20 Best Pepperidge Farm Cookies, Ranked
Is there a better show of love than offering someone a cookie? One of these sweet, cheerful individually-portioned treats can ease hunger, brighten your day, or foster community. Unless, of course, it's a bad cookie: too much salt, a random shard of eggshell, or, heaven forbid, it's burnt. That's a lot of pressure to put on one dessert, so if you just know you'll never become a "Great British Baking Show" contestant no matter how much you practice, it's time to head to the store.
Enter Pepperidge Farm, the cookies in those unmistakable tidy white bags with the crimped top just waiting to be torn open. Now here are some cookies that won't let you down! Across the brand's myriad of cookies, Pepperidge Farm always delivers. This means that whether you go back again and again for a good old-fashioned Milano, swerve to the darker side with Double Dark Chocolate Nantucket, or find your bliss on the golden shores of Tahoe, you're guaranteed a delicious experience. Below, we've compiled the best Pepperidge Farms cookies, ranked from worst to best, so you only bring home cookies guaranteed to please.
20. Farmhouse Thin and Crispy White Chocolate Chip
Unfortunately, one cookie does in fact have to take the back seat. But, before moving along, a caveat: they're all good. It's simply that these cookies may have a small identity crisis. White chocolate is an extremely sweet, milky substance, as in a blank canvas to work with. Putting them in another blank canvas, the demure Thin and Crispy cookie base, means that everything becomes vaguely lost. We enjoyed the look of white chocolate chips dotting a crispy golden cookie, but the enjoyment dwindled upon taking the first bite. Each and every taste tester unanimously agreed: It's just too darn sweet.
But, no hard feelings if these white chocolate gems are your personal favorite! A few people really love white chocolate, certainly preferring it over dark or even regular milk chocolate, a la Hershey's bar. We found, though, the waxiness interrupted the rest of the cookie, and the flavor of white chocolate didn't add much oomph to the overall experience.
19. Mackinac
Maybe you are desperately seeking eye-popping flavor combinations. If this is the case, you'll likely scorn the humble Mackinac, a soft-baked oatmeal cookie with bumpy milk chocolate chunks. It's not exactly the superstar of the dessert world. But, if you prefer your cookies sweet and simple, these steadfast treats will do the trick — especially since some people are adamantly against raisins contaminating their treat when the brown dots can actually be chocolate.
Named for a dreamy island town smack dab between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas, there's an equally laid-back and nonchalant quality to these Mackinac cookies. They know they aren't fancy. They know that you know they aren't fancy. And you know what? They don't care. We agreed that there was nothing wrong, nor particularly right, about this cookie. It's good, albeit extremely basic. While no one was blown away, we'd still gladly accept a few of these as a homey midday snack.
18. Farmhouse Thin and Crispy Toffee Milk Chocolate
Pepperidge Farm's Farmhouse Thin and Crispy Toffee Milk Chocolate cookies pack a lot of goodness into each piece. Toffee differs from butterscotch and caramel even though all three are sticky, sweet confections that always add complexity and pizzazz to a plain dessert. Toffee is created when sugar and butter cook for a long time — past the point of caramel — reaching a chewy yet brittle consistency that breaks into delicious pieces. In this case, those flavor bombs are tossed with smooth milk chocolate. The yin to its yang.
The resulting treat stays true to toffee's diminutive stature, ingeniously baking a cookie base mirroring the coveted caramelization. If you ever decide to try to recreate the delicious flavor in your own kitchen, but love a thicker, denser cookie, try our Toffee Chocolate Chip cookie recipe as your next baking project. If you thought a crispy milk chocolate chip cookie was boring, some toffee bits and feel free to change your tune. Maybe these would rank higher if every day was Christmas Eve, but one the other 364 days of the year, toffee takes a slight popularity hit.
17. Mint Chocolate Milano
Milanos: The crown jewels of Pepperidge Farm creations! The first of these quintessential cookies to land on the list, Mint Chocolate Milanos are a lovely manifestation of the classic that falls just a bit short of the others. First and foremost, nothing at all is wrong with these treats. They're very good, as are all Milanos, but perhaps a tad gratuitous.
