Tag Archives: bakery

Goldilocks Goodies

Posted on November 25, 2012 | 3 comments

I’m not writing this post just because Emily, the baker/owner of Goldilocks Goodies, is the sweetest ever. I mean, it’s part of the reason. But she is also one of the only gluten free bakers in DC, so she would deserve a post even if I didn’t love her.

Emily uses high-quality ingredients and imaginative recipes to make some delicious baked goods. Like these adorable gingerbread men:

Or these herb flatbreads that I used to sop up some homemade soup.

Yesterday I picked up a slice of chocolate gingerbread made with candied ginger from her stand at the Columbia Heights Farmers Market (every Saturday from 9am-1pm until December 15th).

I’ve also had her cookies: chewy, simple, and addictive.

She’s now selling jars of gluten free baking mixes (would make a great holiday gift).

Find out where to buy her goodies in the DC area on her website.
Order online.
Find Goldilocks Goodies on Twitter.

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More Baked and Wired

Posted on January 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

This bar from Baked and Wired warrants it’s own post. If I was a poet, I would write an ode to it to declare my undying devotion to its caramely goodness.

That’s a caramel blondie with a thick layer of caramel on top, full of chocolate chips, and topped with chocolate and peanut butter chips.

It’s buttery, chewy, and the kind of baked good you need to pace yourself with. You better believe I obnoxiously ate this and crinkled the wax paper during the movie I went to after – I just couldn’t stop myself.


Both times I’ve been to Baked and Wired the non-gluten free friends I’ve been with have liked my gluten free treat better than their own. So there.

A baked good that probably isn’t as good, but I’ve never seen before, so I thought I’d share, are these mini pound cakes from Jennie’s Gluten Free Bakery. They also have these cakes in raisin and marble flavors, which sound more up my alley than plain. I can imagine using these to make strawberry shortcakes pretty easily though.

As you can see, I did not make a New Year’s resolution to cut down on sweets 🙂

 

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Sweet Seasons Orchard gluten free bread – Lansing, MI

Posted on January 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

I love that more and more gluten free products and specialty shops are making their way to my home state of Michigan. When I was home for Christmas, in addition to finding a new gluten free beer at Horrock’s, I found a freezer full of gluten free baked goods at City Market in Lansing.

I nabbed up a loaf of this Amish made gluten free bread from Sweet Season’s Orchard. They also had pies, cinnamon rolls, pizza crusts, etc.

The bread was sweet and eggy, with a beautiful golden brown crust. I think that the potato flakes in this bread made it extra dense and helped it stay moist.

It was used to make french toast for breakfast.


With strawberry syrup and pecans.

And a grilled cheese.

Since I don’t travel with my bread maker, it’s awesome to be able to find quality gluten free baked goods at home! Plus, at $6.50 a loaf it’s actually less expensive than buying a mix.

 

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Baked and Wired. Best gluten free baked goods in DC

Posted on December 12, 2011 | 2 comments

This weekend I did some shopping in Georgetown, and I shop best on a steady fuel of sugar and coffee. I’d heard that Baked and Wired carried gluten free baked goods, so I decided to go and see what was on the menu. I wish that their online menu was separated for gluten free items so I knew what to expect, but I decided to take a chance and go anyway.

And boy am I glad I did.

The first thing that caught my eye was a strawberry and chocolate cupcake. But, that’s not really my style.

Then I asked if they had anything else that was gluten free and they pointed me to this.

The best gluten free baked good I’ve had in DC. And in my top ten gluten free desserts I’ve ever had. Not exaggerating.

Caramel blondie, chock full of peanuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and caramel sauce. Insanely rich and buttery, chewy, and full of fun toppings.

I savored every bite, and pulled out some will power to save half of it for later.


Do you see that giant lump of caramel? And drool a bit? Yeah, I thought so.

They also had flourless peanut butter cookies. But who would get that when there’s the blondie from heaven available?

Their coffee is also great – I had an Americano made with Stumptown espresso. The guys who work there are a bit smug, but I overlooked it as I was too busy stuffing my mouth with caramel to care.

Baked and Wired

1052 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007

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Muffins at Tryst

Posted on August 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

Tryst in Adam’s Morgan is like Central Perk from Friends.  Big couches, hip music, eclectic art, and giant coffee cups.  The only thing that it has that Central Perk didn’t is a full bar.  Oh, and gluten free muffins.

