The Hands Down Best Trader Joe's Cookies On Store Shelves
Every sweet tooth knows the temptation of facing the cookie aisle at Trader Joe's. The grocer has a vicious way of making even a quick grocery run dangerous for anyone with a weakness for sweets. With so many cookies competing for space in the shopping cart, though, some are worth the detour more than others. Laceys Cookies, which landed at the top of our ranking of Trader Joe's best cookies, are a great example.
Trader Joe's Laceys are loosely based on Florentine lace cookies, traditionally made with almonds, candied fruit, butter, cream, and sugar, then finished with chocolate on the underside. TJ's take includes crispy toffee wafers studded with nuts, with a layer of chocolate sandwiched between them. You can eat them on their own, but according to America's Test Kitchen, spreading ice cream between two cookies and refreezing them takes them to another level of deliciousness. They also work great as an ice cream topping, alongside other Trader Joe's frozen desserts.
The cookie aisle underdog has built a loyal fan base of its own
While Laceys are not the flashiest of TJ's cookies, they have developed a loyal fan base as one of the true underdogs of the sweets aisle, with customers vouching for them profusely. They're in good company among other cult-favorite Trader Joe's products. In a Reddit discussion about underrated Trader Joe's snacks, one user admitted that Laceys "look kinda unappealing but omg they're so good and I hardly ever hear anyone mention them." Their understated appearance might be part of their charm, but the real trouble starts once you open the box.
The buttery toffee brings a deep, almost burnt-sugar sweetness which is balanced out with the nutty crunch of the almonds and the bitterness from the dark chocolate, making them the kind of cookies that can be deceptively easy to polish off, as another Redditor admitted. "Oh man those are so good. They're banned from my house because my husband and I can't control ourselves."