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| - This gem of a bakery is situated in the basement of the First Canadian Place. I came in the quiet hours between the morning insanity and lunch hour zoo. So for me, I wafted in the gently simmering fragrance of mushrooms, leeks, and bacon in the soup and still fresh cinnamon buns in tranquil peace and with attentive service. I can imagine this place getting harried with the lines of bankers during lunch but honestly... the service was phenomenal, kind, and thoughtful. With prompt hellos and smiling faces, I got great recommendations to round out my order of a box full of pastries.
Now I would say not all pastries were at 5 star rating. One is a firm 'best of Toronto', 5 of them are at a '4 star' pretty awesome, and one was a dud at a 2.5 average grocery store fare. So onto the goods....
With a ridiculously great fresh selection of 25+ items, the smiling staff told me their limited time fall items and I snatched up a pumpkin spiced muffin, a crispy gigantic sized palmier, a softball sized apple raisin turnover, a flakey Eccles cake, a croissant, chocolate croissant, and almond croissant. The scone, tarts (all 6 choices!), macarons, ginger cakes, and savoury choices all called to me but I was told by office mates that sweet and flakey were the must have orders to bring up.
The croissants are all great with the stand out being the butter and almond croissant the most. They had a better crispier crust with a flavourful butter crumb that showed that lovely flakey interior layers. The chocolate croissant was much softer than the layers were a bit more smooshy... taste wise great... texturally not as good. They are more generous in size compared to Petite Thuet which is above street.
The pumpkin spiced muffin had a great flavourful strusel that reminded of what authentic spices taste like and not the starbucks fakery. It was really moist but not dense like a hockey puck. It was fairly light cake crumb.
The worst of the bunch was the apple raisin turnover... the innards was a wonderful huge amount of soft apples with a great taste of potent raisin but the outer pastry shell was nearing mushy dense textures. It was like a white bread had a baby with a pastry.... not great. I took a bite and tore it apart to eat the inside only.
The palmier.. oh this lovely thing. It's at least 8 inches wide and its like the most airy pastry cookie that would bless my tongue. With a tempered showering of sugar, the crispy pastry shatters under your tooth pressure. The lovely butter flavour doesn't overwhelm you but just adds to the overall great flavour. Make sure you're eating over a plate or you look like a victim of a cookie bomb exploding all over you.
And the gem of the visit... Eccles cake. This unassuming pastry looks so boring. It's a rounded bun shaped layered pastry with slits on the top just giving you a peak of the sticky goodness inside. The pastry was amazing... crispy, buttery, and loads of layers. The sugar on tops adds to the textural crunch. The inside is a wonderful jam like currant puree that is not a sugar overload but rather a true fruit taste that reminds me of my childhood obsession with Ribena. This was devoured in seconds without putting it down. I can eat this daily.
Overall, I highly recommend this place to delight yourself in the pastries. I'm definitely coming back to try the other sweets and savoury options!
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