sweet – Page 19 – Michael Eats

Sweet Greek Doughnuts at Lukumum

Published on October 4, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 484 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.lukumum.com/

The Greek doughnuts (a.k.a. loukoumades) they serve at Lukumum are intensely sweet. They’re also extremely delicious.

I tried loukoumades at Loukoumania Cafe in Vaughan last year; the ones at Lukumum are twice as sweet. Three times as sweet? They’re way sweeter.

I tried a couple of varieties. I went with the classic, which is soaked through with syrup and topped with honey and cinnamon, and the hazelnut, which is soaked with syrup and topped with Nutella and hazelnuts.

Both were delicious, though I preferred the classic. Despite being soaked through with syrup, the exterior remains pleasantly crunchy. The inside is completely suffused with syrup, but it’s not mushy. It’s great. The honey adds even more sweetness, and a nice floral note that goes very well with the cinnamon.

The Nutella variety is tasty as well — Nutella makes anything delicious — but the original is more unique.

An Interesting Cinnamon Bun at Fika Cafe

Published on September 27, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 28 Kensington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.fika.ca/

I’ve tried to get the cinnamon bun from Fika Cafe a few times, and it’s been sold out every time.

I finally got one. It was worth the wait.

Fika Cafe is a Swedish bakery and coffee shop in Kensington Market; they sell a Swedish-style cinnamon bun, and it’s fantastic.

It’s basically like a cross between a Swedish cardamom bun and a more traditional cinnamon roll, and it’s so damn good. It tastes more strongly of cinnamon than cardamom, but that slightly floral cardamom taste is definitely there; it’s a delightful balance.

Everything else about it is pretty much perfect — it has the perfect amount of sweetness, with a light sugary glaze and additional pops of sweetness and texture from the pearl sugar on top. It’s pretty restrained, however, so if you’re expecting a Cinnabon-esque sugar-bomb, look elsewhere.

The pastry itself is dense but not too dense, with a nice chewy texture and just the right amount of fluffiness. And of course, the aforementioned cinnamon/cardamom balance is just right. It’s one of the best pastries I’ve had in a while.

Perfectly Crispy Cannoli at Holy Cannoli

Published on September 20, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: Follow them on Instagram to see where they’ll be
Website: https://www.holy-cannoli.com/

There’s nothing sadder than biting into a cannoli only to find that its would-be crispy exterior has been rendered soft and chewy by the ravages of time.

Holy Cannoli, which had a booth at the recent OssFest street festival, avoids this problem quite definitively by filling their cannoli shells to order. This is clearly the way to do it. I don’t know why every bakery doesn’t do it this way.

So of course, the shell was nice and crispy, just as it should be. It’s crispy but not overly crunchy — it’s basically the perfect cannoli shell.

You can choose from either chocolate chip or vanilla filling; I went with the latter, and it was creamy, sweet, and tasty. Nothing about it particularly jumped out as being amazing, but it was a solid cannoli.

Chocolate Cream Pie at Bakerbots Baking

Published on August 19, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 205 Delaware Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://bakerbotsbaking.com/

Chocolate cream pie is one of those desserts that’s incredibly simple (it’s basically just chocolate pudding in a pie crust), but incredibly satisfying.

There’s not much to say about this; it’s exactly what you’re hoping it’ll be.

The filling is dense and rich, with a very pronounced bittersweet chocolate flavour that’s nice and intense without being overpowering.

The cream helps to cut the richness from the chocolate filling, and the little bits of chocolate on top add additional texture and flavour.

The crust is nothing to write home about, though the pie was in the “day old” section of the bakery at a discount, so it’s possible it might have been better when it was just baked. There certainly wasn’t anything wrong with it, but nothing about it jumped out at me. The balance between the chocolate and the cream was so tasty, however, that it really didn’t matter.

Delicious Bubble Tea (Without the Tea) at Tiger Sugar

Published on August 16, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 348 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://toronto.tigersugar.com/

What if you had bubble tea, but without the tea? That’s not a question I would have thought to ask, but it turns out that the answer is seriously delicious.

Tiger Sugar serves a drink called brown sugar boba milk, and yeah — it’s basically bubble tea without the tea. It’s sweet, creamy, and amazing. I actually tried Tiger Sugar on a recent trip to Taiwan, and I found it so delicious that I thought “I should bring this to Canada! I’ll be rich!”

I have zero desire to run a bubble tea shop, but I was so confident that this would be a hit in Toronto that I actually reached out to the company to see if franchising was a possibility (alas, I was too late).

And, so far at least, I was right. Tiger Sugar opened a location downtown about a month ago, and on a recent visit (during the afternoon in the middle of the week, no less), the place was absolutely packed.

Their flagship drink is brown sugar boba milk with cream mousse, which is just as rich as it sounds. The brown sugar gives it a nice depth of flavour that helps it not feel too sweet, despite the fact that it’s incredibly sweet. The combo of the milk and the cream mousse is rich and satisfying. And the tapioca balls are chewy, sweet, and tasty.

It’s definitely not something to order if you just want to quench your thirst — it’s a full-blown dessert, and it’s surprisingly heavy — but it’s so good.