Bell the Cat's Caramelita Bar

One of the best things about business trips to my company's Belfast, Maine office is getting lunch at Bell the Cat. The emporium is a strange, yet instantly endearing, hodgepodge of cafe, sandwich shop, bookseller, and music store...in a way that is the epitome of mid-coast Maine, and nothing like a Barnes & Noble Starbucks. When I talk about BtC's excellent local flavor, though, I'm referring to more than its unique atmosphere - I'm complimenting some of the best sandwiches, and cafe-style baked goods, I've ever had. Even my favorite sandwich from Cambridge's beloved Darwin's doesn't hold a candle to Bell's Californian, a delightful assortment of my favorite veggies and cheeses piled high or melted on a toasted croissant. What, you'd rather hear about the baked goods? :-)

Well...one is immediately met with a stunning array of cookie jars, and bars piled on bars, upon entering the shop. The variety of cookies is really impressive - think any combination of chocolate, nut, spice, jam, etc - but if I had to single out one baked good to rule them all, it would be the Caramelita bar. I have enjoyed this treat on each 4-hour trip back to Boston since discovering it last year!

What makes this bar such a delight?

• The base cookie is a rich, buttery blend of shortbread and oatmeal cookie. Dense, textured, and surprisingly warm and creamy, it's a perfect support structure for the decadence to follow.
• A very thick layer of soft milk chocolate coats the base cookie. The chocolate is incredibly even and smooth, almost fudgy. Small semisweet chocolate chips are mixed throughout for flavor and textural contrast.
• Large walnut chunks dot the chocolate's surface. Drizzled swirls of thick, milky, slightly-salty caramel coat and secure the nuts to the chocolate, and help meld the delightful dessert flavors.
• Sugar cookie crumbles, with a hint of cinnamon and perhaps more brown sugar than usual, form the top layer of the bar. The crumbles are soft and give in easily to my teeth. They are the lightest characteristic of a bar that gets denser and more delicious the deeper you go.

So, each bite includes two distinctly delicious cookies, some of the best chocolate to be put near a pastry, hearty nuts, and gooey caramel. What's not to love?

Somehow, the Caramelita manages to combine an at-home look and feel with big-time bakery flavor. I could probably replicate the bar in my own kitchen without too much effort, but there is something to be said for letting it keep its place of honor in my Downeast gastronomic repertoire. I will always have something to look forward to, and my stomach can growl in anticipation, whenever I travel to Belfast!