Wave Hill Breads recently moved their renown bread baking mecca and opened a new cafe in Norwalk, heralding a new “must eat” venue to add to your Fairfield County foodie dance card. At their new location on 30 High Street, Wave Hill Breads is baking way beyond their notorious three-grain pain de campagne which graces the tables of some of the finest CT restaurants and markets. The cafe features 20 seats for eat in dining with sandwiches (on Wave Hill Bread of course), soups, muffins, pastries, tea and coffee, as well as wi-fi. And if you just want to stop in for a loaf of that pain de campagne, just knock on speakeasy-esque “Back Door Bakery” around back (no password necessary).
The scene at Cove Marina today was, in a word, cute. The green and white striped cupcake truck was cute. The owners, 16-year old twins Kate and Gavin Nelson, were cute. And the cupcakes themselves were, yes, very cute.
But there’s much more to the Short and Sweet Cupcake Truck. The truck is actually a fully equipped mobile commercial kitchen/bakery. The young Nelson twins are not just accomplished bakers and entrepreneurs, but also authors (with two published children’s books between them) and philanthropists (founders of The Gift of Words, a non-profit foundation providing books to children in underserved communities). Not bad for two high school juniors who don’t yet have driver’s licenses (their dad drives the truck)! And the cupcakes don’t just look good – they taste great. But more on that later.
Every so often the fine art of sampling in grocery stores uncovers a delicious new product. While shopping last week in Fairway Market in Stamford I stumbled across a local business, You&Me Cookie, that is creating three scrumptious versions of old-time favorite cookie recipes: the original Chocolate Chip, a Cranberry and Dark Chocolate Chunk, and a modern version of an old-fashioned Oatmeal Raisin. I sampled and loved all of the varieties. With one bite I knew I had an obligation to let our readers know that You&Me Cookies are now available in Fairfield County. After two years of successfully selling through specialty stores in Westchester County, co-owners Heather Mahland and Kyle deLasa have expanded their distribution with the addition of Walter Stewarts in New Canaan, and Plum Pure Food, Starlight Café at the YMCA and Caffé Bon in Greenwich.
When husband and wife team Margaret Sapir and Mitch Rapaport first began delivering their signature bread to farmers markets in 2005, it was with a signature bread crafted from one recipe. Not that this has been a bad thing. Their Pain de Campagne is what started it all and has brought them the recognition they receive to this day.
Now, in addition to the fabulously addictive three-grain country loaf that we all know and love,Wave Hill Breads is proud to announce the launch of two new breads for your dining pleasure (+ spoiler alert...come May, you can dine in their new bakery/cafe in Norwalk). But first, let's talk about these magnificent loaves..
Ah, Versailles. So distant. So unreachable. So . . . French.
Well, that’s how our group felt after canceling /rescheduling our planned trip to this well-established Greenwich eatery THREE separate times. As it turns out, each date was snowier, icier and slushier than the one before. It took three snow storms, three snow days and nearly a month, but we finally made it.
The new location (a few doors down from the original on Greenwich Ave.) is lovely and trimly elegant. We arrived early for lunch … and it’s a good thing we did. The dining room was full to capacity -- with a line out the door -- by 12:20.
Last spring we reported on a new local artisan bread baker, Fairfield Bread Company. Their wonderful Flaxette is made with organic flax and whole wheat, using slow, old-world methods. The result...a hearty loaf with a delightful caramelized crust and a tender chewy crumb.
This small-batch artisan bread is making its restaurant debut at The Dressing Room on their new lunch menu with four new sandwich offerings including: DR Steak and cheese with grass-fed beef and Nobel cheddar sauce, Pulled pork with root vegetable BBQ sauce, and a Roasted organic vegetable sandwich- all on the Flaxette. Executive Chef, Jon Vaast, describes his excitement about this menu addition:
"The Flaxette for sandwiches is really something else, it grills great, and holds up to the different sandwiches we are doing right now. It's just a really great hearty loaf of bread which is what makes a great sandwich."
