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Cookie
sampler something to chew on
July
11, 2006
| If
You Go |
Name Downsville Coffee House and Restaurant.
Address: E4507 Highway C. Telephone: (715) 664-8155.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through
Thursday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday;
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday.
Price: Three cookies for $1.
...
Name: Hoepner's Bakery. Address: 805 S. Hastings Way, Eau Claire. Telephone: 832-5115 Hours: 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday
through Friday, with drive-through window
open at 5 a.m.; 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday,
with drive-through window open at 5 a.m.;
closed Sunday.
Price: Three cookies for 90 cents.
...
Name: Leroy's Rice Lake Bakery.
Address: 630 S. Main St. (one block
south of Marketplace).
Telephone: (715) 234-3066. Hours: 5:30
a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 6:30
a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday.
Price: Three cookies for $1.05. |
We've
been cookie driving.
It's
easy: Pack napkins, cold milk and a paper bag for
crumbs. Pick a compass direction and head out. Look
for first-rate cookies in each real bakery you come
upon.
By
"real," we mean one-of-a-kind, locally
owned bakeries that make almost everything from
scratch. Chains and places that bake mostly from
frozen — or use commercial dough full of additives
and conditioners — don't count.
You'll
taste the difference.
At
Leroy's in Rice Lake, Ken Lenfestey's outstanding
molasses cookies sport tectonic crevasses so beautiful
they might have been engraved.
Thinner
than most molasses cookies, these are so moist and
dense when just baked that they can't be broken
— but must be slowly bent apart instead. Just
enough cinnamon smoothes out the rough-edged sweetness
of molasses; crunchy sugar crystals lighten their
lovely chewiness.
At
Hoepner's in Eau Claire, the friendly counter helper
instantly recommended the Rice Krispie cookies.
Not
the common cereal bars bound by marshmallow glue.
These are craggy-surfaced disks so thin in places
that light can pass through. How long Dennis Hoepner
bakes them determines their place on a miraculous
continuum between chewy and crisp.
Their
wonderful textures are matched by wonderful flavors,
mostly toffee-like buttery sweetness balanced by
salt. Oatmeal and finely minced coconut add structure
and nuance.
At
the Downsville Coffee House, Alan Yahnke's longtime
obsession with peanut butter cookies has paid off.
His
creations are appealingly rustic: uneven thick rounds
studded with peanut chunks, crosshatched like crazy
quilts by a fast-moving fork and baked until peaks
and rims are orangey-brown.
The
texture is light and almost lacy, crisp and dry.
The taste starts sweet and builds slowly —
if you take your time chewing — into a surprisingly
rich intensity of salt and nuttiness.
Three
of the best. But we'll keep driving.
Main
Course, the Leader-Telegram's restaurant review
column, runs the fourth Sunday of the month. Diners'
Notebook, a sampling of favorite restaurant offerings,
runs the second Tuesday of the month.
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