Batter Bakery has a huge crush on shortbread and has traditionally offered eight unusual flavors, including honey vanilla, lavender sea salt, rosemary brown butter, and sesame ginger. The newest variety of shortbread contains an ingredient rarely seen around these parts: Elderberry.
The tiny berry imparts a slightly tart flavor and a little bit of pleasant seediness to the buttery texture of the cookie. The danger factor of consuming more than one in a sitting is high since the cookies don't have a cloying sweetness.
Shortbread comes in bags of five for $5.75. Batter Bakery also offers hand-decorated shortbread cutouts with Royal icing on advance order. Find 'em at Batter Bakery's shared restaurant with Square Meals on Polk Street or in its dedicated kiosk in front of the Bank of America headquarters at 555 California St.