Chances are pretty good that if you’ve ever lusted after a baked good in Fairfield County, Lesli Flick of Milford's newest bakery Scratch Baking may have literally had her hands on it. Scratch is a beacon of baked goods, opening in a cozy space adjacent to the Milford train station just this past weekend with seasoned pastry chef Lesli Flick at its helm.
Flick has been moving steadily north since attending culinary school in Manhattan, beginning her baking trajectory on the upper east side and then (thankfully for us) moving to Connecticut.
When Michele Albano first got into pie-making, she burned out three ovens in her ski condo in Vermont supplying local farmers’ markets with pies made with “love and fresh fruit. ”Those days are long gone. She now operates Michele’s Pies out of a commercial kitchen and bake shop on Route 7 in Norwalk, delighting customers with award-winning crusted concoctions such as Chocolate Pecan Bourbon, Candyland and Ultimate Banana Split as well as old-fashioned favorites inspired by the pies she remembers her grandmother baking.
Alicia Fidalgo is the voice behindThe Clean Plate Club blog. She shares her time between West Hartford & Boston.
On a chilly Sunday morning I recently had the pleasure of visiting Hartford Baking Company in West Hartford, CT. Located in a strip of shops on New Park Avenue, the bakery's interior juxtaposes the cozy comfort of a local bake-shop with urban-inspired industrial design.
Baked goods run the gamut from sweet to savory: muffins, sticky buns and scones, as well as beautiful crusty European-style bread.
Eat, Pray, Love - you’ve heard of it, right? Well in the words of Willy Wonka, “Strike that, reverse it” - The CAKEBOX in Ridgefield has it all in the correct order - Pray (if you must), Eat (as many cupcakes as you can), and Love (absolutely!) This ESSENTIAL new dessert-stop in the Copps Hill Commons shopping center in Ridgefield is a cake and cupcake lover’s Shangri-La. Ridgefield native Jordan Gregory and her partner, Robert Byrnes, opened The Cake Box in April and have been whipping up extraordinary cakes for all occasions (including, eventually, custom wedding cakes), cupcakes by the dozen, and individual cupcakes, cookies, and macaroons at the store for your perusal and MASS consumption! Ms. Gregory received her pastry training at the Institute for Culinary Education in NYC and Mr. Byrnes, who has a degree in hotel and restaurant management, designs the custom cakes. Trust me, they know their stuff!
Most of us don't think twice about trying a new restaurant, taking a night off from cooking with takeout or browsing the aisles of a grocery store. But for a small percentage of Americans, these simple and daily rituals can be excruciating. Celiac disease is a digestive disorder that affects, by some estimates, 1 in 133 children and adults by compromising the ability to process certain proteins found in gluten. An oasis for sufferers has emerged in Fairfield County in the form Cafe Cogolulu, a reopened and 100% gluten free cafe in Wilton offering families suffering from this inherited autoimmune disease some much-needed respite.
Any time I am invited to a birthday party, I offer to bring the cake. I have been completely won over by a local baker who creates the most artistic, delicious and personal cakes you could ever imagine.
The first cake was for my brother's surprise 40th birthday party in New York City. The event caterer directed me to a patisserie on the upper east side, but I was determined to try a local baker, Laura Jayson, a.k.a. The Dough Girl of Rowayton, who works out of a small kitchen in Norwalk. When she offered to deliver the cake in a box fit for travel, the deal was sealed.
For the party, Laura recommended her biggest crowd-pleaser: a super-moist chocolate cake (she shared her secret ingredient: coffee) topped with vanilla frosting. In the center, at my request, she created a molded figure of my brother kite-boarding. The art work was playful and the figure true to form
John Barricelli, owner and chef at Sono Baking Company, takes his tarts seriously. If you visit his storefront, you will see them perfectly crisped, savory, and seemingly impossible to make at home.
A few months ago, we went "behind the scenes @ Sono Baking Co." and watched John cooking up these tasty morsels, and decided this was one recipe we had to have. Fortunately his new cookbook came out last month and now every home cook can enjoy these divine Tomato Tarts without having to drive to Norwalk.
