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.