Tabor Bread
5051 SE Hawthorne Blvd – Portland
$1.75
I love buckwheat.
And I love that Tabor Bread embraces the many, many flours other than (but also including) wheat that exist in the world and uses them – to great effect – on classics like oatmeal raisin, shortbread, etc. Not to mention a compelling array of beautiful yeasted breads.
They mill the flours for all these things from whole grains and bake them in a wood fired oven. Who can argue with that?
I’ve mentioned this a couple of times already.
Here’s one more non wheat flour-based cookie triumph by Tabor Bread (specifically, Jocelyn Barda, pastry chef). Like I said, I’m a big fan of buckwheat: muffins, pancakes, crepes, bundt cake, scones. But I don’t see it show up in cookies much (if ever) – so I was instantly sold when I saw this one.
Another bonus: no nuts. The buckwheat supplies enough of an earthy hit; I think nuts would only distract from that. I’m not a nut hater, categorically. But a nut has a time and a place. And this is not it.
• Good girth (see above). Girth is pleasing.
• High grade dark (semisweet?) chocolate
• Buttery
• Salt (within as well as on top). Thank you for the salt, Jocelyn! I mean it, thank you.
Great cookie. Get one!
My MIL just returned from Portland, and she brought us one of these cookies. Yum! I don’t use buckwheat all that much, but I’m familiar enough with the taste that I picked it out as part of what made this cookie unique. Any idea if the recipe is available anywhere?
Hi Melissa!
I have never seen the recipe for these anywhere – just did a quick internet search and didn’t come up with anything.
However…when I bake ccc’s myself, I almost alway throw in a bit of buckwheat flour. Not too much – a little goes a long way. For example, the recipe I use calls for 3.5 cups of AP flour but I usually end up using about 30-50% AP and then substitute in a few other kinds of flours for the remainder (maybe whole wheat, barley, rye – including around 1/4 or 1/3 cup of buckwheat). It gives the cookies that slightly earthy, toothsome edge that I love.
Seastar Bakery (also in Portland) uses buckwheat in some of their sweet pastries and cookies, as well. Great place.
Thanks for commenting!
Joanna
Thanks, Joanna. We currently make our (non-yeasted) baked goods with 100% whole wheat pastry flour, and sometimes I sub oat flour for part of that. I’ll definitely experiment with the buckwheat flour.
Melissa,
I adore the non-AP flours — so woefully underused in cookies and pastries. Good luck!