Tryst in Admo

Can you see the resemblance?

Central Perk on Friends set

I was hoping to have some of their flourless chocolate cake, but they were out.  So I settled for a gluten-free cherry almond muffin.

Oh, and a giant cup of coffee with soy.  It came with animal crackers, which got passed off to my friend.

The muffin was great, really moist and I loved the toasted almonds around the edges.  I’ll be back for sure!

Tryst

2459 18th Street Northwest
Washington D.C., DC 20009

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Sammies and Wraps

Posted on July 31, 2011 | 1 comment

Now, doesn’t this look good?  Well, it was.  After trying the cupcakes and cookies at Sticky Fingers Bakery, I decided to give something savory a chance.  Enter the Chick’n Ranch Wrap.

Chick'n Ranch Wrap

They didn’t have any gluten free bread when I went (boo), so I was relegated to the wrap section of the menu.  And this was a great choice – really refreshing, and I kind of love the soy chick’n strips?  I don’t usually go for fake meat, but the mix of the avocado, creamy dressing, and crisp lettuce just worked.  The only downside is that it was pretty small (aka normal portion sized), and cost $8.50.  Egads.  It made me miss the humungo wraps from Terri in NYC that only cost $7.

I must find something that doesn’t fit into my hypothesis about DC food vs NYC food.  Which is that everything is either A) half as good or B) twice as expensive or C) bland or D) A, B, and C all at once.

Not to hate on DC or anything.  But, come on, it’s no New York City.

Case and point:the veggie burger from Java Green.

Java Green veggie burger

Looks okay, no?  It was… just okay.  Maybe it was an ordering fail on my part, but when they say “spicy burger sauce”, I expect a giant burger slathered in sauce, this was some kind of appropriately-sized health food?  Also similarly, cost $7 and I ate it in about 30 seconds.

I had such high hopes for you, Java Green.  At least they had an impressive selection of desserts to choose from provided by Sweet n’ Natural.  Chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, something with blueberry frosting, and carrot cake – which I will always favor.

And it was good to the last bite.  Not quite as good as the carrot cake sold at Mozarelli’s in NYC (can you tell that I’m a bit homesick for NYC these days?), bust still a great piece of cake.

At least the sandwich gave me enough fuel to get to the outdoor showing of West Side Story in Navy Yard. Oh yeah.

The dialogue in that movie is hilarious.  At the most serious/heart-touching moments the entire crowd was roaring with laughter.  Also after some initial Googling – I found this awesome spoof video “Web Site Story”… oh, the Internets.

 

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New Cascadia Bakery – Portland

Posted on July 21, 2011 | 1 comment

I have so many posts to make from my trips that I don’t even know where to begin.  But, I suppose the most impressive place that I went should go first.

After a thrilling trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, where I kicked some butt in old school video games, I headed to the one spot in Portland that was a must-go gluten free place…

New Cascadia Traditional ” The Gluten Free Artisans”

What a pretentious fitting name.

We had just missed sandwich time, which they serve until 3pm, so that was disappointing.

But they had so many other choices that I had to try a few things, one for now and one for later.

For now = asiago bagel with cream cheese.

When was the last time that you could order one bagel from a store, and have them make it for you the way you like?  For me, probably about six years.

It was definitely a great bagel, but I think I may have lost my bagel lust somewhere along the way.  It just doesn’t do the same thing it did for me in high school when I got a bagel with butter on it nearly every day after school (oh the shame).

For later =this amazing pizza with asparagus, mushrooms, blue cheese, and hazelnuts.

Yeah – who knew about the deliciousness of hazelnuts on a pizza?

I ate this for dinner, and then as a snack, and then as another dinner.  I could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting though, but it was really rich, so I managed to hold off.

The only thing lacking at New Cascadia was the customer service.  The girl behind the counter looked like she wanted to kill me every time I asked a question, and heaven forbid I ask for my bagel toasted.  But luckily their food made up for it.   I could have spent $100 on food here easily – blueberry pie, fresh bread, scones, cookies – you name it, they had it.

