In The Mood / Cookies

* Corporate Cookie and Caffe: These are corporate cookies: standardized, mid-sized, consistent, of unsurprising types--chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter--and about as good as such cookies get. The most unusual, a white chocolate chip with almonds, may take the cake. (75 cents per cookie, $6.99 per pound) Corporate Cookie and Caffe, 11870 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 820-5644.

* Mani’s Bakery: Mani’s makes a valiant effort to convince us that cookies can be good without refined sugar and butter. The almond shortbread almost convinces, and a big two-hearted ginger cookie filled with dark, gooey barley-malt sweetened chocolate actually converts. (45 cents to $2.50 per cookie) Mani’s Bakery, 519 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 938-8800, three other locations.

* La Brea Bakery: In addition to definitive chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies, biscotti and almond and butter shortbreads, the bakery sells Australian cookies called anzac, with oats, coconut and butter, and delicate, domed cookies filled with custard, traditionally known as Sicilian nun’s breasts. (75 cents to $2.25 per cookie) La Brea Bakery, 624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 939-6813.

* Panos Pastry Bakery: Panos sells an assortment of French, butter and traditional Middle Eastern cookies. Try the pale, powdery, butter cookie known as ghurabia, and conical, rich maamouls filled with a dense puree of nuts or dates. Also: cinnamon hazelnut butter cookies and excellent almond macaroons. ($6 per pound) Panos Pastry Bakery, 5150 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 661-0335.

* Beverlywood Bakery: This Jewish bakery makes around 600 pounds of cookies a week, with 30 to 35 kinds to choose from, including rugelach, florentines, hazelnut, butter, rainbow, honeycomb, pecan cookies and wafers of every ilk. ($7.50/pound) Beverlywood Bakery, 9128 Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 278-0122.

* Porta Via: There may be only three types of cookies sold at this classy little sidewalk cafe, but they’re the best of their type: a spicy, crinkled gingersnap; a hazelnut biscotti; and a profound chocolate fudge cookie. (75 cents-$1. per cookie) Porta Via, 424 N. Can~on Dr., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6534.

* Il Fornaio: Among Il Fornaio’s bestsellers are chocolate-dipped florentines, and tasty biscotti, both chocolate and plain. The piece de resistance might be a large gingerbread man clothed in chocolate. (50 cents to $2.50 per cookie, $9.25 to 13.95 per pound) Il Fornaio, 310 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 550-8330; 24 W. Union St., Pasadena, (818) 683-9797.

* Federico’s: The mother source of cookies in the San Gabriel Valley, Federico’s is loved most for its Italian cookies, which include a variety of great biscotti, amaretti with pine nuts and the addictive cog-shaped, lemon-scented, hard, dry taralli. ($6.50 per pound) Federico’s, main store, 1860 Evergreen St., Duarte, (818) 357-9866; and four other locations.