Before Thanksgiving, Dylan’s Candy Bar opened a pop-up store on the SW corner of 42nd and 6th, and apparently all of you did what we did: avoid the area at all costs until after the holidays. Well if you still want to stop by, the Pop-Up is going on through this Saturday. I checked it out only to find out that us lunch’ers have been missing out on Sprinkles cupcakes, and also the apocalypse is totally happening.

Located on the far side of the registers by the front door is a Lego-inspired cupcake cart for Sprinkles. They have a good range of flavors for $3.50 each.

The rest of the store does have a good selection of pricey candy with most of it running $13 a pound. If you’re a candy fanatic who needs to stock up their office drawers, it might be a good idea to stop by since Dylan’s does have a different selection than downtown’s Economy Candy. There’s also this excellent gingerbread house in the back, next to the upside down Christmas tree.

Also there’s this sure sign of the impending apocalypse: Angry Birds candy. Perfect for in-office depictions of the game.

Dylan’s Candy Bar Pop-Up, SW corner of 42nd St and 6th Ave

The first stop for anyone looking for anything holiday is Grand Central Market, specifically the new Zabar’s area. They have quite the impressive holiday hand decorated cookie display complete with a hipster Santa and penguins. For the Jews among us, they only have menorahs, but you can head a few booths over….

To Zaro’s and their dreidel cookies. Zaro’s also has gingerbread men and Christmas tree cookies, as well as the requisite packs of blue-and-white cookies, which can also be found at Junior’s on the other side of GCT.

If you really want people to like you, you should head downstairs to the food court and pick up some Flex Donuts. Chef Zac Young was hopeful that they’d be doing some special holiday flavors this week, but even if they don’t, a box of these is a sure to be hit. Just don’t bring the Maple Bourbon Bacon to a kosher household, but I’m sure you already know that.

Those of you looking for authentic sufganiyot, head on over to Ess-a-Bagel (3rd btw 50th+51st). As you can see $1.75 each for jelly-filled or chocolate-covered custard. No, they’re not labeled “sufganiyot” because let’s seriously imagine the tourists dealing with that. Added bonus: they’re kosher!

Anyone in need of an impressive fancy dessert should head to their nearest Financier, or fight the crowds at Bouchon Bakery in Rockefeller Center or Columbus Circle. Both bakeries are making French Bûche de Noëls. The cakes consist of Génoise, a sponge cake, and good French buttercream. At Bouchon, you can get excellent miniature versions for $6.95 in the two flavors they have this year: chocolate/hazelnut and vanilla/orange. Financier has a wider range of flavors for the yule logs. Both places also have other cakes available, like a chestnut cake at Financier, and actual delicious-looking fruit cakes at Bouchon.

In Midtown West, your choices are more limited. Donna Bell’s (49th btw 8th+9th) is hoping to have a few special holiday treats, other than the seasonal items they have now like their marshmallow sweet potato bar. You can also keep an eye on Sweetery’s Twitter, @SweeteryNYC (also on the ML Twitter Tracker) to see if they’ll be around; it looks like they might be roaming Midtown West during the evening all week. They’ll be having a variety of hand decorated sugar and gingerbread cookies available on the truck.

The out-of-bounds Leon Bakery (9th Ave. btw 47+48th), one of the greater Midtown area’s premiere purveyors of tamales (not to mention their selection of baked goods), is currently closed for renovations. From what I could see of the interior, the changes are extensive and the space will probably look much different. As long as there is still a barrel of tamales in the back, I’ll be happy. One of the workers told me they should reopen in the next few weeks. Can’t wait!

After tasting two of Potbelly’s three dessert options–I’m not counting the mini cookies as a real option–and being greatly surprised with the taste and quality of their cookies, I was anxious to try out the last dessert, the Dreambar. The Dreambar is a bar equivalent of their Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie in that it’s filled with chocolate chips and rolled oats. But there are some major differences that will steer you towards one or the other.

First, the bar is partly held together near the edge by some gooey apple taffy that tastes almost like an apple caramel. This gives the bar a distinctly, and almost overwhelming, sweet taste. Another difference is the use of shortening in the bar. When you use shortening in desserts, it stops the dessert from spreading, but it coats the inside of your mouth leaving you with a greasy mouth feel. Some people don’t mind this, some people even like this. The Dreambar isn’t heavy on the shortening, but it’s definitely there. I don’t know if it’s from the shortening, or simply the dense mass of the bar, but the whole bar felt heavy to me, like lead in my stomach. This is a dessert that I would probably stop eating halfway through, but not because it doesn’t taste good. If you’re a fan of bars or the oatmeal chocolate chip combination, this is definitely something to try out. But if you’re more of a cookie person, like myself, you’ll want to stick with those.

Potbelly Sandwich Shop has two locations in Midtown.  One on 44th btw. Lex+3rd and one in the Rock Center Concourse.

