Gooey (and Delicious) on the Inside

When I lived in Paris, one of the things I missed about American sweets was the utter absurdity. Twinkies. Magnolia cupcakes. Cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookies. As lovely and divine as a macaron or chocolate éclair is, sometimes you just want to sink your teeth into something over-the-top decadent.

Enter Gooey on the Inside. These cookies are like the chubby, eccentric love child of Levain and Momofuku: hefty, chockablock, slightly mad, but all kinds of delicious.

And, as you’ll soon see, their mad creator, Kafi Dublin, has just the personality to make these over-the-top cookies absolutely irresistible.

Q: Give us the skinny on Gooey on the Inside!

A: There are two things that I'm innately good at: baking and fashion. I had enough of working in the private sector around idiots with no common sense, so I said it's time to follow my passion. It was the best decision I ever made! As I am fanatical, obsessive compulsive and detailed oriented, I relentlessly worked on perfecting my recipes because failure was not option and I know how brutal NYC foodies and critics can be. And I was not going to fall prey to such criticism.

Q: Let's play a quick game of association. What's the first word that comes to mind when you hear...

Red Velvet= addicted

Peanut Butter=sticky

Birthday Cake= comforting

Honeycomb=unique

Creme Brulée= sophisticated

Chocolate Chip=childhood

Q: You clearly have a penchant for over-the-top flavors. Where do you get your inspiration?

A: Have you seen my closet?! People who know me, know that I am not "normal.” I embrace my eccentricities! I have never been one to follow the crowd and so there was no way due to my DNA that I could create "simple" cookies. Impossible!

Q: How often do you introduce new flavors?

A: Whenever I get inspired. Whenever I eat something that impresses my taste buds, I always think, “How can I take this item's flavor profile and convert it into a cookie?" Buffalo jerky didn't really work out; foie on the other hand... brilliant!

Q: Are there any flavors that you thought would be delicious but just didn't make the cut?  

A: Buffalo jerky, grilled cheese and green tea. Yucky!

Q: Who are some of your baking heroes? 

A: I don't really have any except for my mother. All my memories of " the best things I've ever eaten" come from my mother.

Q:  Where can people find you and your madly delicious cookies? 

A: Currently, they can be purchased on my website: www.gooeyontheinside.com
Starting May 25, until October, I will be at the Hester Street Fair. I'm hoping to open a little dessert "nook" in NYC in the near future.

Breakfast at Cookshop

When two fellow Sweet Freaks invite you to meet for a pastry breakfast at which the talented pastry chef will be present, what do you do?

Duh.

 

Needless to say, I was all too thrilled to join Niko and Kathy recently for a casual breakfast at Cookshop, at which Chef Amanda Cook talked to us about the development of the restaurant’s breakfast and pastry services. Since April, they’ve been serving up fresh baked muffins, scones, cakes and other pastries—including the most divine pain au chocolat I’ve had since Paris.

Much more chocolaty than anything you’d find là-bas, but with about the same amount of butter (that is, a lot), it was nothing short of heavenly. And Chef Cook graciously offered to start serving them with Kleenex as I told her it made me want to weep.

On the American front, she’s just as adept. A butternut squash chocolate chip muffin?? Genius.

Deliciously moist and spongy, it’s her favorite baked good with good reason.

And though I too loved it, and the blueberry muffin and Have a Nice Day muffin...

... I was especially crazy for the cookies.

Chocolate chip cookies that are gritty with sugar and butter and wonderfully laden with boulders of chocolate. And the peanut butter cookies: also magically moist, both savory and sugary.

The daily offerings, which come out of the oven right before the restaurant opens at 7:30 and are served supremely fresh until 11, change daily. So I think Niko, Kathy and I are going to have to return to sample some more.

Cookshop
156 10th Avenue

Salted chocolate chip cookie at The Smile To Go

A crunchy cookie + nickel-sized melty chunks of chocolate, dusted with coarse sea salt. Salty, sweet, chocolaty, crunchiness...

Get one now.

Cookie monsters

It's been a slow, steady descent. Ever since Paris, My Sweet launched, I have been on a tear. There have been launch parties (macarons! brownies!), promotional tours (cookies in Philly! candy in San Francisco!), and gifts galore. There has not been a lot of restraint.

I'm not a girl to say no. Especially to freshly baked cookies that come wrapped in a bow. Specifically, Levain's six-ounce juggernauts of richness, sweetness and insanity.

