Did you get the KAs for your friend’s birthday?
I text her early in the morning and she took the day off of work! Totally foiled my plan to bring them to her office which is managable from my office at lunch.
New plan is to pick them up on my way to meet her for a belated birthday brunch tomorrow! Hoping they don’t sell out of the black sesame before i get there around noon…
As an aside i had the most amazing bizarre wonderful thing happen the other day- i had to be in soho and as i was walking by dominique ansel there wasn’t a line. At all. And just a few people inside.
!!!
I took this as A Sign and got the new to me pavlova, a cannele (my gosh his are ethereal!) and a few macarons which I really like and the texture was certainly spot on. I may or may not have had the pavlova for breakfast. They were sold out of the DKA and i have to be judicious with how much dairy my tummy can deal with otherwise i would have picked up some croissants too…!
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Success!! I picked up the black sesame and the plain KA for her- i think i got lucky because it was a rather rainy morning and new yorkers don’t get moving before noon on sundays 
she was thrilled and didn’t realize there was such a thing as the black sesame. I met her elsewhere for brunch but they also offer brunch although the menu was on the simple side i’m sure the scrambled eggs on a croissant is lovely.
I got myself a hazelnut macaron. I didn’t realize that there’s an evening dessert tasting menu there…!! That sounds crazy amazing, it’s like $60 per person. I couldn’t survive so much dairy in one sitting but you might enjoy that on one of your trips to the city- apparently the pastry chef does more experimental presentations of plated desserts and often uses teas for flavor.
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The tasting menu is at Chanson, right? Hope she liked the KAs.
Yes, at Chanson in the evenings. I actually just got a text from her about an hour ago thanking me for them again and that she and her husband split both and love loved them.
I’ll certainly return next time i need to bring a friend a unique treat!
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Our next stop was The Good Batch, originally made famous for their stroopwafel ice cream sandwich.
Everything in the display case looked good, including, of course, the scones. But then I saw their signature cookies were on happy hour special for $1/each and got one of each.
I wish I hadn’t been such a cheapo and tried something else instead. The brown butter shortbread and white chocolate cranberry were good, but the others I didn’t like texturally (too cakey.) Looking at the first picture now, I can’t wait to go back and try something else.
I dug deep and vowed to improve my batting average while we drove to the original Four and Twenty Blackbirds in Gowanus. They had a rotating menu of seasonal pies available, as well as other non-pie items. They were also selling all-butter pie crust for you to bake at home.
I wished they had the Matcha Custard pie that day. We took a long time coming to a decision. In the meantime, it seemed like some workers were on break, and the woman at the cash register was making drinks, cutting pie slices, and taking money at lightning speed. I found myself again amazed at how so many NYC workers will do the work of three average Baltimore workers. I understand how NYC transplants get frustrated so easily by the slow pace of things elsewhere. In any case, we finally decided on the Black Bottom Oat pie. A dollop of whipped cream was recommended, and we did not refuse.
Honestly, it was not my first choice, but after much deliberation I was overruled. And I am glad I was. It was like a pie and cookie combined, a dense chocolate layer topped with a chess-like oat custard, forming a crisp oat layer on top as it baked. The whipped cream provided the perfect relief. I appreciate they actually whipped the cream instead of using one of those canisters; N2O cream can be too light. It was so good that when we got back to Baltimore, I immediately got a copy of their pie book. I can’t wait for a lazy day when I can just relax and bake this pie at home.
I had been especially looking forward to our next stop, Ladybird Bakery in Park Slope, for their Brooklyn Blackout cake. Unfortunately, they weren’t baking full tilt since it was just after Christmas. Most of the cakes weren’t available, and the pie/tart case was completely empty. They had lots of scones and muffins, though.
We settled for a cupcake version of the Brooklyn Blackout, a berry scone, and a linzer bar. We were meeting the kid’s aunt later, so we got a few basic cupcakes to take along with us, too.
The cupcake was great, a more literal interpretation than the one at Little Cupcake Bakeshop. We purchased a glass of milk so we could properly enjoy it. The scone was the least impressive scone we had during the trip, and it was still good. Most of the other scones we had were standalone goods, but I liked that this one could be paired with butter or jam because it wasn’t as rich or sweet. The linzer bar was technically excellent, with distinctly separated layers. There was just a flavor (almond paste?) that was too strong for us. Later that night, we would take a few bites of the cupcakes, too. Nothing special, but not bad, either.
As we headed toward Red Hook, I thought about how Ladybird reminded me of the quaint cake shops of yesteryear.