If you're really wanting a minty finish to a meal, maybe just reach for a few Andes mints, or, if you're lucky, an equally quintessential Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie. Unless it's the holiday season, mint and cookies aren't exactly the most common craving, right? And if it is getting close to the end of the year, you're probably having your fill of candy canes, peppermint bark, and all the other holiday flavors.
But if, for some reason, you really want the biscuity, familiar, reliably perfected texture of a Milano with the small but mighty schmear of chocolate and the fresh piquancy of mint, having a bag of these on hand in your pantry is a wise move.
16. Montauk
Sometimes, all you want is a classic chocolate chip cookie, soft and sweet, heavy on nostalgia and light on ego. Montauk is probably as close as you can get to a fresh cookie pulled piping hot out of your own oven. So, if you love to bake, these might not be necessary unless you're really, really short on time. The convenience is what gave Montauk the most points in the taste test, because it's a step above other soft-baked options like Chips Ahoy or Keebler.
As you might have guessed, Montauk is one of the soft-baked cookies that Pepperidge Farm offers. It's mild in every way, from the chewy and sugary base to the creamy milk chocolate chunks. As far as store-bought chocolate chip cookies go, these are a great option, but Montauk is certainly not the highlight of the entire array. By the way, if you fall into the home-baker category, try your go-to chocolate chip cookies with a pinch of this secret ingredient.
15. Santa Cruz
There's a major battle going on out there between the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie lovers and the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie fans — while the plain, old Oatmeal Cookie people just watch the drama go down on the sidelines. Are you a big fan of oatmeal raisin cookies in general? The hardest part of baking the best oatmeal raisin cookies you've ever had is keeping them around longer than a single day. Evidently, we aren't afraid of raisins over here. In fact, the chewy, fruity nuggets are perfectly welcome in Santa Cruz.
So, we choose a Santa Cruz to embrace our whimsical love of raisins, no matter what anyone else says. These cookies are soft-baked, a technique that definitely highlights the texture of the oats and lets the chewiness of raisins add a rebellious little pop of contradiction. Many store-bought oatmeal raisin cookies can be as flavorful as cardboard with a consistency to match, but not these. The existence of Santa Cruz cookies is a point in favor of raisins in oatmeal cookies, for sure.
14. Double Milk Chocolate Milano
Are you maybe a little surprised that the basic Milano is made with dark chocolate, not milk chocolate? It's sweet, and it's a cookie, so it would be a pretty safe assumption. But no, Milk Chocolate Milanos are actually not the ones you are probably most familiar with. In its carefree single-dom, the Milk Chocolate Milanos simply swap out the layer of dark chocolate for a milder, creamier cousin.
If you have two issues with regular Milanos, those issues might be that you're just not on the dark chocolate bandwagon (yet) and, either way, said chocolate isn't nearly thick enough. Then choose the Double Milk Chocolate Milanos. There's more of that luxurious filling to sink your teeth into, but less of the potential harshness that comes with the dark chocolate territory. The double chocolate option might be much appreciated by kids (and taller kids who's palates, perhaps, haven't quite caught up and likely never will). We loved these, but just wait to see the Milanos that melted our hearts even more.
13. Farmhouse Thin and Crispy Dark Chocolate Chip
Potentially a competitor to Tate's Bake Shop's popular cookies, Pepperidge Farm rolled out these Thin and Crispy Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies, as well as a Milk Chocolate variety. Sophisticated and snappy, the dark chocolate adds another element of restraint. Just be careful, because all of the cookies in the Farmhouse Thin and Crispy lineup prove brittle and easily crumble.
We all agreed that we could eat a lot of these, in a lot of different modes, in very little time. Having these Thin and Crispy Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies around is like having an open bag of potato chips in front of you during a night in with Netflix. They're just so delicious.
