Economic Crunch? Let Them Eat Cookies!

Earlier this week I visited one of my favorite bakeries, Sugar Bakery & Café in Seattle. It’s your basic one-room storefront with few tables and a minimum of style, but, oh my, does it turn out sensational cookies, cakes and breakfast pastries.

On Tuesday morning, the old-fashioned display case was packed with all the reasons I pop into this First Hill shop every morning of every visit to Seattle – Lemon Crunch, Oatmeal Cranberry, and Peanut Butter cookies; Jam, Blackberry Oat, and Lemon-Ginger scones; Lavender Shortbread; Brioche Cinnamon Rolls; Dulce de Leche cupcakes; muffins, croissants and coffeecakes. But it was only when I paid at the register that I discovered the little bags of four Economic Crunch cookies.

“For a while it seemed that everyone was talking about the “economic crunch,” said Stephanie Crocker, the self-taught baker behind Sugar. “That term was in every sentence; it was kind of absurd. I decided we really needed an “economic crunch” cookie,” she added with a laugh.

These bumpy, beautiful drop cookies feature bits of almonds, toffee, coconut and chocolate chips, all playing hide-and-seek in a moist, shortbread-like, almond-scented dough. Each warm cookie is rolled in sparkly sugar. The texture is to die for.  The flavor of each distinctive ingredient is pure and  pleasing.

But then, that’s pretty standard operating practice at Sugar. Everything I’ve ever tasted here was extraordinary, including the Lemon Lavender all-butter cake that’s brushed with home-made lavender syrup, filled with lemon cream, frosted with vanilla buttercream and garnished with lavender flowers. And the baristas at Sugar take espresso very seriously, turning out picture-perfect drinks that are vastly superior to those at local Starbucks, Tully’s and Seattle’s Best depots.

Crocker started the business in 2003 when she sold apple tarts (made with apples from her backyard) at  Farmers Markets and to wholesale clients. A few years later she opened a retail shop, which has since been relocated to its present First Hill location. Today she does a booming mostly-retail business that goes beyond booming on such occasions as Valentine’s Day. This year’s holiday special is a flourless, dark chocolate Valentine Lover’s Cake that serves two. It’s topped with chocolate mousse and whipped cream and costs $14. The special collection of brownies, gourmet bars, shortbread, frosted sugar cookies and sandwich cookies, pictured here, costs $22.