Milk and Cookies and Bacon?

Milk and Cookies, a bakery in the West Village, has been on my hitlist for the longest time. To be honest, I'm not too familiar with all of the street names in the W. Village and Commerce Street, to me, could have been in the village, Soho, the financial district, or 100 other places around New York that are one block long. On a recent walking tour of the area, we were walking down a street past the narrowest house in New York (only 9 1/2 feet wide!), and passed right by Milk and Cookies bakery!

Being that I'm gluten-free 50% of the time, and was with a friend who's gluten-free all of the time, he didn't understand my overwhelming excitement over a random bakery full of poisonous wheat-filled goodies.  I, however, knew that since this WAS the West Village, there was a high likelihood there would be a G-F treat for Dan, and one for me to have along with my gluten-filled cookie.

When we walked in, I was immediately overwhelmed with the options in front of me.  There were dozens of different types of cookies. From standard chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin to chocolate mint, peanut butter and cream filled.  Their specialty, and why I had read about them in the first place, was their Bacon Smack cookie - maple syrup, candied  cherry wood smoked bacon, dried cranberries, 72% dark chocolate chunks, toffee and graham cracker pieces.  Since chocolate covered bacon, or chocolate bars with bacon bits sprinkled throughout is a trend that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, these are one of their best-selling cookies.

 

There were also tons of amazing assorted treats - ice cream
sandwiches filled with il laboratio del gelato, brownies, magic bars, rice krispie treats, shortbread - on and on. They also had special little cookie dog bones, and since Foxy was out with us for the day, she got her own treat. Poor thing couldn't wait to get into the bag! Sadly once I gave them to her she was less enthused; we left half of the treats on the floor under the bench in front of the shop. Foxy usually loves peanut butter biscuits, but she might have just been overwhelmed because she devoured the rest of them once we got home. 

But now on to the cookies for people (Foxy is important, but our readership amongst canines on this blog is still fairly low).
Dan and I each had the gluten free cookies, since as I mentioned he is gluten free and I am sometimes.  We had the chocolate chip and double chocolate GF cookies.  The chocolate chip cookie was so good that Dan ate it in 2 bites and I didn't actually try that one! The double chocolate was perfect - you would never know it was gluten free.  It was soft, a consistency hard to find in GF baked goods.  There was a perfect allocation of chocolate, and the size was perfect for an afternoon treat.  We judge cookies by the size because while some of New York's finest - Le Vain, Jacques Torres, Paradis, City Bakery - are fantastic, they're tremendous and if you eat the entire thing you are forced to spend the rest of the night in back to back Soul Cycle classes.  This was a normal cookie size, so you can have one guilt-free.  The ingredients used are of the finer quality - Valrhona chocolate, E Guittard chocolate chips, etc. I brought home the bacon smack cookie to try, even though I'm not a huge bacon fan (I don't like to eat pork since Charlotte's Web was my favorite book growing up!) that was their specialty cookie and everyone had raved about it.

To be honest, this was not my favorite cookie.  It might be chalked up to my not being a bacon enthusiast, but the hickory scent overwhelmed me before I even took a bite.  There were large chunks of soft bacon, large chocolate chips, and cranberries - there was just too much going on in my mouth simultaneously.  I pulled out the chocolate chips and gave Foxy the remainder, and this one she went crazy for - much more than her special dog treats. If you're a bacon lover it's definitely worth a try, but otherwise I would stick to Milk and Cookies' many other varieties. 

The last thing I'll note is the shop was pretty small, so unless you're stopping in with one person, you probably will take the cookies to go.  There was a bench in front of the store that we ate on, but I think these are better to be enjoyed at home.  They also deliver, and there are special gift baskets you can order. And they show up in this neat little truck!

19 Commerce Street
Sunday-Thursday 11AM-10PM, Friday and Saturday through 11PM
212-243-1640
http://www.milkandcookiesbakery.com/site/

Rocco's Not So Modern Life

After a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite restaurants Sushi Samba in the West Village, my friend Becca wanted to pick up dessert at one of her favorite bakeries on Bleecker Street, Pasticceria Rocco.  I'm pretty sure I've been here before pre-blog days, but now it was time to write a review!

Pasticceria Rocco is a New York tradition.  It's probably the only spot on Bleecker Street that's been there since 1974.  An Italian bakery, you can find anything from cannolis to rainbow cookies to about 47 different kinds of cake.

