Dufflet Pastries

Bakery: Dufflet Pastries
Address: 787 Queen St. W, Toronto, ON
Website: http://www.dufflet.com/home.asp
Style: North American, European
Price: $$

I have yet to actually visit Dufflet's store in person, but this has somehow become the most accessible commercial bakery of pastries in Toronto and area, in that you can buy it everywhere. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The first being that they're actually pretty tasty, the bad thing being that, as someone who likes going to another bakery to sample something different, it's pretty much killing this sort of idea. I mean, in a place and time where everything else is already overly commercialized already, why must pastries fall into this trap as well? :( This was the reason why my trip to Pusateri's was so disappointing.

With this sort of intro, I guess I'm a little... embarrassed that I enjoyed Dufflet. ;DD I really need to go to their store on West Queen West when it gets warmer and see what else they have to offer. In general, they seem to offer two options: cakes and tarts. I'm not a fan at all of rich, icing-laden cakes which seem all the rage in N. America, so I don't think I'll be trying that any time soon, so I settled for fruit tarts, which seem a little more European in style and just look super tasty. The first I got as a "surprise" when my brothers went to Deninger's in Hamilton; they picked out for me the "European Berry Tart" ($2.99 +tax), which just looks totally adorable. ^__^;;; Although it was really lacking in the 'berries' (it tasted like apples and I wasn't mistaken in identifying what all the chunks of fruit were. For that matter, I don't really know how the filling got so red. Hmm.. XD), it was super tasty, especially their almost shortbread-like dough which was delicious! The little flower on top with glaze topped it off perfectly. Would definitely take this one again. And happily, too. ^^

A few days later, I was at MichaelAngelo's Marketplace (Mississauga location), which for the record doesn't have an impressive bakery section in the least, and picked from their selection of off-site baked goodies the... "Apple Raspberry Custard Tart" ($2.79 +tax). I think. O_o At least, I'm pretty sure it was raspberry in the title and in the picture as well. This was a few slices of baked in brown sugar apples and some raspberries in a tart filled with a lemon-y custard. I was pleased to find out that they seem to use the same shells for everything, since they're *that* good. :DD The inside was a little... odd. The taste was pretty good and it was definitely original, although my biggest thing is that I think apple slices was a bad idea for this recipe -- you take one corner with your fork and *all* the slices of apples slide out along with the custard around it. It may look nice, but it's definitely not practical for eating. Not bad, but I'd definitely stick to the former, although at the same time, I have been pretty intrigued to seek them out and try some more from the ever so omnipresent Dufflet. ^^;;;

Rating: ***