John Kuehl
Casetta’s chocolate chip cookie is finished with a satisfying dusting of sea salt.
If I start a conversation by telling someone I want to talk about cookies (this is not that unusual a scenario), odds are it’s going to be about Oreos. Maybe Girl Scout Cookies.
But I’m a complex guy, and I have feelings about fresh, non-trademarked, cookies too. Madison has some great ones, found sometimes in unexpected places.
The best cookies are the ones of which mere mention makes you want another one, and if you don’t mind, I’m off to find the nearest jar.
Both locations of Crescendo Espresso Bar, on Monroe Street and at Hilldale, sell a selection of individually bagged cookies. My favorite is the gingersnap. Its version was a revelation, because in my mind, gingersnaps are commercial cookies shaped sort of like Nilla wafers, small and crunchy and a little austere.
Conventional wisdom does hold that gingersnaps shuld be crisp, but these are dense and chewy. Crescendo executes a balance of ginger spice and sugary crunch exquisitely. Credit must also go to Pasqual’s Cantina, which bakes Crescendo’s cookies. Both locations are open for walk-up orders and limited dine-in seating. Mobile ordering is available via the Jump Coffee app.
If the humble gingersnap demonstrates the elegance of a minimal ingredient list, what could be a more perfect foil than the monster cookie? This is a cookie that’s meant to be soft-baked (a crunchy monster cookie would shatter at the first bite, due to the weak points created by the M&Ms in the dough). Cargo Coffee embraces the nutritional naughtiness of a good monster cookie.
“The Cargo monster cookie was inspired by what was always the most decadent cookie when we had sleepovers when I was a kid,” says Katrina Harms, Cargo’s cookie boss. “Peanut butter, chocolate chips, oats, and M&Ms?!”
The base dough, which includes whole oats, suggests at least a nominal virtue, or maybe hippyish origins. Cargo’s use of chunky peanut butter (the correct peanut butter) locks me in. “The chunkier the better,” says Harms.
Unfortunately, the monster cookie was a January special offering. Perhaps it will return sooner rather than later. But Cargo also serves excellent versions of peanut butter, chocolate chip, cranberry and white chocolate and oatmeal raisin cookies year-round (at both Cargo locations and sister coffeeshop Ground Zero). I recommend buying one of each and smooshing them together. You may consider picking out the raisins. All locations are open for takeout, dine-in or patio seating.
Coffee shops are a natural cookie biome, but there’s something thrilling about spotting a jar or cake stand full of what must be house-baked cookies sitting on a bar, sharing space with tap handles and tubs of maraschino cherries. The Tipsy Cow bakes up a heap of almond and bittersweet chocolate cookies for just such a display at both its downtown and Sun Prairie locations.
These cookies almost look more like a muffin-top at first glance, but the edges flatten out enough to brown and crisp; this should please crunchy cookie devotees. Slivers of almond have a tendency to migrate to the edges during baking, which amplifies the crunch of that area. I like that this cookie has been going strong since the days when the Tipsy Cow was King & Mane. This is well-earned longevity. Both Tipsy locations are open for patio service and takeout.
Kenny Rosales
Mint Mark’s skillet cookie arrives at the table still molten.
Color and texture, Maillard reactions and contrasting temperatures — these are things we typically discuss in the baking of cookies. We don’t often get to experience them while we eat a cookie. But the skillet cookie at Mint Mark is barely done baking when it arrives at the table. It’s not crunchy or cakey, thin or fat. It’s molten. It’s frankly barely a cookie.
Sean Pharr, chef at Mint Mark, says that he and pastry chef Deb Zahler arrived at a skillet cookie for the dessert menu independently, a case of parallel cookie evolution. The recipe started as a dessert concept — serving a shot of rye whiskey alongside a rye flour cookie. Ultimately it evolved into a cookie with butterscotch in it; if you’re not a whiskey fan, know that the spirit shares many flavor components with butterscotch. They paired it with a scoop of ice cream, and in Pharr’s words, “the rest is history and hard-to-scrub dishes.”
As of August 5, Zahler is back at Mint Mark, which means desserts are back, which means the skillet cookie may be back soon, too.Mint Mark is open for carryout and patio seating.
You might think there’s little to be said about the classic chocolate chip cookie. Not true of the complex chocolate chip at Casetta Kitchen and Counter. Baker Laura Gering is justifiably proud of her creation. “The combination of flours we use allows for the crispy edges and a gooey middle,” she says. Cookie baking, Gering says, “is all about balance. Our cookie hits many different notes.” From the flecks of sea salt on top to the impossibly thin-yet-intense layer of chocolate made by melting chips, this cookie sticks the landing.
Casetta is open for carryout only (order online) with pickup available 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Order early, cookies do sell out.
[Editor's note: This story was originally written to publish in the Isthmus Dining special section in April. Restaurant details have been updated to correspond with each restaurant's current status during the COVID-19 restrictions.]
