[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Dean & Deluca recently started carrying a wide range of shortbreads from Michel et Augustin, a French company I fell head-over-heels for on my last visit to Paris. And now, I've found them stocked in NYC; the shortbread cookies are sold in tiny boxes of six, $3 a box.

They currently carry three flavors: a vanilla shortbread with poppy seeds, a chocolate chip, and dark chocolate shortbread. All cookies are free of preservatives and utterly delicious. The dark chocolate one has the taste of luxuriously fudgy brownie trapped in a crumbly butter cookie, while the vanilla has a wicked abundance of toasty poppy seeds. Good alone or with a quick dip into hot coffee.

For something more along the lines of a candy bar, Michel et Augustin takes their classic shortbread base, makes it more crunchy as opposed to crumbly, and couples the batter with chopped hazelnuts before finishing with shallow wells of dark chocolate ganache. They do the same thing with a silky salted caramel and milk chocolate pairing. It's a cross between cookie and chocolate bar, really the best of both worlds. $4 a bar. Michel et Augustin produces a third one, a sublime salted butter and dark chocolate bar. Don't get too excited; Dean & Deluca's doesn't stock that flavor—yet. Perhaps I should prod customer service with gentle emails until they do?

Dean and Deluca

At Dean & Deluca's in NYC (map)
212-965-0500
deandeluca.com

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.