I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries and what you
highly recommended from there. Just so i'm clear...I'm looking for
bakeries that use top-notch ingredients and not the run-of-the-mill
stuff you'll find in most grocery stores.

Here are my to-die-for, if you just gotta-have-sugar recommendations
:
* Francesca's in Durham, NC - pretty much EVERYTHING behind the
display case, but definitely the Chocolate Rasperry Decadence!!!

* Simply Desserts in Seattle, WA - I've tried most of the chocolate
cakes there (sorry, but i can't recall their names but the words
"truffle", "milk chocolate" come to mind), and
you will not be disappointed!!!

* European Cake Gallery in Point Loma/San Diego, CA - it has been
years since I've stepped foot inside this bakery, but if my
recollection serves me correctly, their Swiss Black Forest &
White Bavarian are yummy (the chocolate shavings are also unlike any
other cakes).

* Whole Foods (in most large cities) - I think it's called Chocolate
Torte (it's flourless).

I'm truly bummed that TGI Friday's restaurant no longer has their
Chocolate Caramel Crunch Cake...and Claim Jumper's 6-layer Chocolate
Motherlode Cake doesn't even come close to what I would consider
gooooooood.

"XannaX" > wrote in message
...
> I'm a dessert fiend.


Damn. Xanax AND dessert? Have you reached Nirvana yet?

cybercat wrote:

> Damn. Xanax AND dessert? Have you reached Nirvana yet?

damn, it Psychicyber!

the good thing about her, you don't have to finish your sentences, she
already knows what your going to say!

it has it's pros and cons

XannaX wrote on Friday, August 4, 2006:

> I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
> address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries and what you
> highly recommended from there.

<snip>

I'm not a dessert fiend. I generally avoid dessert sweets. But I didn't
say never.
I go to bakeries more for bread than dessert. I'll mention a couple of
primarily
bread bakers who also do pastries

In Portland, Oregon and environs:

Ken's Artisan Bakery
Di Prima Dolci
Pearl Bakery

For an older style "before food got all fancied up" kind of place:

Helen Bernhard's

For a middle of the road place:

Beaverton Bakery

I'm sure there are others.

at Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:07:02 GMT in <xcKdndh2-
>, -
spam.invalid (XannaX) wrote :

>I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
>address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries and what you
>highly recommended from there. Just so i'm clear...I'm looking for
>bakeries that use top-notch ingredients and not the run-of-the-mill
>stuff you'll find in most grocery stores.
>
>Here are my to-die-for, if you just gotta-have-sugar recommendations
>:
>* Francesca's in Durham, NC - pretty much EVERYTHING behind the
>display case, but definitely the Chocolate Rasperry Decadence!!!
>
>* Simply Desserts in Seattle, WA - I've tried most of the chocolate
>cakes there (sorry, but i can't recall their names but the words
>"truffle", "milk chocolate" come to mind), and
>you will not be disappointed!!!

Yeah, the Chocolate Truffle is the best chocolate cake in Seattle. For
those who don't know, this cake despite its name is not one of the
Chocolate Decadence or flourless-style chocolate cakes - it's simply a
great basic chocolate cake - 2 layers plus frosting. But the layers are
superb, moist cake with a powerful chocolate flavour (as opposed to the
all-too-often weak flavour of "ordinary" cakes and the frosting is pure
chocolate ganache. Why can't all chocolate cakes be this way?

I get the idea that you're big into chocolate. This is important because
let's make a distinction between good *chocolate* bakeries and good
bakeries in general. In fact, among still broader lines I think it would be
nice if more people made a distinction between good *bread* bakeries and
good *pastry* bakeries. I'd like to find good bread bakeries, but
unfortunately because there is no separate term for that in the US almost
invariably all the recommendations, either by word-of-mouth or through
guidebooks, are for pastry bakeries. The French have it right - we need the
terms "boulangerie" and "patisserie".

Anyway, back to chocolate. Essential Baking has really good chocolate
desserts, although you need to get there early or they're all gone.
Dilettante is probably the all-around king of the chocolate baked goods:
the best selection is to be had at the Broadway location on Capitol Hill.
However you need to be patient with service which is slow. I recommend the
Rigo Jancsi. The best chocolate cookie is the chocolate truffle cookie from
Pasta & Co. on Queen Anne Ave at the top of the hill. The best chocolate
brownie (by FAR) is from Microbakery - a small baker who sells a lot at
local farmers' markets and which you can also get from Madison Market on
Capitol Hill.

They maked baked goods, and many of them are very good indeed, but you are
missing the point if you buy them from Gelatiamo, the best ice cream shop
in Seattle. You should instead get an ice cream (or "gelato", if you prefer
that term). I personally prefer the blueberry above all others, especially
now. Their berry flavours are exceptional. So are the hazelnut flavours.

