The Studious Gluttons: The Studious Gluttons and Crisan's Pleasant Pastries!

Dear Gluttons,

After a long week of lectures about sugar it was easy to imagine what your dear gluttons had on their minds. Luckily for us, we had heard of just the place to get our fix of tasty treats; Crisan. If you haven’t heard of this place by now, shame on you! This cozy little bakery sits quietly among the bustle of Lark Street, waiting for you to come in and sample its goods. Well once that last class ended, we drove right on down and had a sugar feast!

Now there is nothing we love more than trying out something new. Even better is trying something new and loving it! And even better is trying and loving two new things! Exactly the case with the Tea Please and Lavander Cake pastries we had. Both were fairly light pastries, perfect ways to end a heavy meal or as a light snack with coffee (although, don’t take our word that they are light in terms of calories, no promises there).

The Tea Please is a green tea buttery cream almond cake and the lighter of the two. The texture of the cake itself is very soft and moist and the cream is a light coating between the cake layers. As you may have gleaned from the previous posts, we studious gluttons have a fine appreciation for subtle flavor and this pastry is very subtle. The lighness and subtlety of this pastry make it a light and wonderful choice for those who want something a little different but would rather slowly work their way in.

Right: Lavender Cookie Cake, Center: Tea Please

Well if Tea Please is for the kid who eases on into the pool, the Lavender Cookie Cake is the kid who cannonballs in. While light like Tea Please, the Lavender is much more flavorful and aromatic. It strongly smalls of a warm lavender. Now for us, as it might be the case for the rest of you, lavender is not something you normally expect in food (maybe the source of some quality honey). So for the still uninitiated the closest flavor/scent we can give is if you have ever had any anise flavored desserts (we wager anise is part of the recipe for this delight too), that might let you imagine what your taste buds are in line for. But trying it is the only way to really find out, and we're sure that works just fine for you all.

Now that we were warmed up with some light hors d'oeuvre (any light post-meal dessert is a suitable appetizer for a dessert feast), we were ready for some heavier fare. What better than and indulgent Mint Brownie and a European delight, the Nutella Croissant?

Left: Nutella Croissant, Right: Mint Brownie

Now don't take the following brevity as a lack of quality on the Croissant's part. It was delicious! Flakey pastry with buttery rich Nutella, we really don't have to preach it's virtues. You know what you are signing up for! We just hope that one day soon there will be some Nutella feature co-starring bananas. Eat healthy. Sort of.

The Mint Brownie, on the other hand, is very special. To be honest it is not really a mint brownie. When you bite in there is no mint flavor, just the cool sensation of mint. And that to us, is, well, cool, because the brownie itself is GREAT. We don't want any strong mint flavor cramping this brownie's style. The brownie is very rich and on the darker/mocha-esque side; so in less words, perfect. Unless you grabbed them right out of the oven, you couldn't do better. And so that cool mint effect is just the right way to add a twist without ruining a good thing. To be fair to the mint, it does make a return appearance, this time in flavor, at the end. It is slight but noticeable, and we enjoyed it. It was a nice way to wrap up a memorable mint brownie experience (one that we will probably repeat very very soon).

What makes Crisan even more amazing is that while they have amazing pastries and baked goods, they have a huge variety of Gelato too! We are pretty confident when we say there probably is a Crisan in heaven. In addition to the standard flavors, Crisan had some unique flavors we hadn't seen before like Pomegranate and Blood Orange. Expect a follow up to this review, dedicated to Gelato and you our dear readers. For you we taste it all!

Heaven?

So filled up on coffee and desserts we exited Crisan, with smiles from ear to ear. And we are sure that if you make time in your schedule to stop by, you will leave just as elated as we were.