You’ve got to love a place that adds to the value of its neighborhood simply by making cookies. Self-taught baker Tzurit Or has been plying her patissier trade, in some form or other, since she was 12. Named for the way Or’s daughter pronounces “grandmother” in Hebrew, Tatte first offered its delectable treats at Copley Square’s farmers’ market, but garnered such praise that Or snagged a space of her own on Beacon Street in Brookline in 2006.
Among her creations, all with a European flair, one stands supreme: the Nuts Box ($6). First, a sturdy, butter-infused pastry shell is paved with intense handmade caramel. Then the real insanity begins. Nuts. Lots of ’em. A sugar-smacked mix of whole, roasted hazelnuts, pecans, cashews, and pistachios spills into the cozy crust and are barely contained at the rim. The result looks almost too good to eat, but as you fork through the crackly roof and down into the sweet filling, your taste buds tell you this is the stuff of pastry legend.
If you’d expect other temptations to be waiting in the wings, you’d be right. Tatte’s crumbly butter-pecan cookies ($8/bag of 12) perfect the classic pecan sandy. A cylinder of addictive crunchy almonds ($8/five ounces) is peanut brittle’s more sophisticated cousin. The baton-size fig biscotti ($20/bag of four) or a slice of decadent strawberry-walnut roll ($12/24 ounces) holler for a foam-topped cappuccino. “Most of my ingredients are imported from Europe, and some from Israel, such as halva and dates. I buy strawberries, blackberries, apples, pears, and eggs right from the farmers who are with me at the Copley market,” says Or. Her goods come in raffia-tied packaging adorned with a sepia-tone photo of Or’s grandmother when she was two.
Tatte Fine Cookies & Cakes is located at 1003 Beacon Street, in Brookline. Call 617.232.2200.
