An oatmeal cookie — such a prosaic thing, at first, glance, with its brown, knubbly surface. It's the edible equivalent of burlap. But what a fine fabric it is and how well it holds you, when it’s woven just right.
To my taste, at the junction of Fourth and Court Street Plaza, weaves oatmeal cookie comfort better than anyone else.
The hearty rounds are a good three to four-inches across. Selling for $2 each, they’re made with organic wheat flour, butter, brown sugar, oats, dark raisins, eggs, milk, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla and salt.
When available — generally after the afternoon bake, nestling against each in the bakery case other like homespun immigrants on their way to the promised land—they add an earthy perfume to the luscious wheat/sweet scents in the bakery.
I love these for their texture as well as taste. Arizmendi’s oatmeal cookies are chewy, tensile and velvety all at once, with the kind of not-too-sweet flavor that makes me think a practical Kentucky grandmother might have baked them. The big, fat raisins are tender, even juicy. And at the last bite, vanilla and butter notes come through as a finish, like the final notes of a fiddle solo following a mellow bluegrass reel.
Arizmendi Bakery is at 1002 Court St, 456-5093. It’s open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call ahead to reserve your oatmeal cookies. They vanish fast.
Contact Leslie Harlib at lharlib@gmail.com
