bakery – Page 6 – Michael Eats

Delicious Chocolate Chunk Cookies at Courage Cookies

Published on December 18, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1561 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.couragecookies.ca/

It’s hard to go wrong with a good chocolate chip (or chocolate chunk in this case) cookie. Done well, it’s one of the greatest things ever. Done badly, it’s still pretty damn good.

Seriously: think about all of the chocolate chip cookies you’ve eaten in your lifetime. Have you ever had one that wasn’t, at the very least, pretty good? I’ll bet you haven’t! It’s so simple, and it’s very hard to outright mess up.

I know this all kind of sounds like a preamble to me saying “well they’ve finally messed it up!” but no, that is absolutely, positively not the case. The chocolate chunk cookie at Courage Cookies? Delicious.

I mean, it’s got great quality chocolate, a nice crispy/chewy balance, and a satisfying brown sugary flavour to round it all out. How can you go wrong there? It’s also topped with a good amount flaky salt; I know not everyone is crazy about this, but I like the balance of sweet and salty that this brings, and the way that it helps cut the sugariness of the cookie. It’s very good.

Tasty Polish Doughnuts at Basket of Bread

Published on December 12, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2783 Lake Shore Boulevard West, Etobicoke
Website: https://basketofbread.com/

Basket of Bread is a tiny little bakery on Lake Shore in Etobicoke; though they sell a small variety of breads and some imported grocery items from Eastern Europe, they specialize in Polish filled doughnuts called paczki.

According to Wikipedia, the two most traditional fillings are plum jam and rose petal jam, and both are options at Basket of Bread, along with other fillings like raspberry, strawberry, and Nutella.

I tried the plum and the rose, and they were both quite tasty, with a restrained level of sweetness that’s so far from the overly sweet sugar-bombs you’ll find at place like Krispy Kreme or Tim Hortons that it’s hard to believe that they’re even the same thing.

The doughnuts themselves are slightly more dense than the norm, and both fillings have a good balance of tartness and sweetness. The rose, in particular, was pretty interesting, with a pronounced rosewater flavour. I wish the filling were a bit more generous, but it’s a quality doughnut.

Tasty Coconut Pie at New Pie Co.

Published on December 2, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: Currently online only
Website: https://newpie.co/

Note: Since writing this (I have a bit of a backlog), New Pie Co.’s brick and mortar location has shut down. You can still order a pie on their website, however.

New Pie Co. is a teeny, tiny little pie shop on King that’s easy to miss. They have a whole bunch of tasty pies that you can either order whole, or by the slice. It’s one of those places where everything looks so good that actually picking something is a challenge.

After much agonizing, I went with a slice of the buko crumble pie — New Pie Co.’s take on a classic Filipino dessert.

It’s basically a coconut cream pie, but with a sweet crumble topping instead of whipped cream. It’s super tasty, with a satisfying coconut flavour and a dense, creamy texture — it’s kind of like a cross between a traditional coconut cream pie and flan. The crumble on top adds some nice pops of sweetness and crispiness that works quite well with the silky filling.

My only issue is that — when I went at least — it was clear that the pie had either been baked way earlier in the morning or the day before, and the bottom layer of crust had completely sogged up. The pie was otherwise so tasty that this wasn’t that big of a deal, but it did hold it back from greatness somewhat.

A Delicious Almond Croissant at Castle and Coal

Published on November 24, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 108 Dovercourt Road, Toronto
Website: https://castleandcoal.ca/

I have a hard time saying no to an almond croissant. There’s something about the combo of a crispy, fluffy, buttery croissant with the creamy, sweet almond paste that’s kind of magical.

The version of Castle and Coal also has chocolate in it (it’s basically a cross between a traditional almond croissant and a pain au chocolate), and sure, why not? Add chocolate to every dessert. I have a hard time thinking of a dessert that wouldn’t be enhanced by adding chocolate.

The croissant itself doesn’t quite have the level of exterior crispiness that you’re hoping for, but it’s otherwise right where you want it to be. The very generous amount of almond paste almost borders on too sweet, but never crosses that line (and the addition of dark chocolate, aside from complementing it quite well, does a good job of balancing out the sweetness of the filling).

A Creamy Pastry at Marvelous by Fred

Published on March 13, 2023 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 224 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://marvelousbyfredtoronto-order.ca/

Marvelous by Fred is a French bakery chain with a bunch of locations in Europe, the States, and, in the last couple of years, Canada. They have a handful of tasty looking desserts and sandwiches, but their specialty is the Merveilleux, a tasty combo of whipped cream and meringue.

They serve a few different varieties of this, but the classic is the dark chocolate, which the store describes as “dark chocolate whipped cream & dark chocolate shavings.”

It’s good. Obviously it’s good — it’s just a big pile of crispy meringue chunks held together by chocolate-infused whipped cream, and then covered in shaved dark chocolate and topped with more cream. You literally cannot go wrong with that. How could you?

It’s not mind-blowing, though. I know that its creation is likely more involved than it tastes, but it kinda feels like I could mix together meringue, whipped cream, and chocolate at home and wind up with largely the same result.

I’m almost certainly not giving the bakery enough credit, but I can’t say I’ve ever thought that about literally any dessert from a French bakery, so there’s that.