Food Critics: The Best Cookies In Kansas City

Some people have strict rules when it comes to cookies.

"Can we agree ... any cookie that does not have butter as an ingredient should never be made?" Charles Ferruzza asked host Gina Kaufmann on KCUR's Central Standard.

Ferruzza, with our other Food Critics, searched out the best cookies in and around Kansas City — with and without butter.

Here are their recommendations:

Mary Bloch, Around the Block:

• Heirloom Bakery & Hearth — pepita, sea salt and double chocolate chunk. It’s a chocolate cookie with pepitas (pumpkin seeds). It’s great.
• Dolce Bakery — espresso chocolate chip. Chewy and wonderful.
• Lidia’s — biscottini. Darling little cookies that come in chocolate, pistachio, sugar and more. They bring them out after dinner with your check; also available at the brunch buffet.
• Tannin Wine Bar & Kitchen — peanut butter cookie with fudge in the middle. It’s served warm.
• Murray’s Homemade Ice Creams — Totally Toffee cookie. In addition to ice cream, Murray’s has some fabulous cookies that are all chewy. The Totally Toffee is kind of like a Heath Bar cookie. Murray’s just closed for the season; it will reopen in the spring.
• Brioche Pastry Shop — soft molasses cookies.

Jenny Vergara, Feast Magazine:

• McLain’s Bakery — chocolate cup cookie. A bite-sized salty pecan sandie that’s topped with a swirl of creamy chocolate frosting. Also available at McLain's Market.
• Genesee Royale Bistro — peanut butter cookies. It’s a large, hash-marked soft peanut butter cookie that’s smeared with a sweet PB cream and smooshed together with a second cookie to make a sandwich. Also available atSpeak Sandwiches (same owners).

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  Annedore’s Fine Chocolates — French macarons. Chewy almond flour cookies that come in a rainbow of colors and flavors. Some are filled with flavored buttercream; others are filled with chocolate, caramel, fruit curds, jellies. Now offering a seasonal peppermint macaron.

• Natasha’s Mulberry & Mott— Seven Deadly Sins cookies (or the Seven Heavenly Virtues cookies). They’re packaged seven to a box and come in flavors that represent each of the seven deadly sins or heavenly virtues. The gluttony cookie, for example, has pieces of bacon, maple syrup and apples.
• Natasha Mulberry & Mott— Grown-Up Animal Crackers. These are adult-sized versions of the pink-frosted childhood animal crackers with sprinkles on top.
• Happy Gillis Café & Hangout — chocolate chip walnut cookie. My favorite chocolate chip cookie in the city. Large cookies, crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle with a unique walnut flavor.

Charles Ferruzza, The Independent and Shawnee Mission Post:

• Lidia's — Dolcetti e Biscottini plate. A daily selection of house made cookies, candies, miniature sweets and seasonal confections. Just a little something sweet to share. I love them because they’re very traditional Italian cookies. It’s just a nice little end-of-the-meal lagniappe.
• Jasper's Italian Restaurant — plate of Italian cookies (if they have them). Perfect with a robust espresso ... AND spumoni.
• DiCapo’s Italian Cookies.The most authentic Italian cookies I’ve ever tasted; they taste exactly like the ones that my four Italian aunts sent to me — always packed in shoeboxes — for years.

Listener recommendations:

• Andre’s Confiserie Swisse — the box of tea cookies. Perfection.
• Ashleigh’s Bake Shop at Pryde’s — any and all cookies.
• One More Cup — chocolate chip cookies.
• Boulevard Bakery — Shoutout to the yummy, beautiful cookies.
• McClain’s Bakery is always a strong choice.
• Swoon Cookie Crafters

Jen Chen is associate producer for KCUR's Central Standard. Reach out to her at jen@kcur.org.