Food News

Stop by for its molasses spice and chocolate chunk cookies.

Clear Flour Bread
A customer buys baked goods at Clear Flour Bread. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff

It’s officially holiday cookie season, that time of year when Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookies lay snugly in tins next to snickerdoodles and gingersnap cookies. If the thought of spending hours making your own cookies doesn’t appeal to you, head to Clear Flour Bread, which Yelp recently named the best cookie spot in Massachusetts.

Last week, Yelp released its list of “Best cookies across the U.S. and Canada,” calling out the Brookline shop as the No. 1 pick in Massachusetts. Located at 178 Thorndike St., the bakery specializes in breads and pastries from France, Italy, and Germany, sourcing its flour from Maine Grains in Skowhegan, Maine. While the cookie selection varies, visitors will often find a line-up of chocolate chunk cookies, coconut macaroons, chocolate “world peace” cookies, and seasonal options like raspberry Linzer and molasses spice cookies. The bakery just began offering its annual German Stollen, a traditional German Christmas bread that often sells out before Dec. 24.

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Christy Timon and Abe Faber originally opened Clear Flour Bread in 1982, but the bakery changed hands in 2017. Now, Nicole Walsh and Jon Goodman run the neighborhood spot, where Walsh is the head baker (you can find her bread baking tips here).

Yelp calculated its list of best cookie spots in every state by searching for businesses in the bakery, dessert, and food categories that contained a large number of reviews mentioning cookies. Those businesses were then ranked by the volume and ratings of reviews mentioning cookies between Jan. 1, 2001, and Oct. 17, 2021.

Other New England cookie spots that Yelp highlighted include Old Village Bakery in North Conway, N.H.; Feed the Cheeks in Providence, R.I.; Scratch Baking Co. in South Portland, Maine; Neil’s Donuts in Wallingford and Middletown, Conn.; and Vermont Cookie Love in North Ferrisburgh, Vt.

Check out the complete list for the best cookies in every U.S. state and Canada.

What are your favorite cookies in the Boston area?

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