Roman Candle Baking Co.
3377 SE Division – Portland
$1
There were three different flavors of shortbread cookies sitting in the case when I went in to pick up a loaf of my favorite bread the other day (actually, a quarter of a loaf of my favorite bread. Yeah, they sell quarter loaves – it’s a massive and dense loaf to begin with). Big points for RC for that.
I’m not typically shortbread-leaning, but these were all compelling. Polenta pisatchio (I might be making up the pistachio part), and…oh damn. I’ve already forgotten the other one, but it looked good, too.
When I finally settled on the toasted pecan, the very patient (and cute) young man at the counter smiled and told me it was his favorite. And though I haven’t tasted the others, he knows what he’s talking about. This is a really good shortbread cookie.
• intense butter flavor. (Browned butter, I suspect?) This may seem obvious (I mean, it’s shortbread!), but I’ve had plenty of shortbread in my mouth that was super bland because it didn’t contain enough salt. Which leads me to…
• not “salty” as in garnished with a flourish of hand harvested sea salt from the Oregon Coast or Brittany or anything. Rather, just enough salt in the dough to let us taste the butter and sugar. Which, of course, is the entire point of the cookie.
• perfectly toasted pecan bits (also part of the entire point of this cookie). The toasting of the pecans takes it to another level – as anyone who has ever put toasted nuts in his mouth will attest. Three cheers for toasting your nuts, RC!
• thin and crispy. Much thinner than a typical shortbread. This totally works here, but because it’s such a thin and delicate cookie (i.e., not very big) it (as my dad would say) “tastes like MORE!” (As in, “Please sir, I want some more.“)
Next time I’ll buy two.