Cravin Raven Bakery
8339 SE 13th Avenue – Portland
$2
Do your salivary glands dry up at the mere mention of the phrase “gluten free”? If so, please stay with me. This is not the bland, impossibly dry, sawdust-and-cotton balls-tasting biscuit you may once have had the displeasure of meeting. It’s good. Really.
Let me first say that I’m not a huge fan of the snickerdoodle. Even the snickerdoodles I’ve tasted at bakeries that make otherwise moist, flavorful and way above average cookies have bummed me out. But there’s no reason a snickerdoodle couldn’t be great.
Allow me to offer a few notes to (almost) every baker (amateur and professional) whose snickerdoodles I’ve put in my mouth: Here are several ways they could be improved:
1. Use salt
2. Use more cinnamon
3. Don’t bake it so damn long. Take it out of the oven a little before it seems quite done.
4. Maybe add some brown sugar (or would it cease to be a snickerdoodle at that point? I’m not sure. But brown sugar makes shit taste way better – and that is a fact.)
Having established this, I think what makes the snickerdoodle at Cravin Raven so pleasing is the very fact that it contains no flour, thereby preventing it from the dry and cakey fate suffered by its gluten-ful counterparts. It is made with almond flour, coconut flour, coconut oil and sweetened with agave. And also some other stuff which I’m forgetting. I didn’t take notes ‘cuz the joint is tiny and they were watching me and I was feeling self-conscious. I just ate this cookie a half-hour ago, btw, so it is fresh in my mind (and on my breath, for that fact).
All things being a matter of taste, let me break it down for you:
If you enjoy the moist, squishiness of cookie dough more than a drier fully-baked cakey-style cookie, you will like the Cravin Raven snickerdoodle – regardless of any dietary restrictions you may or may not have. If you don’t, maybe give this one a pass.