Chocolate chip, nuts, M&Ms, lemon, ginger? The list could go on and on. The cookie batter is an open palette for your palate. Whether you enjoy them best fresh from the oven or stacked high, most of us can’t resist these homey, yet sophisticated circular delights.

Is it nostalgia for the warmth of home? Perhaps that’s why real estate agents have been known to bake cookies during an open house. And why Marcel Proust connects the taste of a madeleine (that counts as a cookie, right?) and a cup of tea to an involuntary memory of childhood in his book Remembrance of Things Past: 

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses … And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence…

Takeout 25 and Eats collaborated to find out which cookies make you feel – well maybe not always an instant transportation back to a simpler time in life – but a desire for another helping. These are listed by order the recommendations came to us.

1. Broken Tart

1108 Chicago Ave., Oak Park

  • Ginger crème sandwiched cookies
  • Birthday cake cookie
  • Chocolate chip
  • GF chocolate chip

2. Mama Kat’s Sweets

mamakatsweets.com

  • Chocolate cookie
  • Sugar cookie

3. Blackout Baking Co

210 S. Marion St., Oak Park

  • Blackout cookie

4. Twisted Cookie

7401 Madison Ave., Forest Park

  • Carrot cake filled cookie

5. Oak Park Bakery

904 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park

  • Butter cookies – many varieties

6. Daisy’s Treats & Bakery

3748 Grand Blvd., Brookfield

  • Taffy grapes (not really a cookie, but we’re gonna let it slide in.)

7. Crumb Crusher

805 South Blvd., Oak Park

  • GF snickerdoodles

8. Spilt Milk

811 South Blvd., Oak Park

  • Brown butter

9. The Brown Cow

7347 Madison St., Forest Park

  • Cookie Monster Ice cream with homemade cookies
  • Homemade chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal, cookies, and frosted sugar cookies.

10. Cookie Dad, Russell Jaffe – via socials

  • Hot Chocolate cookies
  • Eggnog cookies