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Ladybird is my walk-to bakery, and I wish they did croissants. Their scones are decent but not exceptional, but they are better than the ones from Colson Patisserie, which has a better reputation. Unfortunately, the scones at Ladybird were $3 or $3.25 when you were there, but the price increased to $4 recently.
We dropped in at Chanson last Saturday morning, and I ordered a pistachio croissant, and was told they were out! There were several in the display case, but those are just for show? They would serve only from the baskets on the back wall. This was off-putting, to say the least.
Did the prices for cakes and muffins increase, too?
And how are the croissants at Colson? We had it on our list, just didn’t have time to stop by.
I don’t buy cupcakes and muffins, so I don’t know if there was an increase, and I’m not in NYC right now, so can’t check. Their website doesn’t mention these items.
I was disappointed in Colson. It’s a bit further walk for me, and has a lot more selection, but it’s not worth it. Scone was dry. For me, a perfect croissant shatters just a little on the outside and is just short of that most of the way in. I don’t want it to explode when I bite it, or be too bready, or too moist inside (usually the butter’s fault) so layers glue together to form a leaden, chewy mass. Colson got the outside right, but there were large air pockets and leaden chewiness inside.
The best croissants I’ve had in the area are from Bien Cuit, which might shatter a little too much, but better that than too little. I haven’t had a plain croissant at Dominique Ansel, but based on their pain au chocolat and kouign amann, I imagine they do a good job. (I won’t wait outside in line, but so far I’ve been lucky, and have even managed inside seating!)
I still have a lot more places to try…
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Love your description. I completely agree with your favorite style of croissant, but even if I didn’t, I would find myself trying your favorite type of croissant just to get a good version of a different style of croissant.
That pie sounds unique and really good to me! That’s interesting they sell their crust to bake at home, it would certainly make pie baking less intimidating. I gave their cookbook to my mom who is an avid baker and she went through a phase of baking lots of their pies. Somehow there aren’t many pie bakeries here, although i’ve heard great things about the fairly new Petee’s pies.
I feel like Bien Cuit and balthazar bakery are always on lists of the best croissants in nyc, although supermoon bakery has gotten a lot of press mostly focused on the various unique fillings.
I think pies just aren’t as popular anymore. Ladybird does pies, too. In Brooklyn, there’s also Pie Corps. I’ve read their cookbook, but most of their pies are 10-inch and I don’t have a 10-inch pan. I just went to Petee’s on my most recent NYC trip. The cherry pie was so good – perfect crust and balance in the filling – that one of my friends who lives in New York took home a whole pie with her. (And she is not a sweets person at all, unless she is with me, then she doesn’t have a choice.)
Glad you made it there, i have a friend who was raving about their chicken pot pie which is her husband’s favorite thing ever. Let me know if you noticed any vegan pies , regular pies have enough dairy i can only have a few bites which is just a terrible tease.
Sorry, I only remember seeing vegan cookies at Petee’s.
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bmorecupcake: I feel heavier just reading your reports! It’s all interesting to me. I have a big sweet tooth, but I’m on a super-low-carb diet now and don’t usually allow myself exceptions for sweets. But that wasn’t always the case.
A few specific comments: Van Leeuwen is on my block (7th St. near 2nd Av.). They’ve palled on me. I think I liked their ice cream more when they were just a couple of carts on the street, because as carts, they were especially good. I used to frequent their shop when I could go in, be no more than 5th on line, and order ginger ice cream plus something else (pistachio, chocolate, maybe earl grey), but it isn’t worth it to me to wait on a long line that snakes out onto the street.
There is an outpost of Odd Fellows on E. 4 St. between 2nd and Bowery. Their selection there is limited, but their ice cream is imaginative and great, and I like to go there. In addition, there is oddly never a long line there. My other favorite ice cream place in my neighborhood is Laboratorio del Gelato, right across from Katz’s Delicatessen on Ludlow and Houston. They have loads of flavors and don’t mind using their imagination to make superb gelati in flavors like malt, white sesame and allspice. Try them if you come back when it’s warmer. I don’t know if they’re certified halal or kosher, but I have never seen any meat products in their flavors (e.g., no bacon ice cream), and I don’t think gelato that’s worth a damn would ever use gelatin in it.
(Tangentially: “Roti” is simply the generic word for “bread” in Malay. I think you’re thinking of roti canai, which should not be called “roti” for short, but is a particular type of roti. Traditional Mamak [North Indian Muslim] choices in Malaysia for breakfast or lunch or, nowadays, as a first course of a larger meal include roti canai or capati [=chapatti], which are accompanied by the same sauces [most commonly, chicken/potato curry, but dal or goat curry are also possible].)
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