Specialty Cookies in San Francisco: Who Makes Local Favorites?

Chocolate chip specialty cookies in San Francisco

Specialty cookies in San Francisco include sweet chocolate chip, oatmeal cherry, alfajores and more.

The types of cookies available at San Francisco cookie companies make it a pleasure to choose a favorite. Add to that the list of specialty cookies that are baking around the city every day, and it’s a cookie lover’s dream. But what exactly makes a cookie special? There are different types of specialty cookies in San Francisco that are unique because of their ingredients, shapes and occasions. Specialty cookies are created for various ethnic and cultural celebrations, and many love the tradition of a Chinese fortune cookie after dinner. Here are a few San Francisco cookie bakers who specialize in yummy.

Ultimate Cookie

Ultimate Cookie is a San Francisco family-owned cookie bakery that specializes in gourmet cookies, brownies and unique items such as cupcakes, crumb cakes and apple turnovers. Ultimate Cookie is most recognized for its cookies, though, and you just might fall in love with chocolate-dipped shortbread, florentines, coconut macaroons, Russian tea cakes or raspberry thumbprints. Ultimate Cookie also offers several flavors of biscotti and gluten free cookies.

When Butter Met Sugar

When Butter Met Sugar sounds like the ultimate pairing, and it truly is the case for this San Francisco cookie company. The pairings in the cookie selections are delicious. Oatmeal cherry for example. Or salted caramel and chocolate brownies. And then there’s macadamia nut and cornflakes shortbread. It’s creative, and it works. Everything works at this San Francisco cookie shop of distinctive flavors.

Batter Bakery

To say the cookies from Batter Bakery are out of this world isn’t too much of a stretch. Its signature, secret recipe cookie is the Sand Angel, a cross between a molasses cookie and snickerdoodle, with cinnamon thrown in for good measure. Heavenly. The shop is popular for its chocolate chip, cherry ginger, oatmeal coconut and triple chocolate espresso cookies, and some additional stars are the shortbreads. Just imagine Meyer lemon pink salt, orange pistachio, honey vanilla and chocolate hazelnut shortbreads. Batter Bakery also offers seasonal flavors for scones and cheesecake bars to keep you guessing.

Alfajores Narciso

Talk about works of art. An alfajor is a sandwich cookie made with butter and filled with dulce le leche. This type of cookie is very popular throughout South America and has certainly made a home as a specialty cookie in San Francisco. The traditional flavor of dulce de leche is a favorite, but the bakery’s other flavors, including ube jam, Nutella, peanut butter, chocolate and coconut have a loyal following too. Even better, Alfajores Narcisco offers weekday delivery in the San Francisco area and are found in several area cafés, food trucks and taquerias throughout the city.

This is just a small — and definitely delicious — sampling of the specialty cookies in San Francisco. Sweeten up your day, and someone else’s too, with any number of them.

SF Insider