Rocco is definitely famous for their cannolis.  While we were there I heard almost every other person ordering them.  Now you might think that would be what I'd review, however - recall the name of the blog here.  It's all about chocolate.  I'm just not a cannoli kind of girl, sorry!  They did have little chocolate covered ones, but I was distracted by the giant cookies in the window.  They were about the same size of a Jacques Torres cookie, but also extremely thick.  Holding one in your hand, it feels like it weights about a pound!  
<--- Brownie marshmallow cookie

                                                     Oreo marshmallow cookie --->

There were chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate, brownie
cookies with marshmallow, regular cookie dough cookies with marshmallow and oreo - lots of fun combinations.  I tried the brownie marshmallow and Becca had the oreo marshmallow.  They were decent cookies, but not close to being my favorite.  They had that Italian bakery taste to them - not very doughy or fresh tasting.  The rainbow cookies and lacy cookies were better, but not all that different from what I'd find at any other bakery.  Maybe I've gotten spoiled, but I felt that while Pasticceria Rocco has been around for almost 40 years, it hasn't changed with the times.  It had the taste and feel of an old-school bakery.  Which is fine, but I'm always on the hunt for something new and life-changing, and with places like Levain in existence, I can't give Rocco's too much credit.
That's not to say if I stopped off here to have coffee that I wouldn't get something anyway, because there were about 100 desserts to try (the chocolate mousse cup looked great, as did a number of the cakes).

Pasticceria Rocco is located at 243 Bleecker Street.  Open daily from 7:30am - midnight (weekends til 1am), you can stop in early for a cappuccino or after dinner at Keste for a late-night snack.

www.pasticceriarocco.com

A Make-Your-Own of it's Own

We all know about make-your-own froyo.  We've all been to a 16 Handles, Yogurtland or some type of place where you take a cup, fill it up with different flavored frozen yogurt, and add 8 pounds of toppings of your liking.  It's a trend we all know and love.  What's a trend that we don't know but would love if we did?  Make your own cupcakes.  And you can now do that at Molly's Cupcakes in the West Village!

 Molly's features their own signature cupcakes as well.  Made from scratch each day with the finest ingredients, you can get classic flavors like chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, etc, but really fun flavor combinations.  They had:
-Cake batter
-Butterscotch caramel
-Kahlua
-Chocolate mousse
-Blueberry cheesecake
-Cookies & cream
and more....

We tried the Cookie Monster.  Which was a-maz-ing.  Cookie dough filling! Actual raw cookie dough inside the cupcake.  It was vanilla chocolate chip cookie cake filled with the cookie dough, topped with buttercream and a small chocolate chip cookie on top.  We loved this so much, and pushed Molly's way up in my list of favorite cupcake spots!  Pricing is on par with other cupcake shops - $3.75 for the specialty cupcakes.

Now for the make-your-own.  We did not make our own last night.  I'm ashamed to admit this, because that is the most exciting part about Molly's!  But I got thrown by the Cookie Monster!

But here's the details:
You pick a size.  A mini is $1.25, and a Molly, which I'm assuming is a large, is $2.25.
Then you pick your cake flavor, from chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, carrot or banana.
Next you pick your frosting: vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese, butter cream or brown butter.
Last you pick your toppings: cookie crumble, brownie bits, Reeses, M&Ms, Whoppers, gummy bears or chocolate chips.
When I DO make one, I know it'll be vanilla cake, cream cheese frosting, with brownie bits, Reeses & gummy bears.  And I can also tell you I'll be back here real soon.

Even if you don't make your own, Molly's has an assortment of colorful sprinkles that you can add on to any cupcake - a pre-made or custom made one.
There were other treats available too - ice cream, cookies, pies, cheesecake, and bars (the 7-layer looked amazing, but we were sticking with the signature cupcakes for the first visit).  The full menu can be found here: Molly's Cupcakes Menu.

Molly's is open until 10pm on weeknights and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can get your cupcake fix after dinner in the West Village.  Any other questions?  Like who's Molly?  Molly was the owner's third-grade teacher, who used to bake cupcakes for her students' birthdays.  In honor of Molly,  a portion of their profits are donated to schools in the community.  How sweet is that?

Molly's is located at 228 Bleecker Street, between Carmine and Downing
There's also a location in Chicago, in the Lincoln Park area.
Take a trip down and tell us what custom creation you made!
Molly's Cupcakes