Welcome to Bun Stuff family, I’m excited you're here. To kick things off, I wanted to share some tasty sweets I got from the neighborhood and the second to last set of cinnamon roll taste tests.
Sweet Generation
Sweet Generation is located on 1st Ave and St Mark’s in the East Village, just around the corner from my apartment. They’re known for their cupcakes, but when I popped in last week I eyed a couple interesting concoctions. First, they had their own version of pop tarts featuring peanut butter frosting and filled with strawberry jam. Look at this thing:
They were also serving a smores brownie, which basically had a normal brownie bottom, a layer of marshmallow cream, and then a blondie brownie top with chocolate chip cookies. I have a soft spot (eyyy) for marshmallow cream, and this brownie did not disappoint in the least. It was super rich, super delicious, and so good I came back the next day for another.
Seriously, it tastes even better than it looks. Next time you’re in the East Village and looking for something a bit unique, check it out!
The Weekly Cinnamon Rolls
Now the real reason most of you are here is likely due to my quest to find the best cinnamon roll in NYC this year. It was on hiatus for a bit, but I’ve been back in action since things started opening up more in June. To date, I’ve officially tested 63 different rolls and am nearing the end of my journey. There’s only a handful of places left (a number of places have closed or removed the roll from their menu since March), and I’m still figuring out what to do with everything. If you’ve got ideas let me know!
In the meantime, I’ll treat you to the new places I’ve visited over the past week. Yesterday I ventured out to Ridgewood to try out L’imprimerie, Rudy’s Bakery & Cafe, and Millers & Makers.
L’imprimerie
Super cute French bakery under the M, they have a quite delicious cinnamon roll. The dough is oh-so-flakey and buttery, with just the right amount of creamy frosting atop.
Rudy’s Bakery & Cafe
Rudy’s is a classic bakery in NYC, with a wide selection of pastries including ones the size of a dinner plate with names like “high danish” and “cheese ring”. The cinnamon roll definitely isn’t their specialty, and while it’s decent there isn’t anything particularly unique or standout about it. If you have other things to get there go for it, otherwise I’d walk the ten minutes down the road to L’imprimerie.
Millers & Makers
Just a couple blocks from Rudy’s, Millers is a very cute bakery that’s only open a couple days a week right now. They have a rather unique sweet potato cinnamon roll, based on a whole grain sourdough. It’s very spongey, with what is maybe a sweet potato-based glaze on top but unfortunately not a lot of cinnamon. It comes with a cream cheese frosting that is more cream cheese than frosting, and it’s very unique and delicious but honestly hard to compare to any other cinnamon roll. They also have a salted caramel cruller, which is absurdly rich and delicious. Get them both when you visit.
What else?
That’s it! What would you like to see more of? Do you have any good pastry stories to share? Leave a comment, send me a note, like/share/subscribe. See you next time!