Gluten-Free In NYC: Ovenly's Peanut Butter Cookies

Drugs, shopping, adrenaline-fueling adventurous activities — there's many different ways for people to get high, but me? I get my fix with Ovenly's peanut butter cookies.

Ovenly, the tiny and adorable café and bakery based in Greenpoint, serves coffee, tea, and all kinds of baked goods — you're going to want to direct your attention to what's in one of the jars on the counter. Yes, they look plain, but don't let their unassuming façade sway you, as they are a pretty good contender for best cookie ever, in my hyperbolic opinion.

Sure, there are some decent gluten-free cookies out there, but this cookie outweighs even the gluten-full kind. Chew factor is key, as most gluten-free cookies are basically rocks, but this cookie is both soft and just dense enough for a perfect chew, practically unheard of in the gluten-free cookie world. Flavor is dense, too, completely packed with peanut butter (I hear it's all-natural) and a sprinkle of sea salt provides the perfect salty-sweet balance.

Not a peanut butter fan? No problem — if you're gluten-free, their chocolate and pistachio agave cookies hit the spot. There are regular, gluten-filled treats as well, yet even gluten eaters have told me that when it comes to Ovenly, this peanut butter cookie is the way to go.

If you still don't believe in the power of these cookies, how about this: last weekend, I had such a craving for an Ovenly peanut butter cookie that I trekked all the way to Greenpoint from Bay Ridge just to have one, plus a pistachio agave cookie (not to mention an embarrassing amount of chocolate cookie samples). These cookies will literally move you, so after going to Ovenly once, be prepared to go over, and over, and over again.