Have you ever bitten into a dessert that instantly made you smile? Well, that’s what happened when I tasted Xtreme Desserts’ Red Velvet Cookie. My face just lit up.

To be honest, the perfectly sweet taste of the cookie/cream cheese combination that embraced my palate was a surprise because I’m really not a fan of Red Velvet anything.

Xtreme Desserts "Sweet Tooth" creator Glenn Panitz making his signature Red Velvet Cookies in his North Hollywood commercial kitchen. Photo: Karen Young

Frankly, I think it is the most over-exposed, over-done, over-replicated, trend-happy flavor there is — and often made with poor ingredients that leave a chemical sweet taste etched in your mouth.

News flash — the Xtreme Desserts Red Velvet Cookie is a most welcome exception. This company’s signature cookie is moist and soft and filled with the most scrumptious real cream cheese filling made with pure Madagascar vanilla. I must not be the only fan because 3000 cookies are baked per month.  This Red Velvet  is the real deal and I’m hooked. And unlike the cupcake version, there is cream and cookie in every bite — and it doesn’t dry out.

Special for Valentines Day are heart-shaped Red Velvet Cookies packed in a red box with a designer ribbon ($46 for a dozen).  Each cookie will be individually wrapped with a heart sticker — for freshness — or to divide among your valentines.

Glenn Panitz is the baking brain behind the Xtreme Desserts and a self-professed “cookie person.” He acquired his love of cookies from his mom’s New Jersey kitchen. Panitz’s goal with his treats is to put a “twist” on the cookies, as well as the other unique baked goods he creates.

Red Velvet heart cookies special for Valentines Day. Free delivery through February with MDF code. Photo: Xtreme Desserts

Panitz’s foray into the baking biz came by way of poker. He was the designated sweets guy at his weekly games with the guys.

“I’d arrive with a cake that was the size of a mattress. It would move and crack like the San Andreas fault with the filling oozing out,” he relayed with a grin.

“Nothing really looked good, but my poker buddies loved the taste of everything I made and told me that I should have a baking business,” said Panitz, whose career background is as an executive in both entertainment and real estate.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Dream, Pecan Pie Maple Cookie and Red Velvet Cookie. Photo: Xtreme Desserts

And so, according to this poker legend, Xtreme Desserts was officially born in 2008.

“Everything I made was big and extreme,” said Panitz, who has since refined his baked goods into perfect looking specimens, but has kept his “extreme” philosophy — meaning top quality ingredients, unique flavors and how he creates and designs each baked good.

Xtreme Desserts currently features five different cookies: Red Velvet (as written above, stands alone); Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Dream (two soft cocoa chocolate chip cookies with a peanut butter cream cheese filling drizzled with chocolate ganache on top); Pecan Pie Maple Cookie (two 100% Maple cookies sandwiched around homemade Pecan Pie filling and topped with a lightly sugar coated pecan); S’Mores (A rich and moist cocoa chocolate cookie, circled with homemade marshmallow cream which has been torch fired and topped with a sprinkle of graham cracker. ); and PB and J (A peanut butter cookie with strawberry jelly spread in a circle around the top so you get the combo taste in every bite). The cookies all freeze beautifully for up to three months.

Brownies and Blondies are individual works of art. Photo: Xtreme Desserts

Cookies are just the beginning of the sweet madness at Xtreme Desserts.  There are the fifteen different types of Blondies and Brownies. Now we’re really talking “extreme.” You have to see these — and taste them — to believe it. Each  are individual works of art shaped in rounds with a variety of luscious frostings, combination flavors and toppings. Here’s just some of the flavors: Cheesecake Brownie, Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Blondie, Black Forest Brownie, Caramel Snickerish Brownie, German Chocolate Brownie, Pistachio Chocolate Chip Brownie, Green Mint Chocolate Chip Brownie, Chocolate Malted Brownie, Apple Pie Blondie.

Cakes can be custom created with 72 hours notice. Photo: Xtreme Desserts.

“I just want to take all my favorite desserts and create them as cookies and brownies,” said Panitz.

Need cake? Just give Xtreme Desserts 72 hours notice and they’ll bake a made-to-order four layer specialty cake. Or need something extra special, like a wedding cake? No problem. Panitz will work with you to create a one-of-a-kind cake for any occasion. He also supplies party platters and does gift baskets as well as cookie party favors.

Xtreme Desserts — definitely a baked goods ‘find’ to put an extreme smile on your face.

FREE LOCAL DELIVERY  ON ALL GOODS THROUGH THE END OF FEBRUARY. PUNCH IN CODE: MDF — WHEN ORDERING

www.xtremedesserts.com (818) 505-1759.   Contact Glenn Panitz for custom orders and shipping/delivery questions. Available locally in individual servings at Crave in Sherman Oaks, Artisan Cheese Gallery in Studio City and Sweetharts in Sherman Oaks, plus the Studio City Farmers Market this Sunday, February 7. There will be samples!

Karen Young is the Editor/Publisher of My Daily Find