I haven’t had a lot of gluten free cookies yet, but I enjoyed this one. My constant fear for gluten free cookies is that’ll be too dry or have a weird aftertaste. This cookies was still very moist and tasted great! $1.75
Flour Craft Bakery, San Anselmo CA
Shortbread cookie. Complimentary
Pretty tasty and free with purchase!
Powder-puff pincushion cactus (Mammillaria bocasana var. multilanata, Cactaceae), Kentfield.
Version with bacon, roughly chopped fruit/nut/chocolate mix, and topped with a dollop of hazelnut chocolate spread.
Mmm, I love these cookies! The original recipe is from Make it Paleo by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason. I’ve made the recipe several times and really love the cookie dough batter. I’ve subsequently played with the add-ins and have decided that the cookie pictured above is my favorite so far!
Original Recipe:
Ingredients
5 slices nitrate-free bacon
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 cups blanched almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut oil, unrefined
1.5 cups 72% dark chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to bake at 350’F.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl, toss bacon in 1/4 cup maple syrup.
3. Lay bacon on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes.
5. Remove bacon from oven, and allow to cool.
6. Crumble candied bacon for cookie batter.
7. Heat oven to 375’F.
8. In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine dry ingredients.
9. In small mixing bowl beat eggs, 1/2 cup maple syrup, and vanilla extract with a hand mixer.
10. Pour wet ingredients into dry and beat with hand mixer until combined.
11. Add melted coconut oil into batter, and continue to blend until combined.
12. Stir in chocolate chips and candied bacon.
13. Drop balls of dough on parchment-lined baking sheet, about a tablespoon in size.
14. Bake cookies for 15 minutes at 375’F.
15. Let cool and serve.
My Notes: I’ve never done Steps 2-6. I think that candied bacon is too much for these cookies especially since there’s already maple syrup in the batter. If I do include bacon, I just chop up a few strips and fry them until most of the fat has been rendered out. I love these cookies, but it’s good to reduce the fat content where you can!
Baking these cookies for only 15 minutes keeps the cookies soft and moist. I’ve also baked them longer and they turned out crispier and flakier (if that floats your boat). I think the ingredient that I keep adding every time are chopped dried plums (prunes). They really make the cookie!
Crispier version with bacon, chocolate chips, chopped dried plums, and almond slivers.
Frida Kahlo sidewalk stencil, The Mission.
“A chocolate-cherry delight made from our delicious coffee extract blended with Special Dutch chocolate powder milk, chocolate covered espresso beans, maraschino cherries and ice then topped with whipped cream.” 16 ounce $5.29
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, McCarran International Airport (LAS)
Hadn’t tried this flavor of their ice blended drinks before, and I think it is my favorite so far! I love the combination of cherry and chocolate, and the bits of chocolate covered espresso beans are fun to eat.
McCarran Internationl Airport terminal welcome sign.
Poached pear with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream. $7.50
Le P’tit Laurent, San Francisco CA
This was the perfect dessert to end our meal. It wasn’t too sugary sweet and it had a great firm texture. And how can you go wrong with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce?!
Large chalk lettuce (Dudleya lulverulenta, Crassulaceae), West Field Road.
Candied almond and chocolate, apricot meringue. $8
State Bird Provisions, San Francisco CA
This was a really fun and delicious dessert! I liked that it wasn’t overly sweet and the components worked well together.
Pink crystalline ice plant flowers (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, Aizoaceae), Great Highway.
This place gives you complimentary cookies when you arrive, mmm!
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, San Diego CA
Perhaps I would have prefered a complimentary bottle of champagne but I guess cookies will have to do, hehe.
Hotel room coffee machine with Wolfgang Puck coffee. Because cookies always taste great with creamy coffee!
View of downtown San Diego from the hotel room.
Creme fraiche and lemon ice cream, malt, brandy. Bloomspot 4-course chef’s tasting menu with cocktail pairings for two.
Maven, San Francisco CA
I liked this dessert because it tasted great, but it was really difficult to eat. The cookies were a bit too hard to break through so the chocolate mousse just kept oozing out every time you tried to cut into it. Hmm…
Maven’s Milk Punch Cocktail: rum, Maven’s bourbon, vanilla, milk, hazelnut.
Flourless chocolate cake with a molten hot center. A la mode with vanilla bean ice cream.
Roy’s, Waikoloa HI
Meh, this was boring and pretty standard as desserts go. I am glad that it was more moist than the pineapple upside down cake though.
Lololu Valley.
Caramel ice cream, caramel sauce and brittle. Family style supper $46 per person
Staple and Fancy, Seattle WA
Of the two desserts we received, I preferred this one. The brittle was really good, and the caramel ice cream helped to balance out the rich, dense cake.
“City Light, City Bright” Seattle manhole cover.
Warm brownie topped with Mitchell’s coconut ice cream. $7
Zadin, San Francisco CA
This was ok, but then I’m not a huge dessert person. I did love the Mitchell’s coconut ice cream though!
Tawny 10 year port. $5
Una Pizza Napoletana flyers, 16th Street. I love that restaurants in SF will canvas on flyer boards, lol.
$3
Tall Grass Bakery, Seattle WA
I was very much disappointed by this! It was too dense and doughy to qualify as a brioche in my book. I also thought it would pack more flavor, but it was surprisingly bland and the strongest flavor was of the undercooked doughy center. Boo!
12 oz latte. $3.45
I went across the street and grabbed this at Java Bean.
Father and Son fountain, 2005, Louise Bourgeois, Olympic Sculpture Park. Stainless steel, aluminum, water and bronze bell.
Bunuelos: donuts, date jam, spiced honey, date-olive oil ice cream. Summer prix-fixe menu $38
Tinto, Palm Springs CA
Mmm, I love bunuelos! These were pretty good and I enjoyed the date-olive oil ice cream too!
Chocolate flourless cake, chocolate mousse, passion fruit sorbet.
I think this was just a little too rich for me after a large meal. I couldn’t only eat a few bites before I had to quit. The flavors were good though.
Pink crown of thorns flowers (Euphorbia milii, Euphorbiaceae).
Vittle Monster 