{"id":10947,"date":"2015-08-28T12:56:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T16:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10947"},"modified":"2015-08-28T12:56:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T16:56:24","slug":"morning-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/morning-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 2015 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Baked goods and pastries rise to an art form in the city that first swooned over croissants 20 years ago<\/span>.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Morning-Glory-Sept15\"We marvel at the sheer number of restaurants in the Forest City, but how about the bakeries<\/em>? Portland is the center of the universe for from-scratch, flakey, buttery, first-class baked treats. Hot, fresh scones; lighter-than-air croissants; deadly sweet sticky buns; cookies; breads; and rolls are baked every day in small, thriving hives all over town. <\/span><\/p>\n

Magnet for talent<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Think of Standard Baking Company as the Harvard of Portland bakeries. People with sweet dreams and magic hands come to them. And if they leave, Standard\u2019s legend grows deeper in the culture. \u201cThe caliber and availability of professional baking training has improved vastly since we first opened,\u201d says Alison Pray, who with husband Matt James owns Standard Baking, now 20 years old. Their croissants, morning buns, and baguettes were the original boulangerie<\/em> delicacies that set a very high bar in Portland. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been really fortunate to have found some great people through these programs.\u201d Some of whom are now dazzling diners at some of the hot spots elsewhere downtown, as this story shows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur greatest challenge as bread bakers is consistency,\u201d says Pray. \u201cAt the same time, we love to bake, so we\u2019re always looking for new ideas and inspiration. I love to travel specifically to visit bakeries. In Paris, friends recommended Des Pains et des Idees, in the Marais. There are lines out their door all day long. My favorite from their shop was a pain au levain<\/em> roll with savory additions like bacon and bleu cheese.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tasty Career U-Turns<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

B<\/span>akers are like doctors,\u201d says Catherine Cot\u00e9-Eliot, pastry chef at Portland Patisserie on Market Street, where dainty and precise French confections including cylindrical framboisiers <\/em>and colorful macarons dazzle on platters and stands. \u201cWe all have our specialties. I\u2019m really not all that into breads.\u201d Which is not to say she doesn\u2019t know how. In fact, Cot\u00e9-Eliot, 34, spent five years making bread and pastries at Standard Baking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBaking\u2019s my second career,\u201d she says. \u201cI have a degree in architecture from Ohio State. But then I did a 10-month course at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan,\u201d after which she ended up baking at one of the Financier Patisseries in the financial district. \u201cI have a French last name (Cot\u00e9), a French Canadian background, and a grandmother in Gouldsboro, but I don\u2019t speak French.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Her husband, Frederic Eliot does; he\u2019s chef at Petite Jacqueline, which is owned, like Portland Patisserie, by the talented Steve and Michelle Corry. So how did Catherine meet this Parisian-born chef?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt O.S.U., actually. Cooking is a second career for Fred, too. He was the head of the university\u2019s IT department, and just before I left for a semester in France, I went to ask him about good places to visit.\u201d The couple moved to New York, where Catherine launched her pastry careeer and Fred \u201ccooked all over\u2013Prune, Le Cirque, the Oak Room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When they started a family, they decided to move to Portland. Frederic\u2019s nighttime schedule dovetailed nicely with Catherine\u2019s dawn baking routine in terms of sharing child-care duties. \u201cI didn\u2019t want a desk job,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I feel my architecture training is useful to me as a baker. I\u2019m designing and creating things every day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She sure is. Her tender, buttery bourbon pecan shortbread cookie with a cup of coffee may be the tastiest treat you have all day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scone Soul Picnic<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBriana and I met in New York,\u201d says baker Laura Motley at Tandem Bakery on Congress Street. \u201cWe baked together at Pies \u2019n\u2019 Thighs in Brooklyn.\u201d Briana Holt is Tandem\u2019s baker extraordinaire, from whose boundless imagination spring spicy ginger and toasted white chocolate cookies the size of lunch plates, dainty rye shortbread cookies rimmed with black sesame seeds and a hint of sea salt, and \u201cloaded biscuits\u201d filled with cream cheese and jam. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI get a feeling about something,\u201d says Holt, \u201cand try to access my experiences and general baking knowledge to make it happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tandem Bakery has been open barely a year; it\u2019s already a West End institution\u2013a bright, airy space of plate-glass windows, a spotless open kitchen, and a long counter full of tempting baked goods. As I visit today,\u00a0 <\/span>boxes of fresh blueberry pies with almond crumb topping are stacked on the counter, ready to be taken home for dessert. Signature scones include pineapple\/rosemary, kale\/parmesan, apple\/feta, and \u201ceverything seeded.\u201d The latter is what happens when a bagel concept is reincarnated as a feather-light scone topped with sesame and poppy seeds and a whisper of garlic, and pastry shot through with visible veins of cream cheese. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe everything scone was a done deal in my mind,\u201d says Briana. \u201cIt\u2019s exponentially gotten more rad. It\u2019s my not-so-secret favorite thing we make.\u201d For Holt, the soul of a scone should be \u201camazing butter flavor, a perfect biscuity interior, and a firm, satisfying crunch on the outside.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Martha\u2019s Vineyard native grew up baking with her mother and Austria-born grandmother, including lots of cookies at Christmas time\u2013\u201chundreds of cookies cooling on counters, on the porch, the bathroom counter\u2013we always had a problem with quantity control. I think I may still have it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

