I finally got to taste what I’d been missing at Boulder Baked when I dug into a warm maple brown butter cookie and a chocolate butterscotch cookie.
Boulder Baked was previously in an awkward location—facing Broadway just south of the Pearl Street Mall—so it wasn’t easy to drop in for a cookie. The bakery recently moved to 5290 Arapahoe Ave., former site of the Heifer and the Hen Ice Cream shop.
Made with real pan-browned butter, the maple brown butter cookie has a great caramel sugar cookie flavor along with a hit of sweet maple. The chocolate butterscotch has a rich dark brownie-like taste along with the sweet chips.
Boulder Baked specializes in baked-to-order cookies, but while certain chain cookie shops offer literally a handful of cookie flavors a week, Boulder Baked’s menu regularly boasts 30 or more varieties. Favorites include double chocolate chunk, snickerdoodle, chocolate peanut butter cup, oatmeal cinnamon sugar chocolate chip, red velvet, and gluten-free and vegan cookies.
Boulder Baked also offers cupcakes, cakes, Glacier ice cream, pies, bread pudding, cheesecake and brownies along with grilled cheese sandwiches and soup.
The cookies are baked to order and, depending on how busy the shop is, it can take 15 minutes or more for them to emerge hot and gooey and then cool enough to eat with a cup of coffee. It’s worth stopping by just to experience the cloud of cookie aroma that envelopes you when you walk in.
Recipe Flashback: Walnut Brewery
Back when Boulder was not yet the epicenter of the craft brewing multiverse, the Walnut Brewery opened in 1990 as the city’s first brewpub. It finally closed in 2017.
Besides having Boulder Beer varieties on tap, the Walnut Brewery was known for its food, including batter-fried smoked salmon fish and chips. Back in the late ’90s, the Walnut Brewery shared this vegetarian recipe with me.
Walnut Brewery Grilled Portobello Mushrooms
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
⅓ cup soy sauce
3 heaping tablespoons minced garlic
¾ cup finely minced fresh rosemary
¼ cup red wine
5 ounces extra virgin olive oil
1½ cups vegetable oil
2 heaping tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Whole portobello or cremini caps or slices of larger meatier mushrooms
Optional: Red chile flakes
Combine all ingredients except mushrooms and refrigerate in a closed container. Marinate mushrooms for 3 to 5 minutes, and grill over a high flame for 4 to 7 minutes or cook in an air fryer. Marinade can also be used for chicken, pork and seafood.
Culinary Calendar
Avanti—the Boulder food hall on the Downtown Mall—will host a Marshall Fire fundraiser from 2 to 10 p.m. February 5. Tickets include admission, DJs, a raffle, silent auction and food coupons. Reservations: boulder.avantifandb.com . . . Send food event information to:
[email protected]
