Monday, February 23, 2009

Best Cookie: Jersey City



My friend Kelly, who lives in Jersey City, was kind enough to help me find the best cookie in town.



Made With Love is the name of the bakery that sells cookies that are so easy to love.
Check out their website: Made With Love Organic Bakery

And it's not just a clever name. I had the pleasure of meeting the owner, Celeste Governanti, who created the cookies that you're about to meet. She exudes warmth and extends kindness to the people who enter her organic bakery; there is no doubt she infuses her inventions with the same such love.


The long and narrow bakery is lined with tables on one side and a counter stocked with goodies on the other. Pity I wasn’t searching out the best bread, pie, tart, cupcake, etc. because they all looked incrEDIBLE! Kelly and I decided on a getting an assortment of flavors to sample: Oatmeal, Coconut Butter Cookie, and Gargantuan Walnut Chocolate.

We sat at the table next to the window, watching drops of rain gather, pool and roll in our periphery. We sat with a cup of Earl Grey each. We sat for a tea party on a chilly Sunday in late February.

As soon as I bit into the Oatmeal cookie, I felt like an ooh-la-la-lady! The cookie, like 3-dimensional lace, was lightly spiced and ladylike.
The Coconut Butter Cookie read like a macaroon, with its abundant flecks of coconut, in the body of a shortbread. It had a fine gossamer outer crisp and a delicate chew (from the coconut) throughout. It was a perfect treat.
And the Earl Grey complimented both, wonderfully.



Everything was femme-tastic.
And then we pulled out the Gargantuan Walnut Chocolate Chunk cookie. If Paul Bunyan made cookies, they would look like this...like an 8-bedroom apartment. There were actual “compartments” to this cookie—what, with the large walnut pieces and dark chocolate chunks. We pulled off three rooms to sample and the cookie still appeared to not have been touched. Remarkable! A good, firm chew. Yum-mum-um-yum.



Would I eat it again?
Yes!
On Yin days I'd eat the Oatmeal or Coconut Butter cookies.
On Yang days I'd eat the Gargantuan Walnut Chocolate cookie.

3 comments:

  1. Wait til Cocoa Bakery opens in Jersey City.

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  2. I've read about this Cocoa Bakery, Eric.

    I'm a pretty smitten with Made With Love but I could see putting together an All-Star team, if necessary.

    To be continued...

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  3. We sell cookies to order now, and we have a Cookie of the Month Club (http://www.cocoabakerycafe.com/cookieofthemonthclub.html), and we'll be at Newport NA's festival on Oct 3.

    We planned on being at the Grove Pointe Farmer's market but were blocked from doing so.

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