Boston Chipyard: Cookies We All Can Make

Two Fridays ago, Melanie and I set out to Faneuil Hall for what was going to be one of our most epic quests ever. Our plan involved not one, not two, but three cookie shops in one outing. There were two reasons why we were feeling so ambitious. First, Faneuil Hall is far away from where we live, so it just seemed the most convenient to do all the cookie shops there in one outing. Second, we did double-features for cupcakes, and we are always looking to one-up ourselves, so doing three in one evening seemed like the next logical thing to do.

Upon getting to Faneuil Hall, we first bought a cookie from Kilvert and Forbes. Melanie will write a full post about that extremely delicious cookie shortly. We then set out for the Boston Chipyard. Tucked away in the back of Faneuil Hall is this cookie shop. After trying to purchase 3 chocolate chip cookies (we were being thoughtful and buying one for Mel's husband), we learned that you can only buy them by the half dozen or dozen. So we got 3 chocolate chip cookies, 1 oatmeal chocolate chip, 1 peanut butter chocolate chip, and 1 double chocolate cookie.

We then set out for the third cookie shop, only to find that it was closed. With our three-cookies-in-one-night plan foiled, we set out back into the cold to Mel's apartment where we ate dinner and then began enjoying our cookies.

Quite simply, the Boston Chipyard is selling something that you don't have to buy. The bite-sized cookies had a crunchy texture and just weren't that delicious. After taking one bite, I said "this tastes like something that came out of my oven, and that I overcooked." Now, I'm not a terrible cook, but I'm not trying to make my living selling cookies. If law school doesn't work out, I guess I could consider this career change....But right now, that is neither here nor there. I don't want to spend money on something I could make. As Mel and I discussed these mediocre cookies, Mel yelled "there's only one chip!!" I looked at her, and she held the evidence in her hand. There was only a single chocolate chip in Mel's cookie. That is completely unacceptable. A good chocolate chip cookie has the correct ratio or cookie to chocolate, and a single chocolate chip is just insufficient.

If you're in Faneuil Hall and craving some sweets, you can skip the Boston Chipyard. It's not worth the caloric intake. Instead, walk over to Kilvert and Forbes and buy a much larger, more delicious, and more unhealthy cookie there that is worth all the calories.

Clear Flour Bread: A Clearly Delicious Cookie

Upon her first bite of a chocolate chip cookie from Clear Flour Bread, Melanie said, "Wow, this quest can end now. We found the best cookie in the city." Now, we wouldn't be professional questers if we declared Clear Flour Bread the winner without thoroughly investigating many other cookies in the city, but let me be clear: the bar is set high for all future cookies. Anytime on this quest we eat a cookie less delicious than this one, we're going to wish we had returned to this neighborhood bakery and shared a chocolate chip cookie again.

Clear Flour Bread is a quaint bakery near Packard's Corner. The smell of baked bread wafted outside, and the cute young, male cashier's who waited on us had a flour-covered apron. After we both selected a loaf of bread, we ordered one chocolate chip cookie to split (see picture below for approximate size). Since there was no place to sit inside, we ate the cookie in Melanie's car. After all, it's January in Boston and it's freezing outside, so we had to make-do with what we had.

Clear Flour's cookie was divine. The outside had a perfect crisp while the inside was soft and chewy. The rich buttery texture and smooth, milk chocolate chunks resulted in a cookie that just melted in your mouth. Rarely have I ever had a cookie that had such a perfect combination of crunch on the outside and gooey deliciousness on the inside. Despite the size of the cookie, I immediately wished I had purchased an entire one for myself. I'll run it off in marathon training---right?

As this is our first stop on the cookie quest, we should cover some ground rules. No ranking until we're done, and we will discuss the texture, taste, size, and type of chocolate for each cookie. Bonus points going to things like ambiance and other intangibles. Clear Flour Bread scores extremely highly for everything related to the cookie, and the only negative we had for the place was that there was no inside sitting. But honestly, if it were warmer outside, we probably would have overlooked that entirely because we were so enamored with our cookie. The take-away folks? Get to Clear Flour Bread immediately.

The Polls are Closed

Despite the fact that the polls say they are open for another 80 days, they are now closed. Why? Because Melanie and I said so. We are the questing czarinas, so we do what we want. Plus, we don't really anticipate getting many more votes. I guess only 20 or so people read this thing. But that is neither here nor there because the important thing is that chocolate chip cookies won. This will be a delicious quest, and Melanie and I are equal to the challenge. Thank you for your participation. Also, we are thankful that chowder did not win. How could we possibly make an entire blog about fish soup? Our comments would be limited to the following: too fishy, not enough fishy-ness. That would have been a boring blog. We are confident, however, that we will have lots of say about cookies.

Below are the possible locations for our chocolate chip cookie quest. The list is subject to change and will likely be trimmed down to 8 locations. Any suggestions for the final list would be appreciated.

Clear Flour Bread

Flour

Boston Chipyard

Kilvert and Forbes

Rosie's Bakery

Quebrada

True Grounds

Hi-Rise Bakery

Parziale's Bakery Inc.

Sweet Tooth Boston

Burdick Chocolates

Even though our next quest is taking shape, we still have a few more gelato shops to sample and we are headed to Belmont on Friday to try Angelato. We are confident that we will accomplish our goal of completing the gelato quest before the first snow, which is important because even though we support gelato-induced brain freezes, we dislike eating gelato when the temperature is actually below freezing.