FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Share your to-die-for bakeries, please, pretty please

Alex Rast

at Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:07:02 GMT in <xcKdndh2-
>, -
spam.invalid (XannaX) wrote :

>I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
>address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries and what you
>highly recommended from there. Just so i'm clear...I'm looking for
>bakeries that use top-notch ingredients and not the run-of-the-mill
>stuff you'll find in most grocery stores.
>
>Here are my to-die-for, if you just gotta-have-sugar recommendations
>:
>* Francesca's in Durham, NC - pretty much EVERYTHING behind the
>display case, but definitely the Chocolate Rasperry Decadence!!!
>
>* Simply Desserts in Seattle, WA - I've tried most of the chocolate
>cakes there (sorry, but i can't recall their names but the words
>"truffle", "milk chocolate" come to mind), and
>you will not be disappointed!!!

Yeah, the Chocolate Truffle is the best chocolate cake in Seattle. For
those who don't know, this cake despite its name is not one of the
Chocolate Decadence or flourless-style chocolate cakes - it's simply a
great basic chocolate cake - 2 layers plus frosting. But the layers are
superb, moist cake with a powerful chocolate flavour (as opposed to the
all-too-often weak flavour of "ordinary" cakes and the frosting is pure
chocolate ganache. Why can't all chocolate cakes be this way?

I get the idea that you're big into chocolate. This is important because
let's make a distinction between good *chocolate* bakeries and good
bakeries in general. In fact, among still broader lines I think it would be
nice if more people made a distinction between good *bread* bakeries and
good *pastry* bakeries. I'd like to find good bread bakeries, but
unfortunately because there is no separate term for that in the US almost
invariably all the recommendations, either by word-of-mouth or through
guidebooks, are for pastry bakeries. The French have it right - we need the
terms "boulangerie" and "patisserie".

Anyway, back to chocolate. Essential Baking has really good chocolate
desserts, although you need to get there early or they're all gone.
Dilettante is probably the all-around king of the chocolate baked goods:
the best selection is to be had at the Broadway location on Capitol Hill.
However you need to be patient with service which is slow. I recommend the
Rigo Jancsi. The best chocolate cookie is the chocolate truffle cookie from
Pasta & Co. on Queen Anne Ave at the top of the hill. The best chocolate
brownie (by FAR) is from Microbakery - a small baker who sells a lot at
local farmers' markets and which you can also get from Madison Market on
Capitol Hill.

They maked baked goods, and many of them are very good indeed, but you are
missing the point if you buy them from Gelatiamo, the best ice cream shop
in Seattle. You should instead get an ice cream (or "gelato", if you prefer
that term). I personally prefer the blueberry above all others, especially
now. Their berry flavours are exceptional. So are the hazelnut flavours.

Oddly, since you're in to chocolate, it's worth noting that Gelatiamo
doesn't have the best chocolate ice cream in the city - that honour belongs
to their main rival a few blocks away in the Pike Place Market: Bottega
Italiana. Overall, BI's ice creams aren't as good - they can't quite match
the intensity of flavour nor the silken texture of Gelatiamo - although
because their shop looks more "trendy", not so slick and polished as
Gelatiamo but rather sort of casual and boutiquey (and perhaps also because
the hired help features a lot of hunky Italian guys with accents to match),
a lot of people like to rate them higher. Nonetheless, image-over-substance
issues aside, BI's chocolate ice cream is the best. Avoid other flavours,
though.

--
Alex Rast

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