More Delicious Doughnuts at Dipped Donuts

Dipped Donuts
Location
: 1374 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://dippeddonuts.ca/

Dipped Donuts serves some of the best doughnuts in the city.  The best?  Quite possibly!  I’ve written about their Kensington Market location a few times, and I’m happy to say that their second location on Queen is just as good (UPDATE: since I initially wrote this, this location has closed (I have a bit of  a backlog), but their initial location in Kensington Market is still alive and kicking).

Dipped Donuts

As usual, every flavour looked extremely delicious.  Picking just one was an ordeal.

Dipped Donuts

I went with peach & ginger jelly, which is an intriguing combo that worked out even better than I was expecting.

Dipped Donuts

It’s a great doughnut.  The filling is sweet, but with a mild tartness that helps to balance things out.  And the ginger is present enough to give the filling some character and a mild bite, but subtle enough to not overwhelm.  I’ve had some ginger desserts where the ginger is too aggressive, and let me tell you: it’s a bummer to eat.

Dipped Donuts

And, of course, the doughnut itself is perfect, with a great flavour and just the right balance of chewiness and fluffiness.

Quality Eclairs at The Happy Chocco

The Happy Chocco
Location
: 100 City Centre Drive (inside The Food District at Square One)
Website: https://www.thehappychocco.ca/

I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical of The Happy Chocco.  They always have a million eclairs on offer, and they never seem to be particularly busy.  And I’m like, are these all fresh?  Because it seems like they won’t all be fresh.  There’s nothing sadder than a stale eclair with soggy pastry.

The Happy Chocco

Well, I just went with two other people, and we all tried different eclairs and found them to be quite fresh (and quite delicious!) so I’m happy to say that I was wrong.

The Happy Chocco

I went with the Dubai chocolate eclair: “classic eclair filled with pistachio pastry cream and Belgian milk chocolate dip with roasted kataifi.”

The Happy Chocco

I really enjoyed this.  The choux pastry had a great texture and was clearly not stale at all, the pistachio pastry cream was creamy and delicious (if a bit light on the nutty flavour), there was a decent layer of good-quality chocolate on top, and the roasted kataifi added a nice crispy texture.  It’s a quality eclair.

Tasty Pastries at Bartholomew Bakery

Bartholomew Bakery
Location
: 467 Edgeley Boulevard, Vaughan
Website: https://www.bartholomewbakery.com/

Bartholomew Bakery does well.  I showed up early on a Saturday afternoon and the place was absolutely packed, with a line out the door and a huge crowd inside.  I almost left when I saw how busy it was, but there’s something about a line for food that calls out to me.  What do those people know that I don’t??  I need to find out.

Bartholomew Bakery

Anyway, it didn’t take much longer than 15 minutes to get to the front of the line, so it wasn’t too bad.

Bartholomew specializes in various croissants, along with sourdough bread.  I got a pistachio croissant along with a loaf of sliced sourdough.

Bartholomew Bakery

I neglected to take a photo of the bread, which is a shame because that was probably the highlight.  All they had when I visited was the honey oat; I almost didn’t order this, because I was afraid it would be too sweet, but I’m glad I did.  It is indeed a bit too sweet, but it’s nicely balanced out by the tang of the sourdough.  The bread is dense, but not overly so, with a satisfying level of heft and chewiness.  It’s a solid loaf of bread.

Bartholomew Bakery

The pistachio croissant was quite good, but not on the level of the bread.

Bartholomew Bakery

The pistachio filling had an eggy flavour that I wasn’t particularly crazy about, but otherwise had a great level of sweetness and was absolutely crammed with pistachio flavour.  I wish they weren’t so generous with it, though; there’s just way, way too much of it, and it completely overwhelms the croissant itself.  I think it was a good-quality croissant (albeit slightly lacking in its crisp-factor), but the deluge of pistachio filling makes it impossible to tell.

A Delicious Dubai Chocolate Cookie at Andrea’s Cookies

Dubai Chocolate Cookie at Andrea's Cookies
Location
: 166 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://andreascookies.com/

The last time I tried a cookie from Andrea’s, I’ll admit that I liked it but didn’t love it.  I’m just not generally a fan of the type of underbaked-on-purpose cookies that they serve here.

The cookie I just had, however?  Phenomenal.  Seriously, seriously good.

Dubai Chocolate Cookie at Andrea's Cookies

I got the knafeh, which is basically their take on the Dubai chocolate craze that’s slowly taking over the world (“milk & dark chocolate, phyllo, pistachio cream, pistachios”).

Dubai Chocolate Cookie at Andrea's Cookies

Oof, it’s good.  With a chocolatey cookie like this (particularly with all the stuff they’ve crammed into it and onto it), my issues with an underbaked cookie completely disappear.  This cookie was pleasantly soft, but had none of the raw flour flavour or gumminess that can plague these types of cookies.

That’s not to mention the the crispy bits of kadayif, which do a great job of bringing the soft cookie some texture.

Dubai Chocolate Cookie at Andrea's Cookies

And of course, the combo between the very chocolatey cookie and the rich pistachio cream is a big winner.  It helps that they’re clearly using good quality chocolate, but it’s easily one of the better cookies I’ve had in a while.

Delicious Doughnuts at Fab’s Donuts

Fab's Donuts
Location
: 1618 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fabsdonuts/

Fab’s is in the same spot where Maverick’s Donut Company used to be, which I liked a whole lot.  Apparently it’s from the same owners, who decided to strike out on their own.  Clearly, they know what they’re doing, because the doughnuts here are very, very good.

Fab's Donuts

They are quite different, however — notably, Maverick’s specialized mostly in cake doughnuts, and as far as I can tell, this is a cake-free zone.  All the doughnuts that I tried were classic raised doughnuts.

Fab's Donuts

I tried four: creme brulee, pistachio heaven, Biscoff, and chocolate kunafa.

Fab's Donuts

All were generously filled, and all were thoroughly delicious, though the creme brulee — with its crackly top and tasty custard filling — was probably my favourite.

Fab's Donuts

But then everything was thoroughly tasty, with the doughnuts themselves having a nice chewy texture, and with the flavours being right where they should be.  It’s all quite sweet, but not a sugar-bomb.  They’re great doughnuts.