When I first heard about Schweddy Balls, Ben & Jerry’s latest Limited Edition flavor named for the classic Alec Baldwin SNL sketch, I had to go check the Rock Center shop to see if they had scoops. And come on, Schweddy Balls are tailor made for amusing interactions.

Me: “hi, I’d like a cup of Schweddy Balls.”
Woman in business suit next to me: “Getting some Schweddy Balls today?”
Me: “Yup.”
Woman in business suit next to me: “Me, too. Those are some good Schweddy Balls.”

Described as “Fair Trade vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and loaded with fudge covered rum and milk chocolate malt balls.” I didn’t taste much rum in the actual ice cream base–tasted more than a rich vanilla to me–but the chewy mini rum balls delivered some boozy flavor. Not sure what the rum to malt ball ratio was supposed to be, but it seemed like in the cup that I had the there were way more rum balls than malt balls. If you look forward to the holidays for chocolate rum balls then you’ll be a fan.

Ben & Jerry’s, Rock Center Concourse, 212-218-7843

This is one of those larger flat cookies-it had gotten a little smushed in my bag. It definitely tasted and felt freshly baked, nicely soft and chewy. It’s heavier on the oatmeal than the chocolate chips, but they’re still in there, so you still feel like you’re eating an unhealthy cookie. Not that I can complain much for the price. I do definitely think that these should be entered into the running as one of the better cookies in Midtown.

The long-standing ‘wichcraft kiosks in Bryant Park recently got a new outpost, an ice cream kiosk (40th btw 5+6th) close to the carousel. As far as I know, this is actually the first ‘wichcraft foray into ice cream, and they’ve decided to source their ice cream from Van Leeuwen! This actually makes a lot of sense knowing that ‘wichcraft likes to use organic and local products when available. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I headed over to the kiosk, but I ended up finding one of the cheapest ice cream treats around.

Single and double scoops are $4 and $7 respectively, with ice cream floats being $6.50. But the best part of the menu is at the bottom. They’ve recreated ‘wichcraft’s Cream’wich as an Ice Cream’wich. The flavors are tricky to understand–you can get vanilla or strawberry ice cream sandwiched between specific cookies in pre-made packages. I chose vanilla in between peanut butter cookies since that’s my favorite of the cream’wiches. At $4.25, it’s a perfectly priced lunchtime dessert. Despite coming from a freezer, the cookies were crumbly and had great flavor. I loved the added crunch from the salt on top. Once the ice cream warmed up a bit, it was creamy and delicious. The size is great too–once it starts melting, there are only a few bites left.

‘wichcraft Ice Cream Kiosk, 40th Street side of Bryant Park

When Quality Meats (58th btw 5+6th) offered up ice cream sundaes last summer, I never did get the chance to try out the fantastic looking creations. So when Brian reported that they’d come back for another month, you bet I made my way over. In the past week, I’ve managed to stop by twice, trying two different sundaes. Now I know what you’re thinking.  This has already been covered!  Why are you writing about this again?  Well… if you have any sort of decadent sweet tooth, you NEED to get over there before time runs out next Wednesday. These things are that good.

On my first visit, being a lover of mint chocolate chip, I chose the Grasshopper. I hadn’t really seen a picture of what to expect inside the cup of ice cream, just shots of the toppings. Well, you get ice cream sandwiched between layers of cake-in this case rich, moist dark chocolate cake. The chocolate mousse on top is also an airy fluffy stand-out. The $8 price tag is high, but one could definitely be satisfyingly split between two people. Not that you’ll want to. You’ll want to house this entire thing as you walk down the street to the stares of suits and tourists alike. And you will enjoy every minute.

For the second treat, I went the Toasted Banana S’more route. How can you not love a dessert that comes with an extra mini chocolate bar? It’s like a dessert prize. This one involves creamy banana ice cream sandwiched between layers of chocolate chip-filled graham cracker cake. And yes, the marshmallow topping is toasted fresh when you order. This one is good if you’re not a choco-holic, and still very enjoyable even if you are.

When you stop by, don’t be surprised if you see me there ordering yet another sundae. You have until the end of August.

A few weeks back, Eddie’s Pizza Truck and Cart began carrying some dessert…  chocolate chip cookies supposedly being baked fresh on the truck. The day I stopped by the cart, they were not freshly baked, but wrapped in plastic but that being said, the cookie wasn’t a complete let-down. The massive, chewy cookie tasted fresher than most packaged cookies and there wasn’t any chemical preservative aftertaste. My only big gripe was how few chocolate chips were involved. I love the cookie itself, but chocolate chips are what should make a chocolate chip cookie. But considering how big the cookie is for only $2, I suppose I can overlook the lesser amount of chips for an otherwise nice dessert.

The truck can be found on 46th at 6th today. As always, check their Twitter (@EddiesPizzaNY) or the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.