CakeSpy Undercover: Black and White Cookies from Antoine's Pastry Shop, Newton, MA

Antoine's Bakery, Watertown MA

This is your brain on black and white cookie.

But not just any black and white cookie--the unique version at Antoine's Pastry Shop of Newton, Massachusetts.

Let's get one thing straight, right from the get-go: this is not a traditional black and white cookie. It has a buttercream frosting, for one thing, and a coarse-crumbed, slightly dry cake texture on the cookie part. But I found it delightful. It somehow managed to taste like grocery-store birthday cake meets big old-fashioned bakery cookie, and to me, this made for an enchanting taste of nostalgia: like all sorts of childhood treats and forbidden pleasures all rolled into one.

Antoine's Bakery, Watertown MA

Of course, if my Proustian recounting of cookie-eating days past sort of love for this treat doesn't appeal, you could always go for the old-school bakery standards, such as sfogiatelle, butter cookies, or eclairs and cream puffs.

Antoine's Bakery, Watertown MA

The appeal of a place like Antoine's isn't that they are "the best" - it is that they are good, and that they are a neighborhood tradition. I'm not saying this in a backhanded compliment sort of way--it's just kind of the way it is. Antoine's is a solid and dependable sort of place, and if you find yourself in Newton, I vote that you go in for a taste of something sweet.

Antoine's Pastry Shop, 317 Watertown Street, Newton, MA.

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