Here are some tips: don't purchase through delivery, transport them carefully, and try to pick a bag with a lot of complete cookies! That being said, leftover crumbs can lead to some delicious transformations. You can always try making an "Oreo" ball flavor instead with chocolate chips, or making a sweet crust for a giant cookie lasagna! Oh, and sprinkling them over ice cream is always an excellent idea.
12. Chesapeake
One of the destination-minded cookies, it's a little uncertain just what about this treat reminded the creators of the Chesapeake region. According to U.S. Pecans, pecans are grown commercially in only 15 states in the Southern United States, the northernmost being North Carolina. But, it's nice to think that the developers got a bit carried away.
The Chesapeake cookie is a crispy, crunchy cookie with some big islands of ingredients that go a long way in both the flavor and texture game: Generous spatters of dark chocolate chunks and toothsome sprinkles of the aforementioned chewy pecans. The simple cookie base takes a back seat to these bold additions. If you're a major fan of the flavor combination of dark chocolate and pecan nuts, these will be right up your alley.
If you could take or leave the two fixings, then these are a relatively average cookie that will always come through but may never really impress. We found that our taste testers who have strong feelings about the correct pronunciation of "pecan" would have placed Chesapeake higher up on the list, while the rest of us were more passionate about other styles.
11. Farmhouse Thin and Crispy Butter Pecans
Pepperidge Farm cookies are always baked with no artificial flavor or preservatives, creamery butter, real eggs, and other high-quality ingredients that leave no room for nonsense. This great choice is never more apparent than in the relatively new Farmhouse Thin and Crispy Butter Pecan cookies. The flavor combination is both light and rich, nostalgic and inventive, layered and smooth, fun and dependable. Whether or not you're lucky enough to enjoy these alongside a bowl of slow-churned ice cream, you'll get a happy feeling with just one these carefree cookies all by themselves.
These crispy cookies are a nice way to have those clusters and crunches of add-ins without any chocolate. In that sense, Pepperidge's Butter Pecan takes a step back. But never for a minute think that these congenial sweets, neither decadent nor plain, are flavorless. Instead, the bake brings out the savoriness of pecans nuts and allows their mild-mannered nature to stay front and center, bolstered by the extra buttery flavor notes. Toasty nuts, nutty butter, snappy cookies — it's all good over here.
10. Double Dark Chocolate Nantucket
Sometimes with the "destination" cookies, it's a little easier to see the inspiration behind the namesake. Nantucket is the craggy, laid-back, wistful island off the coast of Massachusetts, where you feel truly away from it all. Now translate that vision into a cookie. Wouldn't it be crispy and crunchy, with its own craggy surface showcasing many boulders of decadent, rich dark chocolate?
Double Dark Chocolate Nantucket cookies are an easy way to bring a little bougie-ness into your store-bought dessert experience. If you're going for pre-made chocolate chunk cookies, go for a double dark chocolate chunk cookie, and go straight for these! Oh, and bring them along if you ever visit Nantucket. They would make a great snack while sitting by the ocean, watching the seagulls (but don't even think about sharing your cookies with them). Remember Chesapeake? Well, up in Nantucket, you swap out the pecans for just an extra helping of deep dark chocolate.
Someone had the brilliant idea of dipping these into a mug of hot chocolate when it's crisp outside, and suddenly we're all happily in a Nancy Meyers movie ... remember that scene in The Holiday with the cocoa and Mr. Napkin Head? Just us? Well, we're bringing Nantucket cookies to the next viewing party, and you're invited.
9. Farmhouse Thin and Crispy Buttercrisp
The Farmhouse Thin and Crispy subsection of Pepperidge Farm cookies is a relative newcomer. Cunningly thin and crispy cookies that melt in your mouth, these surprisingly flavorful treats get baked with care using real ingredients like creamery butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. That first list item stands out supremely: Butter seems to seep into every possible molecule of these aptly named Farmhouse Thin and Crispy Buttercrisps.
