(Brandon Ly / Los Angeles Times)
11 L.A. bakeries with delicious cookies for the holiday season
The culinary star of the holiday season is arguably dessert. Often, this time of year doesn’t feel complete until we’ve satisfied a craving for the nostalgic sweets that defined our holiday celebrations growing up, whether that’s homemade fudge, crispy peppermint bark or the candy canes, gum drops and gingerbread used to decorate edible houses.
For a limited time, some of L.A.’s most creative bakeries are infusing signature holiday flavors into their cookies, while others offer festive options year-round. You can order cookies topped with red and green sprinkles and bursting with warm ginger, or stop by a bustling Atwater Village bakery for spelt thumbprint cookies filled with seasonal jam. Here are 11 local bakeries to stock up on holiday-inspired cookies this season.
Showing Places
(Fleurs et Sel)
Fleurs et Sel
West Adams Bakery $
The West Adams bake shop from Lara Adekoya takes inspiration from the boulangeries and patisseries she fell in love with in Paris, and its name translates to flowers and salt, two staple ingredients in her cookies. There are plenty of cookies and dessert bars on the regular menu that feel fit for the season, including plush snickerdoodle, ginger molasses and Nutella frambroise. But if you really want to home in on nostalgic holiday flavors, try the peppermint bark hot chocolate cookie sprinkled with candy cane crumbles or another fudgey disc inspired by German chocolate cake. New flavors rotate in every week and can be purchased via online “drops” or in-person at the bakery; look out for a delicate raspberry and rose thumbprint cookie with a hint of cassis that’s due to hit the menu before the end of the year.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Lei’d Cookies)
Lei’d Cookies
Culver City Desserts $
Brightening up a stretch of West Washington Boulevard with its turquoise storefront, the internationally inspired cookie shop from Leilani Terris and James Lewis is a neighborhood favorite for inventive, fruit-filled cookies such as mango sticky rice, strawberry-passionfruit and guava cheese. The duo announced a globetrotting lineup of limited holiday flavors for the month of December, including an eggnog cookie with an eggnog crème br?lée top; a ginger molasses cookie with ginger three ways; and a double chocolate peppermint cookie with candy cane pieces, marshmallows, toffee pretzels and three types of chocolate that’s topped with caramel. For Japanese New Year on Jan. 1, the cookie shop will release a black sesame cookie stuffed with housemade raspberry mochi. Lei’d Cookies vends at Smorgasburg L.A. every Sunday.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Brady’s Bakery)
Brady's Bakery
Glendale Bakery $
Named after baker-owner Reece Scelfo’s adorable Boxer dog, Brady’s Bakery takes a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek approach to nostalgic cookie flavors, with each generously sized globe baked to order in small batches to reduce food waste. In addition to standard flavors such as the OMFG that oozes Nutella, Brady’s frequently offers limited specials, such as a strawberry-lemonade buttermilk option and a double dark chocolate chunk cookie with a matcha glaze, both inspired by the new “Wicked” movie. For the holidays, try the Basic Grinch, a soft and crumbly spin on a classic sugar cookie with green and red sprinkles; Holiday Smash with double dark chocolate paired with fresh mint; Ho Ho Ho Snap, a gingerbread cookie that’s packed with ginger, Louisiana Steen’s cane syrup and other spices; or the WC + OC with white chocolate chips, dried cranberries and orange zest. For your holiday dessert table, consider Scelfo’s pumpkin pecan bread pudding filled with toasted cinnamon pecans and topped with cinnamon oat crumble.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Amaretti ai pignoli at Eagle Rock Italian Bakery & Deli
Eagle Rock Italian Bakery Deli $
I’ve maintained my whole life that there’s no better time to visit an Italian deli than the holiday season. This is when they’re most bustling, and when the cookie case is most attractive. Walk past the towers of panettone and head to where the cookies gleam with candied cherries, glow with sprinkles or entice with almond paste. In the hall of great Italian cookies, it’s hard to beat the amaretti ai pignoli.
The chewy, gluten-free treats rely on almond paste for their nutty, soft center and egg whites for an almost meringue-like outer shell, while an onslaught of pine nuts forms a just-toasted crunchy layer atop it all. So few bakeries and restaurants make these fresh year-round in Los Angeles, but Eagle Rock Italian Bakery & Deli has been at it for more than 70 years. The team hand-makes a spread of roughly a dozen Italian and other classic deli cookies in a constant rotation throughout the day, filling the cases with rainbow cookies, macaroons and jam cookies, plus cakes, pastries and holiday specials. The pignoli, however, are always a top seller and can be purchased individually or by the pound. Try the pistachio version, which is also gluten-free, to switch things up.
The chewy, gluten-free treats rely on almond paste for their nutty, soft center and egg whites for an almost meringue-like outer shell, while an onslaught of pine nuts forms a just-toasted crunchy layer atop it all. So few bakeries and restaurants make these fresh year-round in Los Angeles, but Eagle Rock Italian Bakery & Deli has been at it for more than 70 years. The team hand-makes a spread of roughly a dozen Italian and other classic deli cookies in a constant rotation throughout the day, filling the cases with rainbow cookies, macaroons and jam cookies, plus cakes, pastries and holiday specials. The pignoli, however, are always a top seller and can be purchased individually or by the pound. Try the pistachio version, which is also gluten-free, to switch things up.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Death & Co.
