Vaccaro’s

Several locations including 222 Albemarle St., 410-685-4905.

While
the bakery’s luscious cannoli with sweet ricotta and milk-chocolate
morsels may be its top seller, it also offers an array of outstanding
cookies, including pignoli cookies with almond paste and pine nuts,
butter sandwich cookies with Nutella and coated with powdered sugar, and
a gluten-free croccantini (cocoa powder and almond bites).

Editor’s pick: Chocolate biscotti dipped in white chocolate.

Berger Cookies

Found at local stores.

While
the bakery plant in Cherry Hill has been passed along to different
families through the years, the recipe—a white-cake-like cookie with a
layer of chocolate fudge—remains the same, at least, for now. If the FDA
approves a ban on trans fat, the texture could change in the future. In
the meantime, our hometown favorite can be found in other concoctions
like Taharka Brothers’s Berger Cookie Ice Cream.

Eddie’s of Roland Park

Two locations including 5113 Roland Ave., 410-323-3656.

Eddie’s,
run by the Cohen family, has long been a go-to grocery for neighborhood
types who don’t feel like cooking—or baking. The dessert case is filled
with cookies in all shapes and sizes, from walnut-filled Russian tea
cookies and hazelnut shortbreads to coconut macaroons.

Editor’s pick: Sugar cookies in seasonal shapes that taste homemade. Try the pink hearts for Valentine’s Day.

Gourmet Again

3713 Old Court Rd., Pikesville, 410-484-9393.

The
grocery aggregates cookies from all over the region—from Brooklyn, NY,
home of Erica’s Rugelach; Gourmet Bakery in Baltimore, which supplies
the icebox cookies; and Goldman’s Kosher Bakery in Reisterstown, maker
of strawberry fingers dipped in chocolate.

Editor’s pick: Chocolate moon cookies.

Otterbein’s Cookies

Found at local stores.

In
1881, Adam Otterbein, newly arrived from Germany, opened a small bakery
in Locust Point. Today, production takes place in Windsor Mill and is
run by Adam’s great-grandkids. The wafer-thin cookies, packed in the
familiar red windowpane paper bag, come in five flavors: sugar, lemon,
ginger, oatmeal raisin, and the best-selling chocolate chip.

Editor’s pick: Lemon, a great tea cookie.