Bushel & Peck Bakeshop
3907 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd – Portland
$1.50
I know I just wrote that I’m having a chocolate chip moment. But my current jam? Sesame seeds. Sesame seeds in sweets, specifically. A drizzle of tahini (sesame butter) and honey with a sprinkle of sea salt on vanilla ice cream? I’m serious. It’s perfect. Do it!
And then the other day my friend Robin picked up a pack of assorted sesame candies at Fubonn, a large Asian grocery store in SE Portland. After tearing into the package before even getting past the exit, we decided we wanted to marry them – especially the black sesame variety. Good shit.
So…when I popped over to the newly-opened Bushel & Peck Bakeshop for the first time the other day and saw this handsome, mahogany ginger molasses (already one of my very favorite cookies) bespeckled with white sesame seeds, I was sold. Sold!
This would be a worthy cookie even without the seeds:
• chewy, yet firm (in other words, it’s sturdy and won’t fall apart when you tote it in your bag).
• deeply flavored – not shy on the molasses
• studded with small chunks of crystallized ginger
• appropriate use of salt. Bushel & Peck gets “that sugar shouldn’t go without salt”, a sadly rare understanding amongst bakers – both professional and novice.
• …and then those seeds. No, I am not saying that I want sesame seeds every time I eat this kind of cookie, but I welcome this one into my ginger molasses rotation with very open arms. It totally works.
FYI: This was not, by any means, the only delicious thing I tasted here. More posts on B&P to come, almost certainly.
Thank you most kindly.
Amanda: My pleasure. I was just in the bakery again today with a couple of friends and we are now also in love with the maple almond scone!
Psst. That cookie has recently been made better. As of this morning we are selling an unsesamied version to both Salt and Straw Ice Cream locations. As well as our Classic Chocolate Chip and Snickerdoodle. Ice cream sandwich wonderland.
Amanda: Wow – very good to know! I had no idea…but even though Salt and Straw is closer to my house, I’ll still make the trip to Bushel & Peck for the sesame seeds. I love the sesame seeds!