When it comes to quality baked goods in Adelaide we’re spoilt for choice. I don’t eat a lot of bread at home — minus that time I had that dangerously intense affair with raisin toast — but like a lot of people, I can’t walk past an enticing pastry display without stopping for a look.
From there it’s a slippery slope to picking just one…. or maybe two…. or perhaps three edible must-haves to take home with me. What can I say? I’m doing my bit to support the local economy, y’all.
There are a lot of new or relatively new patisseries, market stalls, food trucks and pop-ups around town and I will gradually work my way around to all of them, stomach room permitting. However, here are three lovely baked goodies I’ve eaten recently.
1) Chocolate & Quince Tart
Smooth dark chocolate ganache. A heavenly quince compote. A fragile, tart shell that crumbles under your teeth like a dodgy politician during Question Time. You need this in your life now. Don’t forget to pick up an extra one for me, too.
- Company: Messy Jessy
- Where: The Market Shed on Holland
- How much: $8
2) Brown Betty Grown Up
If a cronut (the well-publicised offspring of a croissant and a doughnut) and a pear crumble muffin decided that they really liked each other and wanted to kiss each other all over they’d produce this: the Brown Betty Grown Up, a hybrid cronut-muffin. Purists may feel their brains exploding by the notion of such baking shenanigans but I think a bit of unorthodoxy can be a beautiful thing.
- Company: Mother and Sons Bakery
- Where: The Market Shed on Holland
- How much: $7
3) Orange and Pistachio Danish
The day I bought this Red Door were also selling Rhubarb and Quince Danishes. Now I adore both rhubarb and quince, as my recipe archives attest, and yet I was strangely drawn to the Orange Danish. I say strangely because oranges are rarely in my fruit bowl as they don’t seem to like my kids and I very much (it’s us, not them). But the combination of gold and green was too pretty to resist so I capitulated like the female lead in a Robin Thicke song. In this case, it was a very good — rather than an icky — thing.
- Company: Red Door Bakery
- Where: Queen Street, Croydon
- How much: $5
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