Downtown L.A. Cocktails $$
This treat from Death & Co. gives Santa’s regular milk-and-cookies combo a run for its money. The Arts District cocktail destination offers these cookies year-round but I first discovered them during the pandemic, when they were offered in delivery kits with bottles of the bar’s cult-classic eggnog — and now, at least in my brain, they’re forever the perfect holiday treat. The gooey but fluffy chocolate chip cookies utilize both dark and milk chocolate, and just when they’re still warm and pulled from the oven, they’re spritzed with banana liqueur for a fruity, brighter note. They’re served with a glass of cold milk, making for a slightly boozy, more grown-up version of one of the world’s most iconic pairings.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Betty Hallock/Los Angeles Times)
Proof Bakery
Atwater Village Bakery $$
The Atwater Village cooperative bakery founded by Na Young Ma is seemingly always full, with crowds jockeying for Proof’s legendary croissants. But don’t skip the cookies. Bags of chocolate shortbread and dried-fruit-studded biscotti line the shelves near the entrance. And in the pastry case are fat coconut macaroons; big, well-browned, crinkly chocolate chip cookies; and pistachio polvorones whose green tinge peeks from beneath a dusting of powdered sugar. It always feels like the holidays in here, and the spelt thumbprint cookies filled with bright seasonal jam are a festive favorite: nutty, not too sweet and melt-in-your-mouth. Made with spelt flour, they are light, airy and somehow both sandy and silky. The ratio of cookie to jam is just right, and the jam itself always sings with fresh fruit flavor, no matter what season it is.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Betty Hallock)
Bottega Louie
Downtown L.A. French $$
As soon as you walk in the door, you see the pastry case, filled with hundreds of macarons stacked like a confection rainbow. The small, round French meringue-based cookies come in flavors such as chocolate ganache, salted caramel, pistachio, lemon, strawberry and more, and Bottega Louie makes thousands a day, all sandwiched by hand with fillings such as ganache and Swiss buttercream. The macaron here is exemplary, with a chewy interior; crisp, thin, smooth shell; and its signature shaggy “foot,” or pied. Choose your favorite holiday colors packaged in festive boxes tied with ribbon. Or you can buy a tower of them: Dozens of macarons in an assortment of colors and flavors stacked in the shape of a tree is my kind of gift.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Betty Hallock/Los Angeles Times)
Molasses ginger snap at Gjusta
Venice Bakery
Among Gjusta’s cinnamon pull-apart bread, flaky baklava croissants, cardamom knots, banana buckwheat loaf and tahini brownies are the bakery’s big, chewy, comforting cookies. Chocolate chip brown butter cookies might be stacked next to orange pistachio and miso date (if you’re lucky/early enough). It might be easy to overlook the ginger snaps, the homey spiced cookie that always evokes the holidays — but are great anytime. These aren’t the hard-as-bricks kind of ginger snaps from a box. They’re the chewiest, softest, crackliest variety, punchy with molasses and small chunks of candied ginger, perfectly spiced with ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves — but so well balanced that one isn’t distinct from another.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Bread Artisan Bakery)
Bread Artisan Bakery
Santa Ana Bakery $
The palets bretons at Bread Artisan Bakery in Santa Ana are the ideal holiday snack to enjoy with a cup of tea, coffee or hot cocoa. These French shortbread cookies are made by head baker Yannick Guegan, who grew up eating these decadent treats in his hometown in Brittany, France. The French butter, sugar and egg yolks make for a buttery and crumbly cookie with a smidgen of salt and just the right amount of sweetness. The bakery sells the six-pack of decadent cookies for $12 at their Santa Ana location and several Orange County farmers markets. The cookies are available until just after the holidays. Aside from the palets bretons, the bakery is known for its baguettes and sourdough loaves — from ciabatta to burger buns. Jonnie LoFranco, a former advertising executive, took over her dad’s small bakery after a divorce and the passing of her father. LoFranco now makes bread for more than 300 restaurants, shops and hotels.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Yvonne's Vegan Kitchen
Pasadena Vegan Bakery $$
Yvonne’s Vegan Kitchen is a tiny dessert shop just south of Old Town Pasadena. Owner Ardestani makes an array of gluten-free and vegan cakes, pies, cookies, scones, doughnuts and cupcakes. Her ginger date cookie has all the hallmarks of an excellent cookie, with a crackly, crisp exterior and a soft and chewy middle. What makes this cookie so special is the sharp ginger flavor that’s both warming and festive, and perfectly balances the mild sweetness of the dates.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Poppy Cake Baking Company
Sierra Madre Bakery $
The sprinkle cookie from Brittainy & Matthew Turnquist’s Poppy Cake Baking Company in Sierra Madre encapsulates the joy of the holidays in a single dessert. It transports me straight back to childhood, when I used to pluck off each cookie or cupcake sprinkle one by one, savoring the crunch and rush of sugar in each tiny Christmas tree or star. The Turnquists use the base for their excellent chocolate chip cookies, ditch the chips and shower the cookie in sprinkles. It’s buttery, soft in the center and a lot of fun to eat.
Read All Read Less
Route Details
Eat your way across L.A.
Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
