Carpe Cookie

A grade-A cookie lover's account of the best – and sometimes worst – cookies around.

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Butterscotch Cookie at Seastar Bakery

Posted by on Apr 27, 2018 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Seastar Bakery

1603 NE Killingsworth St. – Portland

$2.75

I’m pretty sure there is no bakery that sees my face more often than Seastar. But here’s the crazy thing: I don’t typically end up with a cookie or pastry when I’m there. Totally unintuitive, I know. This is not because the cookies and cakes and muffins aren’t good (they are!) but after filling myself  with thick amazing corn durham toast (all of their breads and baked goods are made with flours that they mill themselves from several different types of whole grains sourced by local growers – a labor definitely worth their efforts, imo!), plus an egg –  and also seasonal vegetables – both of them cooked in their beautiful wood fire oven, and also a side of tahini…and honey and butter – and 3 cups of coffee, I’m too stuffed for cookies and cakes and muffins.

Last weekend, however, I stopped in for breakfast with my brother on our way out of town heading up to Seattle and  bought one of these butterscotch  numbers that I’d actually been peeping for the past few weeks – a relatively new addition to their lineup. (He is possibly as cookie-curious as I am, something I think I’ve mentioned before).  We tossed it in the backseat of his car for a future snack during our 3 hour drive.

Which we did – somewhere around Centralia, WA. And here is the upshot: this is the first public cookie I’ve eaten in months that moved me enough to write about. Which justifies my lack of a single new post in nearly 10 months, but is also the absolute truth.

Here’s what I want to tell you:

• The butterscotch flavor (aka brown sugar and butter, aka one of the very best combination of ingredients ever invented in the history of the world) is present and accounted for. Assertive, in a good way. Who has time for  an unassertive cookie?

• Firm and slightly crispy along the circumference – soft and perfectly underbaked in the center.

• Butterscotchness enhanced by a thin drizzle of butterscotch sauce atop.

• Additional and unexpected embellishment: a sprinkling of finely ground coffee (or espresso?). Nice move, guys. This really pulled it all together quite nicely. I wouldn’t have thought of it on my own but I’m for sure stealing that idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Everything Cookie at Cheese & Crack

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in Chocolate, Oatmeal, Etc., Uncategorized | 0 comments

Cheese & Crack Snack Shop

22 E 28th Ave – Portland

$1.50

cheese+crack full

Here’s what’s in it:

• chocolate chips, oats, coconut, dried cranberries, black sesame seeds, rainbow sprinkles, olive oil, sea salt.

I am not going to tell you this cookie is phenomenal, but it IS good enough that I’d get it again. I’ve been loving sesame lately, been thinking about how to up its role in desserts (ice cream, cake, etc.). So big points right off the bat for the seeds. As for the

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Almond Butter with Orange at Grano Bakery & Market

Posted by on Mar 13, 2017 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Grano Bakery & Market 

1500 Washington St. – Oregon City

$2.75

 

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Brand new excellent bakery alert: Grano opened about a month ago, in downtown Oregon City. As I posted on my March 10th FB review of the place in which I mention their great bread, bread pudding, bostock…did I mention AMAZING bread, this place is completely worth the drive from Portland. (I can count on one hand the amount of FB reviews I’ve bothered to give or even thought about giving so, seriously: heads up on this one!)

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Peanut Brittle Cookie at Little T Baker

Posted by on Jan 30, 2017 in Peanut Butter | 0 comments

Little T Baker
NE 24th and Sandy – Portland (inside Providore Fine Foods) & 2600 SE Division (main bakery location)
$2

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The fact that there are a mere 3-4 other peanut butter cookies on Carpe Cookie is not an accident. As I mentioned in at least one of those reviews, I find it hard to get excited about a PBC. They’re typically bland and flat-tasting, not salty enough (for the love of George Washington Carver, peanuts need salt!) and often greasy. Just not my thing.

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Tahini Cookie at Eltana

Posted by on Dec 23, 2016 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Eltana Wood-Fired Bagel Cafe

4  locations – Seattle

$2.25

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I didn’t go to this place looking for a cookie. I mean it’s a bagel joint – a step above the typical bagel bakery offerings with things like fava bean spread and shakshuka on the menu (check it out) – but still, not a place I was expecting to find a remarkable cookie.

And then I remembered that, historically, some of my favorite cookies ever were found when I wasn’t looking for them, like at grocery store bakeries and taquerias and throwback 1990’s coffee shops.

I’ve been on sort of a tahini/sesame jag recently (fyi: a little swirl is so nice on vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of honey and salt), so I didn’t think twice when I told my bro to grab this tahini cookie when we were ordering our bagel lunch – the only cookie (or any kind of dessert, I think) in the entire place.

