{Top Five} The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies NYC & Brooklyn

If I ever had to decide one treat to eat for the rest of my life, it would hands down be the chocolate chip cookie.  What isn't to love - it is filled with chocolate goodness, loaded with butter and the texture, oh the texture, ranging from soft and chewy to crispy. I have been stumbling across fabulous bakeries here in New York for over seven years and I am always keeping my eyes peeled for new places to try.  Recently when I was savoring, okay devouring, a Levain chocolate chip cookie (if you don't know what cookie I am referring to, I urge you to board a plane to New York and head to West 74th Street now) I thought how amazing their recipe was but for reasons unique to Levain. Their cookies resemble a rich Southern biscuit and are served warm with a gooey and doughy center while the chocolate chips and walnuts create a melt-in-your mouth texture.  But then there is Ovenly, a stand-out bakery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that boasts a bevy of baked goods including a vegan (you would never know, trust me) chocolate chip cookie that is flecked with the perfect amount of sea salt flecks and incorporates more dough than chips.  

I decided I would do a round-up of the best chocolate chip cookies that this city has to offer and ask my fiancé, John, to decide on his favorite. So on an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon, I sat him down and he happily dug in.  Disclaimer: I have happily eaten all of these cookies before, so I warned him, he was in for a really nice treat.  Continue for more...

The Rankings (well, all finish first in my book)

1. Levain Bakery

2. City Bakery

3. Ovenly (he was shocked to find out it was vegan)

4. Haven's Kitchen

5. Jacques Torres Chocolate

And tell me, is there a chocolate chip cookie out there that I must know about?

*All photographs by Alison