Posted by on Oct 21, 2011 in Almond | 3 comments

Nuvrei Patisserie
404 NW 10th Avenue – Portland
$2

Nuvrei, a Portland bakery supplying superior almond croissant, berry brioche and an exceptionally fantastic flourless chocolate chewy cookie to the city’s best coffee shops, has opened a retail café above their bakery in The Pearl District. In case you’ve never had a Nuvrei item in your mouth before, let me spell it out for you: this is great news.

Before the new café opened, you could purchase items for takeaway from their production bakery, but the inventory always seemed somewhat random and not nearly as extensive as what I saw when I visited the new shop yesterday.

Like I said, their chewy chocolate cookie (which happens to be gluten free by nature and not intention) is BEYOND – and I kind of cannot believe I have not  yet written about it. But I will soon because it’s really god damned good.

What I did not realize was that they also make an almond cookie  – and that it totally hits the mark on several levels:

1. It is chewy, not crumbly.

2. It is not over-baked, avoiding the tragic fate of far too many of the world’s cookies. It is made with almond flour in addition to all-purpose flour, which lends to its moist pliability. (Apologies to those who recoil at the word “moist.” Sorry, I know I need a new word.  I’m open to suggestions.)

3. It is studded with delicate, sliced almonds.  They do not stint on the almonds.

4. It is buttery, but not TOO buttery.  And yes, I do think there is such a thing as too much butter.  Too much butter doesn’t let you taste all that other good shit going on in the cookie.  Which brings me to…

5. They use salt – “sea salt”, as I was told.  Yes.  Thank you Nuvrei bakers.  I would not call this a “salty cookie”, per se.  It is simply a cookie that uses enough salt for us to be able to taste the butter, the almonds and the sugar. Again, thank you.

This is a standout, for sure – a little on the pricey side, but worth it. Actually, now that I think about it, it is pretty fairly priced and I’m betting that it is, ounce for ounce, a better deal than my other favorite almond cookie. I would go out of my way for this, and if you can eat the shit out of an almond cookie like I can eat the shit out of an almond cookie, you might consider doing the same.