For this month's Daring Baker Challenge, I had to get XXX at Trader's Joe. On my walk back from the C-line train, I saw that a new bakery had gone into an old bakery space. The old bakery was fairly good. But they kept really strange hours and were starting to look a little run down.
The new bakery had taken the space and made it over in raw wood, fresh paint and outside patio seating. Nice! I had to stop in and check it out. Especially since I wouldn't have a bakery to visit once inside my 'hood, grrr!
I went in and all the goodies were laid out so nicely. I did notice that most of the stuff seemed very nut oriented and I do mean nut! The tarts and pies were piled file with cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts and silvered almonds. And the individual treats seemed very brioche oriented. Plain, chocolate, halva, poppy seed, savory brioches, you get the idea. It was late in the day around 6pm so perhaps all the other stuff had been taken but I was surprised not to find a single fruit tart or cookie in the bunch.
I went ahead and bought to types of brioche to try. I tried the halva and the chocolate brioche. The brioche was buttery and yeasty, clearly expertly made but the execution of both was a little bit clumsy.
The chocolate brioche had a hard chunk of chocolate at the very buttom on it's center. Hmm, it was almost like a jelly donut but not quite. The hard little lump did nothing to make the brioche anymore tasty. It would have been better if the chocolate had been either chunked up or grated into the already risen dough and baked. The halva made the other brioche gummy and sticky. And I mean really gummy and sticky. The halva flavor made it almost taste like a peanut butter brioche. It was like brioche taffy. To get the flavor of halva they could have used sesame seeds and honey instead of using the halva candy.
I like the place well enough to give it a shot again. I'd like to sit outside and enjoy some coffee and a nice afternoon treat but I think next time it will need to be only if I see anything there without nuts or brioche.
Tatte Cookies
2 comments:
Hi, I just read your post, and have to say for someone who sounds very well informed in the bakery business you really messed this one up. First for the brioche, they only have plain, chocolate, spinach/ricotta, and sun dried tomatoes. These are buttery French bread - semi sweet. The other pastries you are talking about are called "Roses" for their shape - not for the rose flavor - they do not use that - i asked. These are sticky bun type pastries and supposed to be sticky. My favorite is the hazelnut one. I am not sure when you were there, but the always have fruit boxes and pies available, they have cheese cakes that are great, they have mousse and chocolate pies. Those are all without nuts. Of course their nut boxes are delicious and very well made the butter cookie crust with Carmel toppings is just GREAT!! As for the cookies, there are always boxes and tubes of cookies on the antique shelving on the wall, so I am not sure how you did not see them.
So I suggest you go again, and ask the great staff about the pastries and cookies.
JW, I appreciate your comments.
The afternoon I was there, they only had a few choices. Quite a few of the items you noted where not there/available.
My main gripe with the halva wasn't that the halva was sticky but it made the dough of the brioche (and it was a brioche dough) very, very gummy...almost like it was undercooked.
I thought the brioche was well made. And I enjoyed the chance to try Tatte's goodies and will go back again. Infact I might try again this Sunday afternoon (if the weather is nice).
But I was also a little taken back by the prices, they seemed a bit high. But I don't question the price too too much since I know decent baked goods are expensive to produce. So yes, I will try it again.
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