Giant cookies are the rage. We tried San Antonio bakeries and chains to see if bigger is really better.

These days, Texas isn’t the only place where bigger is better. Especially when it comes to food.

A nationwide craze for monster-sized cookies has been developing for some time now, and the expansion of Utah’s buzzy Crumbl Cookies into San Antonio only reinforces the trend. With more than 1,000 U.S. outlets, the company claims to be the country’s fastest-growing cookie franchise. Apparently, the rest of the world is next.

San Antonio’s six Crumbl bakeries, as elsewhere, features a menu that rotates weekly and an open kitchen where customers can watch the cookies being made. A Barbie-pink delivery car also may be parked outside.

Should you bite?

Crumbl’s website offers a hint about its baked goods when it poses the operational choice to “accept all cookies” — never gonna happen — or “reject non-essential cookies.”

Is the chain’s OG Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk “essential,” for example? For me, and at 770 calories, it’s almost too much of a good thing. With a ratio of chip-to-dough that comes down heavily in favor of neat, chocolate cubes, there’s little chew or crunch to balance the chocolate — and what actual cookie there is seems, well, doughy.

Obviously, some folks love this cookie. At roughly $4.50 a pop, I don’t totally reject it, but I don’t embrace it either.

The Churro Toffee cookie employs white chocolate “drops” — a real churro is best dipped in thick, lava-dark hot chocolate, just FYI — some toffee bits and a dusting of cinnamon sugar that counts for little. The overall texture is better than the chocolate chip, but the overall impression is one principally of sweetness and vanilla.

Essential? No.

Though not a fan of marshmallow fluff, the S’mores cookie achieves a better balance. I can’t say that the matrix itself screams graham cracker, but the flavor is reinforced by graham crumbles on top, milk chocolate within and both marshmallow puddles and drizzles and pools of darker chocolate for contrast.

This one works.

If it weren’t for its pesky wrapper and a cookies-and-cream bottom crust that is disappointingly soggy, the Turtle Cheesecake almost works, too. Caramel, chocolate ganache and toasty chopped pecans recall the classic confection and add to the indulgent mix for a dessert that, unlike the others, may actually deserve its own pink box.

While Crumbl is the behemoth in terms of big-cookie bakeries, it’s not alone in embracing the trend.

Cookie Plug, with a mere 25 locations nationwide, including two in San Antonio, claims hip-hop and graffiti as inspirations. Appropriately it calls its cookies “FAT, THICC, and BOMB.”

The chain has that part right, at least. My perfectly round OG Chocolate Chip ($5.00) weighed in at a frightening 5.11 ounces. If you’re the kind of cookie monster that likes the dough better than the baked product, then this may be for you. Personally, I found it too thick and heavy to have been cooked all the way through, and would say the same of the Crunch Nugget Chocolate Peanut Butter Phatty. Even with its 5.33-ounce heft, it needed both more chocolate and more peanut.

You don’t have to go the chain route to get your monster fix, of course.

Bird Bakery in Alamo Heights offers a Double Chocolate Chip at $4.50 that’s essentially a Toll House cookie with a fancier education. I’m not sure the 5.5-inch diameter diameter adds anything but visual delight, but this is a classic chipper worth some attention —even if I might prefer the chocolate a little less finely chopped.

Even better is the cookie Bird actually calls The Monster. This loftier creation has it all: chocolate bits, M&Ms, craggy-textured oats. It’s an every-bite-a-delight cookie. Just my kind.

If you happen to be in either Monte Vista or Southtown, drop by Extra Fine Bakery for its take on the chocolate chip cookie. It’s made with rye flour and comes across as nutty and almost meaty in flavor.

And if you’re sticking to Monte Vista, by all means make a stop at Lilly’s Cookies. The bakery’s Monster chocolate chip ($3.75) is a visual extravaganza, employing plentiful M&Ms, a shower of sprinkles, exuberant drizzles of dark chocolate and impressive chunks within. The giant S’mores cookie, adorned with a mound of mini-marshmallows, is equally extravagant visually, and taste-wise, it’s more than just a pretty face.

But when it comes down to it, supersizing and pink packaging may be fun on occasion, but give me a bag of Lilly’s small, unassuming, and perfect chocolate chip cookies ($.95) any day. Or, to be honest, make that peanut butter. Therein lies true bliss.

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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.