Sometimes even a home baker just wants someone to bake for them.
I have not been in Phoenix long so I am searching out the non-chains for baked goodies. My fellow yelpers assisted in my choosing Karl's and was on my way home from an errand.
I decided to give the Napoleon, eclair and cookies a try. I placed the box of goodies in my cooler (yep, I carry one in my trunk quite often now that I live in hot as heck Phoenix and a bakery may be on my way to where ever - anal some would say) for the trek home.
I started with the eclair. I pierced the puff with my fork into the puff and it cracked. Not a good sign. Too hard. Custard was gummy and not pleasing so I stopped after the first forkful.
On to the Napoleon. It was not layers of pastry and custard. It had the top and bottom pastry and a singular thickness of custard. I pierced the top layer with my fork and it did not break through the pastry and most of the custard squished out. The custard looked curdled inside was dried on the outside and I tried to cut it from the side. I went with a knife at this point. I cut a piece and ate it. The pastry was soggy and the custard was dried out (like old). I did not eat more than the forkful.
A cookie next. Karl's had a beautiful selection of decorated cut out cookies. The frosting was very sweet (and I like sweet). The cookie was coarse and crumbly, yet seemed a little stale. I only had a bite of that, too.
Now, this was a Tuesday. I would expect everything to be fresh. It just did not seem that way. I was very disappointed. Sorry, won't be back.