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Conclusion: It was not a mistake! Okay, so imagine the sort of peanut butter cookie that is made mostly of peanut butter, held together with a little flour and sugar and (maybe?) eggs. And salt. (Salt is a must, especially in a nut/seed heavy cookie. I cannot say this too many times. This one could have used more, imo.) It’s that same sort of dense, protein-y texture as that cookie, but sesame-y instead of peanut-y (obvs). With even more sesame seeds sprinkled atop, as your eyes can see. You could eat this cookie in place of a protein bar and not feel like you were lying to yourself. No joke.

Points to Eltana for their out of the ordinary offering.

 

 

 

 

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Molasses Sage Cookie at Seastar Bakery

Posted by on Oct 26, 2016 in Ginger Molasses, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Seastar Bakery
1603 NE Killingsworth St. – Portland
$2.75

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This is really more like a tiny cake – or a “cake-let” – than it is a cookie, if you want my opinion. (And if you’re reading this, you clearly do want my opinion.) No, I cannot back up that declaration academically. All I can tell you is that when I think of a molasses cookie, this is what comes into my head. Or this. Or anythingI’ve written about under the “ginger molasses” pull-category over to the right. 

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Ginger Molasses Cookie at Sweet Life Patisserie

Posted by on Jul 11, 2016 in Ginger, Ginger Molasses, Vegan | 0 comments

Sweet Life Patisserie
755 Monroe St – Eugene, OR

$1.75
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My 2-3x/year trips to Eugene are nearly always capped with a stop by Sweet Life  on my way out of town. By “nearly always” I mean always.

And not for nostalgia’s sake. Yes, I (more or less) lived in that city from the moment I left my mama’s womb to the time of my first legal cocktail, which I’m just now for the first time in my life

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Snickerdoodle at Whole Foods Market

Posted by on Mar 17, 2016 in Snickerdoodle, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Whole Foods Market*
NE 15th and Fremont St. – Portland
99¢

snick

 

*my review pertains to this specific Whole Foods only because, in fact, not all WF cookie bakers are created equally. (I’m talking to you, WF @ NE 28th and Burnside. Over-baking your cookies and then wrapping each one up in Saran? Stop it.)

What is happening to my mouth? I suddenly crave snickerdoodles regularly. For the first time in all my cookie-eating years. 

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Ricciarelli at Arizmendi Bakery

Posted by on Oct 8, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Arizmendi Bakery

3265 Lakeshore Avenue – Oakland, CA

Approximately $1.30 (Sold by the pound – by I forget exactly how much.)

 

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I keep forgetting to tell you about the last great cookie I ate!

I was at my brother’s house in Seattle over a month ago – the same day he brought it back from a trip to SF/ Oakland  along with a few others from the same bakery. Everything he’d

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Annie Oakley Cowgirl Cookie at Food Front

Posted by on Aug 12, 2015 in Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Coconut | 0 comments

Food Front Coop
2375 NW Thurman Street – Portland
$2.19

(Find it in the self-server pastry case in the store’s deli area.)

Okay, I know. Vegan. If you’re scrunching your nose right now you need to get over it and just don’t worry. Everything is fine. It is more than fine. Because no joke, this cookie is better than approximately 85% cookies I come across in the world, vegan or otherwise.

This is why.

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Chocolate Chip at Stella Taco

Posted by on Jul 1, 2015 in Chocolate, Chocolate Chip | 0 comments

Stella Taco
2940 NE Alberta – Portland
$2

Q:  Why is it that a taco joint is completely NAILING chocolate chip cookies?

Stella makes exactly one* baked good and they make the $*!% out of it.

Somebody in that kitchen, clearly, is a cookie scholar – and  is managing to get these gems under a glass dome at the cash register on a regular basis. (I’ve seen them every time I’ve been there, with maybe one exception when they’d sold out.)

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Ginger Snap at Lauretta Jean’s

Posted by on May 12, 2015 in Ginger, Ginger Molasses | 0 comments

Lauretta Jean’s
3402 SE Division. Portland
$1

First thing’s first: it’s not really a “gingersnap.”  This is not a criticism; most days I would rather eat a soft, chewy ginger molasses cookie than a crispy, brittle one. (Not that a very good gingersnap doesn’t have its place in the world. It totally does.)

That being said, while not necessarily an earth-shattering ginger molasses, it is certainly a solid option – not shy on spice and flavor and overall pretty satisfying.

Note: I thought it tasted even better two days later than it did freshy-baked. Only a well-made, not over baked cookie will pass this integrity/longevity test.

Respectable.

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