Nope, they're not the flashiest or most seductive cookies at the grocery store, but having a few Buttercrisps around will be a lifesaver more often than you first supposed. Savoring a mid-morning cup of robust English Breakfast tea? Dip a few right into the warm beverage, like proper lady, pinkies out. Feeling that late-night sweet tooth but thinking that heaps of chocolate won't sit well? You know what to do. The award for 'Most Versatile Cookie' has now been bestowed. We were all impressed by how much we loved such a deceptively "boring" cookie.
8. Raspberry and Chocolate Milano
When a decadent dessert is on your mind, and chocolate always comes first, you're probably on the hunt for something dramatic. But wait, don't forget about Raspberry and Chocolate Milanos. Now you're getting somewhere!
When pairing common fruits with chocolate, raspberries are exceedingly delicate and just a tiny bit more bitter than most, which makes them sparingly found in places where bigger and sweeter is better (like pies or children's gummy snacks.) But, beneath the thorny exterior lies the tastiest morsel of fruit you can find. Plus, the lack of instant sugary-ness and the jammy texture make raspberries the dream compliment to something as brazen and intense as chocolate.
We felt a bit fancy when eating these, and the pink ribbon of raspberry filling is just so pretty. These have the potential to convert those poor misguided folks who believe fruit has no place in desserts, and worked splendidly in the existing Milano framework. We highly approved, and kept eating our way up the rankings.
7. Tahoe
White chocolate and macadamia nuts are a match made in culinary heaven. White chocolate — which is indeed real chocolate, at the very least legally — in all its creamy, buttery, and milky glory, is a real favorite of some people while others find it just too darn sweet. Meanwhile, macadamia nuts are basically the desserts of the legume world, since they're also beloved for the same tasting notes. We also found they have a distinctively tropical undercurrent, white brightens up any cookie experience.
A crunchier cookie is a great idea to hold up all these creamy factors, and Tahoe delivers a slightly sandy bite every time. Considering that, unless you're pretty passionate about baking, a bag of Tahoe will tide you over whenever the craving drifts by. You might find yourself reaching for them more and more as you get used to them, which is why we ranked them higher on our list of best Pepperidge Farm cookies.
6. Double Dark Chocolate Milano
Dark Chocolate Milanos are probably the most instantly recognizable and best-beloved cookies in the entire Pepperidge Farm lineup. There's almost no escaping. If you truly love the classic, but think it could use a bit of extra impact once in a while, the Double Dark Chocolate Milanos were made for you.
Perhaps the only possible critique of the originals is that the chocolate layer is rather slight, vaguely light, and dwarfed by the wide wafers. And as everyone knows, sometimes, more is more — especially where chocolate is concerned. While dozens of flavors riffing on the success of Dark Chocolate Milanos have come and gone throughout the years (RIP the flamboyance of Irish Cream, Lemon Chocolate, and Dark Chocolate Milano Melts), there's no improving on the original — unless, of course, you double up on the chocolate.
All of us tasting the cookies already loved a good regular Milano, so these were an unexpected revelation. There's a chance that one or two people thought it best to leave well enough alone, but majority rules.
5. Chessmen
There are so many chess-related, royalty-referencing puns one can make when discussing Chessmen: The bisque-blonde color and aristocratic stamped surfaces really set them apart from every other cookie on this list, and essentially, on the market. Chessmen are butter cookies treated with dignified care, uniform little picture frames of sophistication. The biscuit (and yes, that's the English word for "cookie") is shatteringly crumbly when bitten into, yet holds together easily for presentation purposes. The most recognizable elements are, of course, the chess piece designs, featuring the knight, queen, pawn, and cohort.
The most recognizable flavor profile, however, is not actually the butter. Breaking off from a basic shortbread or other butter cookies, Chessmen contain a distinctly eggy taste that's actually far from off-putting. Think of the depth and complexity of a crème brûlée, flan, or bread pudding, but in a perfectly individualized cookie that melts smoothly into your favorite warm beverage. Serve these at a party on a pretty platter for an instant dose of dignity. One might believe them boring, but Chessmen are one of the beloved "distinctive" Pepperidge Farm cookies for good reason.
