Baked in Vancouver: The tastiest pastries in the Lower Mainland
On The Coast food columnist Gail Johnson highlights three diverse spots selling baked goods in Metro Vancouver
Metro Vancouver is not lacking when it comes to baked goods with all sorts of spots to snack on: muffins, macarons, cookies, scones, doughnuts, or other forms of doughy deliciousness.
But there's always room for more and On the Coast food columnist Gail Johnson has rounded up some new establishments that each have something fresh to offer.
Persian goodies are abundant along Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver. But when it comes to bakeries, most specialize in naan, or Persian flatbread. However, Kourosh Bakery in Lynn Valley offers an extensive selection, with more than 50 types of Persian sweets, Johnson said.
Baghlava, which is the Persian version of baklava, is extremely popular in Iran and can be made with walnuts, cashews, almonds, or pistachios.
"It's a little different from Greek or Turkish baklava in that the top is made of rosewater syrup instead of honey," she told On The Coast's Gloria Macarenko.
She also mentioned their popular chickpea cookies, which are vegan and gluten free.
Stuffies Pastries is a bakery also located in North Vancouver with a cute and quirky twist.
They shape their goodies into little teddy bears and goldfish and fill them with different types of custard, like strawberry, matcha and vanilla.
In fact, the bakery's slogan is "almost too cute to eat."
Adie Lee, the owner of Stuffies, brought the idea to Canada from Korea where these treats are extremely popular, according to Johnson.
The treats here are gluten-free as they're made with a mix of gluten-free flour and tapioca flour. They're also free of dairy, preservatives, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The shaped pastries are all made in this custom-made, oil-free, automatic baking machine that can produce around 600 pieces of pastries in an hour.
Next up are the Southern-style biscuits from a new place on Vancouver's West Side called Chewie's Biscuit Company.
Chewie's is not a bakery but rather a casual eatery with a full menu, run by Richard Chew who decided to jump on the chance to be the first biscuit shop in Vancouver.
"What makes Chewie's biscuits stand out is cold buttermilk to add some richness and enough butter to sink a battleship," Johnson said.
"They use frozen butter that they grate into cold flour mixture before adding very cold buttermilk," she said.
"You need to work with the dough enough to fold it a bunch of times to create multiple layers when the biscuits bake, but not so many that the frozen butter melts. You want these pockets of butter that make the biscuits light and fluffy.
"So these ones are nice and firm on the outside but soft inside."
Their most popular item is the Moose Biscuit which is served with a fried chicken breast, double-smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, and house-made fennel-sausage gravy.
Chewie's is working on adding more dinner items like a double cheeseburger biscuit and hopes to soon have a Biscuit Bus roaming the streets.
With files from On The Coast
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