New Cascadia Traditional

1700 SE 6th Avenue at SE Market (two blocks South of Hawthorne).

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Chocolate Fix: Firehook Bakery DC

Posted on June 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

After picking up a shirt from the dry cleaners that I sprayed with curry sauce when I got Thai food from Sticky Rice last weekend, I stopped into Firehook Bakery in Cleveland Park on a whim.

Usually I try to avoid bakeries because of their forbidden fruits and torturous smells.  But I thought I remembered something about them having gluten free options, so I figured I’d check it out.

The guy working there told me that they sometimes have brownies, but since they get all of their food delivered from the central Firehook bakery, they don’t have them all the time.

They did, however, have coconut macaroons.  Which are fine and dandy.  But the real star of their show are the chocolate-covered coconut macaroons.  Not ones with the chocolate mixed in, but covered in a layer of dark chocolate.

After waiting all of five minutes when I got home, I broke into it.  Um…amazing.  The chocolate is dark, but creamy, and the macaroon in the center is really moist.  Plus it’s the size of a tennis ball, which doesn’t hurt either.

If you wanted to make them yourself, I’m sure you could use this recipe tutorial which features a really awkward old people on Facebook interlude around the 2:00 mark… but why do that when the ones at Firehook are this good?

All Firehook Bakery Locations

3411 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20008
(202) 362-2253

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Redemption for Sticky Fingers Bakery – Cookie Win

Posted on June 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

After a less than impressive trip to Sticky Fingers Bakery for a cupcake, I decided to give them another shot this weekend.  This time I had a laser focus on getting a chocolate chip cookie.

When I got there, however, there were none to be found in the case.  Only those darned dry cupcakes.   But then I asked the nice girl there if they had any, and she quickly retrieved one from the back room (not sure why they weren’t out…)

So I forked over my $2.25 and headed out to peruse the farmers market. Nothing like looking at rows and rows of vegetables while eating something made of 80% sugar and butter 😉

This cookie provided redemption for any wrong that Sticky Fingers could have done in the past.  It was more crispy than I usually like my cookies (which is just a bit more baked than straight-up dough), but the flavor was great.  Chock-full of brown sugar and so buttery it immediately greased up the brown paper bag (yum?).  Plus it reminded me of those giant bakery cookies that are sold at Panera or Starbucks that I usually drool over.

I ate a big chunk off, and saved the rest for when I had coffee in hand later, for the dunkability factor.

Now I will give Sticky Fingers my stamp of approval.  Steer away from the cupcakes, but crash head on into the cookies.

Sticky Fingers Bakery

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Sticky Fingers Bakery – DC

Posted on June 22, 2011 | 5 comments

Yesterday after work I needed to pick up some things in Cleveland Park, which conveniently has a gluten free bakery, Sticky Fingers.  Sticky Fingers is a vegan bakery, but they also have a full menu of savory dishes.

I was very excited to see on their menu that they serve gluten free bread and wraps, as well as gf pancakes on the weekends (before 2:30pm).

I think I’ll have to go back for lunch and try the black bean quesadilla, hummus wrap, or Mac n’ Teese (gluten free pasta and daiya cheese).  Their menu isn’t incredibly easy to navigate, since things aren’t marked clearly as gluten free, but they do provide a list of all the ingredients in their sweets online which is helpful.

Since it was dessert time, I was looking for something with sugar in it.  Unfortunately they sold out of their gluten free cookies for the day, so the only option was cupcakes.  They had three gf varieties, all with chocolate cake, and your choice of mint, vanilla, or chocolate frosting.

I nabbed a chocolate one with vanilla frosting, mostly because I’m a sucker for rainbow sprinkles.  They’re like edible confetti.

Now don’t get me wrong; it’s impressive that anyone can make a vegan cupcake taste good at all.  Sticky Fingers uses tofu in their chocolate batter, and soybeans, and a whole lot of other stuff that sounds complicated.  So I appreciate the work that they did that I didn’t have to.

However… this cupcake was no match for Red Velvet Cupcakery’s chocolate one.  The frosting was really good, but the cake itself was just so-so.  I only ended up eating half of it and throwing the rest out 😦

I’m looking forward to going back to Sticky Fingers to try their savory dishes and get my hands on one of those cookies.  The people there were super nice and helpful, and I’m excited that there is even an option within walking distance of my apartment.

Sticky Fingers Bakery

1370 Park Rd NW
Washington DC 20010
(202) 299-9700

Order online

 

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