The holidays are the perfect time to relax with your loved ones and to celebrate health and happiness. However, it’s also become a season where we pack on those extra pounds and put on our “winter coats.” You can either refuse to face this fact and pass up that second piece of cake, or fully commit and come to terms with your pants fitting more snug than usual.
If you’re like me and are more of squeeze-into-my-jeans-from-
Coming from someone who doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, there is one particular treat in New York City that makes me swoon and you can find it at Levain Bakery.
With two locations, one on the Upper West Side and one in Harlem, Levain sells fresh baked goods from muffins to baguettes to scones. But, the star is definitely the cookies. There are four varieties: chocolate chip walnut, oatmeal raisin, dark chocolate chip and dark chocolate peanut butter chip. They all run for $4 a piece. It might seem a little pricey for a cookie, but these things are colossal.I once tried eating two in one sitting and entered a food coma before completion.
I often frequent the super tiny Upper West Side location, where there is typically a line out the door. Yet everyone is patiently smiling because they know all of their worries will be momentarily dismissed once a cookie hits their lips.
Although these treats are perfect on any day during any season, eating them feels so right during the holidays. Enduring the frigid cold is no easy task but just wear extra layers; you’ll survive.
All four flavors of cookies are insanely good, but the chocolate chip walnut stands out among the rest. That statement probably has to do with the fact that every time I’ve been there, the chocolate chip walnut cookie has been handed to me straight out of the oven. Order it with a cup of milk, break the cookie in half and witness the melted chocolate perfection.
There are only a few seats inside the bakery, so the chances of landing one of them is slim; but, Central Park is only a few blocks away, so you can indulge in gluttonous cookies while watching people exercise. You’ll never feel better or worse about yourself in that moment.
If you are stuck on gift ideas for family or friends, a box of these cookies will have people bowing down to you.
This is the time of year where it’s considered acceptable to wear elastic waistband pants because nothing else fits. Take advantage of that.