She says her aim is \u201cto make scone lovers of scone haters.\u201d Mission accomplished! Tandem really has the edge here\u2013Briana Holt owns the scone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take-out, Deluxe Edition<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe get up at four,\u201d says Lucy Dutch as she takes a brunch order at the counter at Dutch\u2019s on Preble Street. She and husband, Belfast native Ian Dutch, turn out delicious breakfast and lunch creations and bake every bagel, biscuit, and loaf\u00a0 <\/span>from scratch six days a week. Lucy\u2019s croissant is balanced in flakiness and cakey tenderness. She came by her skills by hands-on restaurant work. \u201cI\u2019ve cooked around, I baked a lot, I collect recipes and cookbooks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dutch\u2019s turns out elegant versions of simple things. Even buttered whole-wheat toast with their own spectacular blueberry jam will make you take notice. There are excellent and distinctive whole-wheat loaves all over town, including at nearby Big Sky Bakery. But Lucy\u2019s has a soulful charm that makes a great sandwich.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Choices, Choices<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If you roam the city\u2019s bakeries, you\u2019ll find exotic surprises at Ten Ten Pi\u00e9 on Cumberland Avenue at the bottom of Munjoy Hill. Atsuko Fujimoto\u2013she\u2019s another former Standard Baking alumna and Fore Street restaurant pastry chef\u2013is dreaming up fusions of classic French pastries with world-beat imagination. Try almond croissants dusted with matcha green tea confectioner\u2019s sugar, tiny financier<\/em>-like tartlets called visitadines<\/em>, and bite-size dark double-chocolate sake cakes shaped like fat corks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Among the trends here to stay: interesting use of rye flour in sweets (Standard Baking\u2019s chocolate rye cookies, for one) and delicate dustings of sea salt crystals and seeds on sweet as well as savory treats. \u201cIt\u2019s a daily struggle for me to not<\/em> put them on literally everything!\u201d says Briana Holt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even old favorites are up in lights here. Visualize something you never tire of. Say it\u2019s a fresh croissant, or an oatmeal raisin cookie. The city is your oyster! You can seek the perfect cookie forever without ever having to endure disappointment. Rosemont\u2019s bakery stocks its three city markets every day, and their cookies are fantastic. Standard Baking\u2019s oatmeal cookie is as sweet as a happy childhood. Big Sky is always there for you when you\u2019re running errands in Monument Square. A recent stop at Two Fat Cats on India Street turned up a surprise. This little bakeshop, once a spin-off of Standard Baking but now independent, has a rather proven\u00c7al<\/em> facade in a pleasing shade of Dijon Poupon. You descend into a cellar-like space filled with racks of pies and cakes\u2026and spot the cookies! On the way home with your oatmeal raisin prize you discover bits of dried apricot in addition to the raisins. Brilliant! <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 2015
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