Ever since The Chew co-host and ex-Top Chef contestant Carla Hall was interviewed in Westchester Magazine around her spring 2014 cookbook signing at Stew Leonard’s in Yonkers, the edit staff has been on her Cooking With Love company’s press list. Well, lucky us. Carla’s folks were kind enough to send us a sampling of goodies including some new products like an amazing salted caramel banana bread. Also included in the treat box was an assortment of bite size cookies in cute little tub containers—just in time for May 15’s National Chocolate Chip Day.
Now on to the fun part—we decided to rate the seven cookie flavors one to five to find out favorite flavor (just three of the seven had chocolate chips in them but we weren’t about quibble over qualifiers when there were cookies to be graded).
Chocolate Hazelnut Praline
A miniature Nutella bomb of crunchy lusciousness. 5/5
Mexican Chocolate Chip
An extra-crunchy mini chocolate chip cookie with a top-notch quality chip. 4/5
Black Forest Crinkle
Little soft brownie-like bites—a chocolate lover’s dream! 4/5
Pecan Shortbread with Vanilla Salt
Mildly flavored, yet kept going back for more. Nice accompaniment to a mint tea. 3/5
Almond Ginger Cherry
An agreeably gentle bite of ginger, but the cherry flavor was absent. 3/5
Oatmeal, Cranberry, White Chocolate
This one was flat, tasting of oatmeal and not much else. 2/5
Lemon Black Pepper Shortbread
Looks nice visually, but a weak lemon flavor leaves much to be desired. 2/5
Carla Hall’s cookies and other baked goods, which contain European-style butter, unbleached sugar and flour, couverture chocolate, fresh nuts, and premium spices, can be purchased at carlahall.com or in Manhattan at Eataly and Fairway Market on the Upper West Side.
