Show Off Goodies from Your Local Bakeries

[Gifted Gourmet]

I ordered this deep, dense chocolate cake from a local vegan bakery and I have no idea how they made it but it was extraordinary ... my daughter is a newly-minted vegan and wanted something special ...

[Desiderio]

Wow , it looks great , I am really really intrigued by this

[Gifted Gourmet]

Wow , it looks great , I am really really intrigued by this 

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It was! and still is! I have served it at many meals so far and still have a quarter of it left in my freezer ... never gets stale ... the $40 was well worth every penny!

[oli]

Wow , it looks great , I am really really intrigued by this 

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It was! and still is! I have served it at many meals so far and still have a quarter of it left in my freezer ... never gets stale ... the $40 was well worth every penny!

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Isn't it amazing. All their stuff looks like that - so good and apetizing, thats why I asked if anybody tried their products. I haven't any vegan baked goods that tasted half way decent, where I would be willing to bake it myself. I guess if it tastes as good as it looks, you are not as likely to beat yourself up for having another piece.

[Malawry]

I've had a few of their products--they used to sell some of their stuff at the food coop where I lived in Takoma Park, MD. I know I tried the cowvin cookie sandwich, the little devils and the chocolate-chip cookie. It's not bad stuff, but everything was very sweet--probably to make up for the lack of dairy and egg.

[Kim Shook]

I apologize if there is another, more appropriate thread for this topic, but I couldn't find anything.  We love the small, local, family-owned bakeries in our area.  Mr. Kim heard about this one:

It is a long-running pop up in an older neighborhood on the other side of town.  We got there kind of late on Saturday, so their inventory was a little low.  We are looking forward to going back again - earlier in the day.  

 

Oatmeal cream cooky:

Beautiful version – the cream was so delicious: it dissolved nicely and didn’t leave that shortening slick on the tongue like so many versions do.

 

Cinnamon roll:

 

(Heated up in the CSO on bake/steam).  Tender and not overly sweet.  They let the icing provide most of the sweetening.

 

Snickerdoodle whoopie pie:

 

Same kind of REAL-tasting cream as the oatmeal cooky cream.

 

Ginger-molasses cooky:

Exceptionally soft and tender.  Could have been chewier, but the flavor was wonderful. 

 

[Jim D.]

We are very fortunate to have a small bakery named Réunion in Staunton, Virginia. Owner Bryan Hollar produces an ever-increasing number of luscious items in a very small space.  The quiche is the best I have ever eaten.

 

 

The ever-popular almond croissant

 

A pumpkin custard cruffin topped with a Speculoos cookie (a flavor combination that I am going to borrow for Christmas chocolates this year).

 

 

 

 

[heidih]

@Jim D.  Oh my - you are lucky. Is it all take out or is it a place one can linger with coffee?  I had a pipedream of a Viennese style coffee house once but not in this city. It needs architectural backdrop.

[Jim D.]

11 minutes ago, heidih said:

@Jim D.  Oh my - you are lucky. Is it all take out or is it a place one can linger with coffee?  I had a pipedream of a Viennese style coffee house once but not in this city. It needs architectural backdrop.

 

Yes, lucky...except that it is all too tempting.  Before COVID it was a great place to linger, very tastefully decorated, very welcoming.  It also specializes in espresso.  At the beginning of the pandemic, the bakery offered delivery only, so people placed orders during the week, and on Saturday morning, they had pastries at their front door.  I'm not sure how the owner made this work financially (distances were up to 35 miles), but he did.  Now it's open on weekends with takeout only, and is flourishing.  When I went downtown to deliver some of my chocolates to a shop nearby, the area in front of Réunion was like a parking lot and there was a line down the sidewalk from the bakery.  We also have the historical backdrop--an old small Shenandoah Valley city with interesting downtown buildings preserved by law.  It was a tourist draw until COVID, but people are working to keep it going for the future.

[donk79]

Reunion Baguette with country pate from The Staunton Grocery.

[Kim Shook]

Bringing this thread up for a couple of things.  My birthday is coming up in July and I've requested a Staunton weekend - with Réunion, Wright's Dairy-Rite, The Shack, and @Jim D.'s Santiago Chocolates on the itinerary.  I've dropped the information in Mr. Kim's ear and I'm hoping he'll take it from there.  

 

The other thing is to show a box of lovely looking cookies that Mr. Kim brought home the other night - some still warm:

They are from a chain called "Crumbl Cookies" that just opened a location near us.  They were, by and large, pretty ordinary.  That's a huge box - big enough to hold almost a dozen Krispie Kremes - so, the cookies are large.  From top left they are: snickerdoodle, Boston Creme, sugar frosted, milk chocolate chip, salted caramel, and red velvet.  They were mostly just ok.  We aren't red velvet cake fans, but the cooky was the best one.  It tasted like warm chocolate cake.  I wish these bakeries would realize that chewy doesn't mean underbaked.  

[liuzhou]

I'm not much of a cake fan, especially here in China, but these are rather tasty.

 

红枣&核桃蛋糕 (hóng zǎo hé tao dàn gāo). Chinese date (jujube) and walnut cake. The top is normally a bit darker, but it always sticks to the box it comes in. Never mind - still tastes great. (You can see a fragment of the original top on the right.)

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Not exactly the sweet treats shared thus far in this topic but I paid a visit to a local-ish bakery this morning and figured I could share here.

Roan Mills grows the grain, mills it into flour and bakes a range of goods they sell at the bakery in Fillmore, CA and at local farmers markets.  On the sweet side, today they had several kinds of croissants, scones and pies.  The same family own Kenter Canyon Farms and since the pandemic, they have been offering their produce in the bakery.  

What I bought today:

Clockwise from the nice organic asparagus are a bag of polenta, a Sonora sandwich loaf, sourdough baguette, English muffins, a bunch of tarragon, a bag of mixed cremini, shiitake and oyster mushrooms, a frozen packet of Gorgonzola, toasted walnut and endive ravioli .  In the center, a very tasty roasted mushroom hand pie that I had for breakfast (brunch?) when I got home. 

 

[heidih]

Oooh toasted walnut & endive filling. - sounds really good

[shain]

The opposite of a local bakery, but still. An Italian colomba. Served lightly toasted.

It contains candied orange, vanilla, bitter almonds and candy sugar coating. Very eggy and rich.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Maison Rustique]

One of our neighbors' daughters has started a home-based bakery business while she attends college. She is doing a great job and what we've had has been delicious. Rai's Bake Shoppe