Oddly, since you're in to chocolate, it's worth noting that Gelatiamo
doesn't have the best chocolate ice cream in the city - that honour belongs
to their main rival a few blocks away in the Pike Place Market: Bottega
Italiana. Overall, BI's ice creams aren't as good - they can't quite match
the intensity of flavour nor the silken texture of Gelatiamo - although
because their shop looks more "trendy", not so slick and polished as
Gelatiamo but rather sort of casual and boutiquey (and perhaps also because
the hired help features a lot of hunky Italian guys with accents to match),
a lot of people like to rate them higher. Nonetheless, image-over-substance
issues aside, BI's chocolate ice cream is the best. Avoid other flavours,
though.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

writes:

>I get the idea that you're big into chocolate. This is important because
>let's make a distinction between good *chocolate* bakeries and good
>bakeries in general. In fact, among still broader lines I think it would be
>nice if more people made a distinction between good *bread* bakeries and
>good *pastry* bakeries. I'd like to find good bread bakeries, but
>unfortunately because there is no separate term for that in the US almost
>invariably all the recommendations, either by word-of-mouth or through
>guidebooks, are for pastry bakeries. The French have it right - we need the
>terms "boulangerie" and "patisserie".

and the Italians -- "panificio" and "pasticceria"

In article >, annaboop01
@yahoo-dot-com.no-spam.invalid says...
> I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
> address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries and what you
> highly recommended from there. Just so i'm clear...I'm looking for
> bakeries that use top-notch ingredients and not the run-of-the-mill
> stuff you'll find in most grocery stores.
>
> Here are my to-die-for, if you just gotta-have-sugar recommendations
> :
> * Francesca's in Durham, NC - pretty much EVERYTHING behind the
> display case, but definitely the Chocolate Rasperry Decadence!!!
>
>

Since you seem to know Durham you must try Guglhupf, an Austrian/German
bakery that makes the best pastries, fruit tarts, croissants, etc as
well as wonderful breads.


--
Peter Aitken
Visit my recipe and kitchen myths pages at www.pgacon.com/cooking.htm

XannaX wrote:

> I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
> address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries and what you
> highly recommended from there. Just so i'm clear...I'm looking for
> bakeries that use top-notch ingredients and not the run-of-the-mill
> stuff you'll find in most grocery stores.

My favourite bakery is in the way to our vacation spot in Algonquin
Park. It is on Hwy.60 in Dwight, Ont, halfway between Huntsville and
Algonquin Park. They have a great selection of pastries, cookies and
movies, and some excellent reads.

There is a new bakery in Fonthill, Ont. called Indulgences that has some
great things. they just opened a few months ago. Of the people I know
who have been there, they have all raved about it and are afraid to make
a habit of going there.

XannaX wrote:

> I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
> address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries and what you
> highly recommended from there. Just so i'm clear...I'm looking for
> bakeries that use top-notch ingredients and not the run-of-the-mill
> stuff you'll find in most grocery stores.

Macrina Bakery in Seattle. Everything I've had there has been
fantastic, but I especially love the turtle brownies and the chocolate
cherry pound cake. When I ordered a piece of the pound cake, which had
been baked in a large angelfood pan, the fellow behind the counter
sliced 1/6 of it for me. I love chocolate, but even for me, it was too
much to eat in one sitting.

http://www.macrinabakery.com/

I also frequent Yummy House Bakery in Seattle's Chinatown for
Hong-Kong-style buns and pastries.

Derek Juhl

one of my best friends just mentioned to me that she had watched the
episode where Gayle (Oprah's sidekick) went in search for "The
Best Cake in America" a few months ago. from Oprah's website,
here are the findings:

Doughboys
8136 W. Third St.
Los Angeles, CA
888-651-3606
www.doughboys.net
Red Velvet Cake

Icebox Café
1657 Michigan Ave
Miami, FL
305-538-8448
www.iceboxcafe.com
Strawberry Shortcake, "The Bomb," Cinnamon Butter Cake and
Coconut Cream Cake

Tennessee T-Cakes
200 Hill Ave.
Nashville, TN
888-886-3926
www.tntcakes.com
T-Cakes

Wimp's Southern Style Bakery
29 W. 125th St.
New York, NY
212-410-2296
www.wimpsbakery.com
Chocolate on Chocolate Cake and Caramel Coconut Cake

a big thanks to everyone who replied!!!

lid (XannaX) wrote in news:xcKdndh2-
:

> I'm a dessert fiend. I'm hoping you all will share the name &
> address (at least the city) of your favorite bakeries
>


http://www.brunetti.com.au/
Lygon St (aka Little Italy), Melbourne, Australia