roll into a log approximately 2½ inches in diameter. Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate or freeze.
When completely chilled, slice the log into ¼-inch thick slices. Lightly brush the tops of the cookies with the lightly beaten egg, then press a pecan piece in the center of each cookie.
Bake at 350°F on the middle and upper racks of the oven for 7 to 10 minutes, until the edges are just brown. Let cool to room temperature.
If desired, make the glaze. Sift the powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Slowly add the bourbon and whisk until smooth (if it’s not enough liquid, add milk or water 1 teaspoon at a time). Using a spoon or a piping bag, drizzle completely cooled cookies with glaze. Allow to set before storing.
