Yesterday I visited Cookies and Scream with a friend. We tried four things over the course of three…read morehours sitting at the cute little table by the window. We had the vegan, gluten free:
- pecan pie, warmed and served with a scoop of vanilla ice scream
- peanut butter chocolate chip cookie
- berry jam cake
- oatmeal chocolate chip cookie
Our favourite was the pie. It was super delicious and we were happy to get a crust piece. The crust was not your average tan-coloured flaky floury pie crust but more like a cookie/graham cracker crust. Delightful. I really enjoyed the ice scream on top (I'm lactose intolerant, so getting to savour ice s/cream is a very special treat for me.) My friend thought the ice scream was a bit too cloyingly sweet though.
We liked the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie but it had a strange texture. Almost like raw cookie dough. This may be due to its gluten free ingredients. We enjoyed the taste. But wished it was a little crispier.
The berry jam cake was, for me, super nice. It had a good cakelike density. Not like angel food that feels as if the wind could blow it away. And the jam was fantastically berry-flavoured without being too sweet. It also had a dusting of cinnamon sugar on top, which was nice. I don't think my friend fancied it as much, saying it was noticeably vegan. But as someone who has been lactose intolerant for years, while I could taste the apple-sauce-instead-of-butter substitution in the batter, I actually preferred it to an overly rich, oily dairy taste.
We both enjoyed the wholesomeness of the flax seeds in the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, and its oatey texture. However, both of us, without conferring first, offered the same sentiment: it tasted like it had a touch too much bicarbonate of soda in the mix. Still, we finished every last bite.
The little shop also has some seating in the back, and an outdoor garden with seating for when it's warm down a few steps out the back door past the toilets. I'd like to come back and sip a shake in summer. And I was just chuffed to find it's the same shop I'd once adored in Camden Market, rebooted in Holloway.
Wanting to give this place five stars because of its awesome vegan punkness, delicious baked goods, and reasonable prices, I nonetheless considered giving only four because of some of the flavour flaws profiled above. I'd give 4.5 if I could. But because vegan is just so much more sustainable and better for the environment, I'm glad this shop is doing its bit. So until London has more vegan dessert shops to choose from, I'm going to give five stars here for concept, exhibition, and execution.
