Damn Fine Homemade Cookies from Big Bear

Cookies, dammit, and homemade ones at that: they're hard to resist. And when a friend's WeChat lit up with the looks of some genuine homemade cookies for delivery here in Beijing, I couldn't resist jumping on that action immediately.

Big Bear Baked Goods, run by American expat Jonathan Ellis, makes three types of cookies, in batches small enough and imperfectly shaped enough that you know they've been made by hand. They taste homemade as well – and they'd make a perfect excuse for you to toss any diet you're on out the window and indulge.

Currently Big Bear makes three varieties, and here they are, ranked in order of yumminess by our own gluttonous tastebuds after a batch was delivered to our office this afternoon:

The Mud & Snow are the cream of the crop. Despite the mildly icky name, the cookie is irresistible. Featuring a huge hunk of dark chocolate in a cookie base and sprinkled with rocky sea salt, the cookie sings with deep notes of dark chocolate accompanied by brightness of the salt. This was easily the most popular of the bunch, and it wasn't long before ravenous office-mates made them disappear.

Next in the sequence of deliciousness was the Mind's Eye, an oatmeal cookie laden with cranberries, macadamias and white chocolate. The cookies were moist and flavorful, with none of the unpleasantly rough texture you occasionally come across in an oatmeal cookie. The cookie could have used a bit more tartness from the cranberries, but overall the variety of the ingredients made them a lively alternative to the other two.

The Triplets, purported to be made from three types of chocolate, were above-ordinary versions of your standard chocolate chip cookie but were rendered somewhat ordinary by their placement alongside its two even more delicious cousins.

Big Bear's goods are definitely made to order and it appears Ellis has his hand in every batch, so don't expect miracles – but he'll do his best to make a batch to order for delivery on the east side of Beijing within 48 hours. Bags of five cookies go for RMB 30 for the Triplets and RMB 35 for the others; boxes and larger orders are also available.

Order cookies by sending an email indicating what you'd like to bigbearbakedgoods@gmail.com and Ellis will reply with details, or visit www.bigbearbakedgoods.com.