A good cook book is like a map. It takes you to places in the kitchen you couldn’t have gone with out it. A great cook book is like a navigation device. It not only gives you the maps, but shows you points of interest along the way and tells you how to get back on track if you veer off course. The Sono Baking Company Cookbook is a great cookbook andit'son sale March 9th! From its thick, glossy pages to its gorgeous photos and instructive recipes, this book is an inviting and engaging kitchen travel companion.
The first thing you notice about the Sono Cookbook is its beautiful photos. Much credit to Ben Fink, who makes the food pop off the page and look so stunning and real you’re surprised you can’t reach into the book and pick up the pastry brush to glaze a tart on the Table of Contents page. When we decided to do a tasting as part of the book’s review
Do you have a child with food allergies? I do. It stinks. It’s not the end of the world, I realize that, but it certainly makes everyday events (and I really mean just about EVERY day in this town!) like birthday parties a hassle. My son is allergic to dairy, egg, sesame, and tree nuts. OK, the sesame isn’t usually a cupcake issue. But there haven’t been a lot of options for dairy free or egg free desserts! And I have several friends whose children also need gluten-free food. ( Yikes!) There ARE products out there that you can bake yourself; Cherrybrook Kitchen has a whole line of boxed items that you can order on-line and even purchase in some grocery stores. But the cakes and cookies from Cherrybrook are just -ok. They are not particularly tasty, especially for the sophisticated and discerning taste buds of the seven-year-olds in Fairfield County! And, you have to bake them yourself.
But there’s a new kid in town and she is singing my song- her name is Pam Nicholas and she is the owner and baker at Izzi B’s Allergen Free Cupcakes. I recently purchased Izzi B cupcakes for my son’s birthday party and they were a colossal hit! Delicious, ‘B’utiful, fun, and 100% allergen-free
Westporters have had their cake prayers answered with the recent opening of Michelle Klem's designer cake boutique and bakery storefront CakeSuite. Actually, given CakeSuite's proximity to I-95, pretty much everybody in Fairfield County should be feeling pretty lucky.
CakeSuite opened just before Christmas but launched officially last week with a festive tasting event. Eager to sample the goods at this new sweet shop, we arrived hungry. The retail space is a bright, pristine, white tiled bakery with a glass case filled with trays of cookies and other elegant treats. The work area of this bakery is in full view for all you cooking voyeurs. For this celebration, Michelle had prepared a generous variety of miniatures to taste. Supporters and cake lovers mingled in the bakery, sipping champagne and nibbling on the irresistible cookies and cakes. The tiered trays were piled high, but S. and I managed to taste everything.
Attention bread lovers. There's a new artisan loaf in town…"The Flaxette," a beautiful crusty, nutty bread featuring organic ground flax seeds and a marvelous chewy tender interior. The bread is made by a Michael Mordechai and his startup, The Fairfield Bread Company.
A few months ago, we attended a gypsy dinner where we sampled "The Flaxette" for the first time. It accompanied a bread and cheese platter, and while the cheese was very good, it was the bread I couldn't stop eating. When I heard he had taken his bread on the road, I raced over to The Pantry in Fairfield to purchase the delicious loaf. Moments later I was ripping off the ends and hoping there was some left once I got home so I could sample the product with butter. Mind you..it's not a long drive.
It is still really dark at 4:30 AM , but the pre-dawn hours hold transformative powers. Darkness will turn to light and the promise of a new day will be realized. Sometimes, both happen sooner than you expect.
When we arrive at the SoNo Baking Company for a behind-the-scenes tour, it's shortly before 5:00 a.m., but the aroma of warm yeasty bread has transformed two half-asleep writers into bakers in training. Owner, John Barricelli, welcomes us in through the still dark café, chairs resting upside down on tables; display cases standing empty. Our eyes have to adjust as we walk through the sleepy cafe into the brightly lit kitchen. Suddenly awake, we are immediately caught up in the rhythm of the bakers at work.