Chocolate peanut butter chip: rich and savory. Good protein, right??

Oatmeal raisin: perhaps the sweetest, heaviest specimens ever sampled.

Double chocolate. Double dark chocolate. Like a sweet punch to the gut.

And good old chocolate chip. With walnuts to lend some seriousness.

At my various book events, people often ask what my favorite sweet in New York City is. It's a tough question with no single answer. It depends on my mood, the time of day, how chubby I'm feeling, what neighborhood I'm in—many things. But I always come back to Levain. Connie McDonald and Pam Weekes have created something deliciously decadent and all-around wonderful in Levain.

Heaven help me Hope's Cookies

I’m often asked what my favorite dessert is. Which is next to impossible to answer. There are just so many amazing possibilities. It depends on my mood, my company, the time of the day, the season… it’s complicated business, this sweets obsession.

Unless we’re talking about cookies. Then it’s frighteningly easy and clear. Cookies are my favorite.

But then the question becomes, what kind?

You can never go wrong with a classic chocolate chip cookie, but then sometimes you’re confronted with an amazing selection of omigod options.

Like I was at Hope’s Cookies inside Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market.

From chocolate raspberry to caramel pecan…

Oatmeal raisin to apricot almond….

Peanut butter to snickerdoodles…

I have to say, they looked so over-the-top ridiculous that I had low expectations. But I was blown away.

Each cookie was moist, sugary and buttery.



Every flavor was unique.


They were generously sized but not obscene.


And, well, I’m in trouble. Because I now know that Hope’s delivers.

Last minute but rich and delicious

Vite, vite! Looking for a killer Valentine’s gift today in Manhattan? Here are decadent pick-me-ups from all over town.

• Warm pain au chocolate at Patisserie Claude (there’s still time to serve it in bed!)
• Petit fours from Three Tarts (Chelsea)
• Champagne chocolate chip cookies from Ruby et Violette (Hell’s Kitchen)
• Chocolate skulls from Bond Street Chocolate (East Village)
• Love potion hot chocolate at City Bakery (Flatiron)
• Passion fruit macarons from Bosie Tea Parlor (West Village)
• Red velvet bundt cakes at Make My Cake (Harlem) and cupcakes at Amy’s Bread (Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, West Village)
• A giant box of assorted bonbons from Kee’s (Soho)

Anthony’s Cookies of San Francisco

I think of all the sweets in the world—cupcakes, soufflés, hot chocolate, hot fudge sundaes, macarons, whoopie pies, brownies—cookies are my absolute favorite. They just are.

When I was in San Francisco before the holidays, I coerced one of my friends into journeying deep into the Mission to go to a cookie shop I had read about: Anthony’s Cookies.

This place is just all cookies, all the time. Sure, you can get some cold organic milk to go with them, but they focus on one thing and focus on doing it well.

Admittedly, some flavors were better than others.

The oatmeal cranberry was just okay—a titch dry.

The double chocolate was okay, too.

But the toffee chip? Buttery, creamy, gritty deliciousness.

Enough to lure me back to try new flavors the next time I’m in town.

Is there one best chocolate chip cookie in New York?

It’s almost embarrassing how many great chocolate chip cookies there are in Manhattan. When you go to other towns and cities, bakery cookies are often hard and crunchy and lack imagination and strong flavor. Here in New York, there are infinite delicious options. I’ve always been torn between three top contenders:

City Bakery

Levain

And Momofuku

How does one make a choice between these three?

City Bakery’s lovely, dreamy, crunchy, creamy, soft and sugary saucer-sized beauties have it all: crispy edges, melty middles, and a buttery-gritty texture that’s balanced by giant hunks of smooth dark chocolate. They have just a hint of caramel flavor. They’re real cookie monsters.


Levain’s are six-ounce mounds of cakey, chocolate-studded, slightly undercooked heaven, with savory toasted walnuts mixed in. If City Bakery’s are cookie monsters, Levain’s are cookie monsters on potent steroids.


And Momofuku’s cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip cookie is sticky, chewy and crunchy; sweet and chocolaty; the bottom side rimmed in caramelized beauty.


I’ve always found it difficult to decide which I love most. So I put the test to a few willing guinea pigs. Guess what?

One went for City Bakery.

One for Levain.

And one for Momofuku.

What's your favorite chocolate chip cookie in the city?