4. Orange and Chocolate Milano
Orange is a strange and solitary fruit, alone in its individuality. But, lots of things go beautifully with the zesty flavor, like cool mint, sweet honey, or silky olive oil. The best of all those pairings is indubitably the life changing chocolate orange duo. It's criminally underrated outside of the few desserts, and we have to wait all year long to crack open a gold-wrapped Terry's Chocolate Orange.
The Milano is an elegant, sophisticated cookie. The slightly bitter, brightly citrus acidity of orange sinks deeply into the robust richness of chocolate, each one bringing out the best in the other. It's all about balance, and if you decide to add an additional flavor to your original Milano rotation, let the Orange and Chocolate Milano be it. The delicious complement transforms an easily-accessible and widely-familiar into an elite treat. We were delighted to find these even more divine than the Raspberry and Chocolate flavored Milanos.
3. Strawberry Verona
Verona is a stunning, fanciful, ancient city in Italy that apparently inspired this sunny cookie. Strawberry Verona is one of Pepperidge Farm's best, definitely landing in the top tier. These buttery rounds are flakey and fine, not dense, and have a light texture akin to a shortbread cookie. Not too sweet, it's a great nest for a dollop of jewel-like strawberry jam on top. The taste of berries comes through, and again, it's neither too saccharine nor overly fruity. If you're eating a cookie, it should taste like one!
Anyway, the aesthetics of a Verona can't be beaten. The precise swirls on the circumference of the cookie plus the merry crimson filling? It's just beautiful. A nice break from chocolate, nuts, or frostings, a Verona would be a lovely accompaniment to other cookies with contrasting elements, like the decadent Double Dark Chocolate Milano or the wafer-thin and crispy Farmhouse Dark Chocolate Chip. Even our taste-testers who weren't hyped about jam found that Verona got the balance just right.
2. Brussels
Brussels fall into Pepperidge Farm's "Distinctive Cookies" category, and it's easy to see why. Brussels are a sandwich cookie, with the "bread" consisting of exceptionally thin, pale ivory lace cookies. According to King Arthur Baking, lace cookies have just enough flour to stop them from spreading into each other and off the baking sheet. This means they stay delicate but have enough structure to prevent total collapse.
Two of these ethereal cookies are contrasted with the rich dark chocolate layer sitting in between them. The chocolate too, however, is barely there, meaning that it never overpowers or drowns out the fragile cookies holding it in place. When put together, the resulting sandwich is nothing like a chalky, cakey, or frosting-filled giant you might find from other sources. In a Brussels, the balance is expertly achieved. They would be lovely served as a light finish to a big meal, with a coffee blend that contains notes of chocolate, hazelnut, or burnt sugar. Brussels earn a high spot on the list thanks to the way they allow you a hint of fudge within a whisper of a cookie sandwich, so much goodness in such an exquisite little package.
1. Bordeaux
By all means, eschew the fancier options on your next grocery store run and slip a bag of Bordeaux into your shopping cart. The next day, embrace your inner Neapolitan self and when pouring your cup of morning coffee, slide a few of the wafer-thin, slightly misshapen rectangles onto a plate. Notice the amber waves of the veneer, resembling sand dunes, so perfect for some gentle textural contrast on the palate. Take a small first bite, and savor every caramelized and buttery note, the crisp snap, the intriguing complexity, and realize that you've found your new favorite cookie.
Now, incorporate that coffee, or tea, or even chilled milk. When you dip a Bordeaux, the experience changes, and the cookie happily steeps in your chosen beverage. Be careful, because with a cookie this slight, a moment too long and it will dissolve irretrievably. While flashy flavors, icings, and add-ins can all work wonders on a cookie, we find that the simplest can be best.
We are happy to report zero leftovers in the Bordeaux bag, which is really saying something when there are 27 cookies packed into each! Oh, and on the next grocery run, we just happened to notice that the store was all out of these particular cookies, so maybe the cat's out of the bag. Our advice is to stock up immediately!