Pastries for your Coffee? in the EV?
click through to find out where, plus the Breadator and a review of the monthly internet cookie
What a week bun buds! I hope everyone got to change up the usual Thanksgiving (aka National Day of Mourning) meal with some pastries! Send me some photos to include for next week’s edition!
One of my favorite TV shows, Bob’s Burgers, does a Thanksgiving special episode every year and this year’s was quite amazing. Bob’s is very heavy on the puns, and this year’s episode featured food retellings of famous action movies, including the “Breadator”.
You can watch a cut version here, but I highly recommend the full thing for maximum punnage on Fox.
This week I visited a few places around my neighborhood, which primarily are coffee shops but also have those sweet sweet tasty pastries.
C&B
My go-to breakfast spot is C&B, a little coffee shop on the edge of Tompkins Square Park. While most go for their mouth-watering sandwiches on the baked-in-house bread, I stick with the Turkish offerings and of course, the pastries. Once indoor dining shut down earlier this year, Chef Ali bought a whole-ass oven from Ohio and started making loaves and working on his croissants, and it has paid off.
The pastry rotation has been fairly consistent the last few months, with the offering consisting of (clockwise from top left):
Brioche knots: these come sometimes regular, and sometimes covered in everything bagel topping. Similar to the galette, the dough is mostly butter with a perfect texture to pull apart. Incredibly rich and filling and oh-so-satisfying.
Chocolate chip cookies: giant hunks of chocolate and equally large flakes of salt. It’s chewy, very rich, and just a skotch towards decadence without being indulgent. Perfect for a little mid-week pick-me-up (or early week, or late week, or weekend, or…)
Everything galettes: a galette filled with ricotta and caramelized onion, topped with everything bagel topping. The dough is incredibly buttery, and the perfect texture to pull apart with an amazing crust, and seriously who doesn’t like everything bagel topping. Why are you still reading this and not running out the door to order one already??????
Croissants: they come in both regular and chocolate. The chocolate has a perfect croissant texture with bits of a delicious semi-dark chocolate stuck in (see the second photo). The crust is a bit more stiff than other croissants, but it works great here.
If you’re in the East Village or otherwise jonesing for a turkish breakfast, I can’t recommend C&B highly enough. Grab the menemen and a get a brioche knot to dip, or pick up a chocolate croissant to nibble on with your coffee while you wait for the pig and egg sandwich and take it all to the park. Honestly, whatever you get you can’t go wrong.
All the King’s Horses
While you’re in the East Village, if you didn’t fill up on C&B head north to 12th St and stop by All the King’s Horses. Recently opened, ATKH aims to be a neighborhood coffee spot with pastries from around the city. I had been meaning to stop by and pick up a cinnamon roll from Balthazar Bakery, but un/fortunately the day I visited they were serving a variety from King Street Baking Co.
I snagged a bit of everything, and, well, see for yourself (clockwise from top left):
Apple cider bundt cake: crispy sugar on the outside, grated apple pieces inside, and the most lovely soft and moist texture. Heat it up for a bit and just 👨🏻🍳🤌🏻
Citrus and olive oil bundt cake: deliciously moist, with strong flavors of olive oil but nicely balanced by the citrus. It’s mostly orange but hint of lemon. The icing is a lovely addition to add a little sweetness.
Chocolate chip cookie: I have never gotten more comments about a photo than I did after I posted this to my insta story. I can tell you, it’s as good as it looks. It reminded me of my mom’s cookies, which are more on the crispy side than soft and chewy (however this one didn’t dry out after 20 minutes). Not as buttery as other cookies, but a perfect balance of salt and chocolate. Not too heavy, not too light, but just right.
Pumpkin bread: Also very good. The seeds atop add a nice bit of crunch, and the crumbles atop add a delicious buttery smoothness. It has just the right level of spice for a bit of kick and sweetness to keep you in the fall mood.
Honestly, I’m not one to complain about more choices for pastries in the neighborhood. Plus, when I went there was a *bonus* vegemite/tomato/arugula/mayo sandwich I got for free, which made me not hate vegemite. I’ll definitely be back.
Miscellanea
November’s Internet Cookies
The Internet Cookies for November is a real winner. Advertised as preserved lemons with black lime and white chocolate pearls, this is a beautiful blend of a lemon bar and a cookie. It’s super gooey and buttery, and the pearls give a lovely smooth balance to the harshness of the lemon. Seriously, if you haven’t signed up for this subscription yet you’ve gotta get on it. The holidays are just around the corner!
Pre-Packaged Pastry Products
My girlfriend Lauren gifted me some pre-packaged pastry products that were really good! Both are based in NY but ship nationwide, so if you’re looking for something from the pages of Bun Stuff to gift your friends and family this year here are a couple ideas.
Gracie Half-Baked Funfetti Cookie: Advertised as half-baked, this thing was more like 3/4 baked, but it was still good! The top three ingredients listed are butter, brown sugar, and sugar, which is basically what it tastes like. It has a bit of cake mix, which helps really pull together the funfetti flavor. Buy online from GracieBaked.com!
Greyston Bakery Vegan Cinnamon Roll Blondie: This had a lot of cinnamon flavor, like cinnamon and sugar toast. It was moist in the vending machine bakery way that is like, probably mostly just the oil. Definitely more chewy than a fresh blondie, and very dense. I’m not sure what the “roll” they advertise refers to - why not just cinnamon sugar? Those marketing hacks got me. But it's good! I wouldn't hesitate if I was at a shop and it was on offer. Greyston is a certified B corp and helps people get jobs who would otherwise have issues, which is dope. Buy online here!
It’s December 🕎🎄!
Do you have a favorite holiday pastry? Or other tradition? I’d love to hear about it! Cookies? Buns? Chestnuts roasting over an open fire?
Next week we’ll visit some pastries I picked up out of a van, which tasted better than that sentence would leave you to believe. Stay safe bun buds!