Seasons Boulangerie [RIP]

Bakery: Seasons Boulangerie 
Address: 104 Lakeshore Road East, Mississauga ON 
Website: n/a
Style: North American, English, French
Price: $$-$$$ 

[Back to local bakeries.. well, one at any rate!] I was going to begin this post with another rant on people improperly using French names for the sake of, I assume, looking fancier (One must, however, realize that the words have no fancy intentions in French... it's just how you call things), but I wasn't in the mood for it... and I'm sure no one reading this is as well. Accordingly, I can't say I was expecting much when visiting Seasons, especially since I soon discovered that they're not in reality a bakery.. at least I didn't see any bread when I was there (boulangerie = where one buys bread ;P). I would call them more a cafe or, even more appropriately judging by the number of people ordering tea, a tea shop. It seems to be more a casual sit-down sort of place as opposed to a take-home bakery; at least, that was my impression of it. And as it should be, in addition to tea and coffee, they happen to bake all of their goodies -- tarts, danishes, scones, quiches and sandwiches -- themselves; I found some items, especially the stuff in the 'pastry' case, quite expensive. Nevertheless, despite my initial skepticism at having their name not deliver, they did manage to pleasantly surprise me.

I settled for two items this time around: first up was the 'chocolate hazelnut crunch' ($2.50), a soft, buttery danish with what seemed like a homemade, chunky Nutella-like filling that literally oozed out of the sides. It was then topped with pieces of chocolate and nuts. This got rave reviews from all samplers in the household. Actually, I must say it surprised me a bit, since it didn't look as amazing as people said it was. Both brothers were curious to know where this chocolate-y, soft ('because danishes are usually stale' as one pointed out) treat came from.

With this kind of reception, I got a little more excited for my own purchase: an apple and cranberry tart ($3.50) which was, in reality, more of a mini deep-dish pie than a tart, but I wasn't necessarily complaining about that. A super tall, oversized pie shell clearly homemade with an excellent flakiness that's just so buttery. Inside, again, there's none of that pre-fab pie filling that I was afraid of (since I've encountered it in even higher end bakeries), but a simple, homemade mass cram-packed with apples and cranberries. There's a bit of tartness from the cranberries, sweetness from the apples and the delicious crumble on top. I don't know if it was simply from the dough, or the apples were smothered in butter as well, but there was something so rich about the filling. About 75% in, I started to get this guilty, "I don't think this is as light as it looks" feeling. Luckily for the tart, there was the youngest brother who more than eagerly wolfed down the rest (this is really a lot bigger than a one-person portion), seeing as he had been eyeing it the entire time I had been eating it. While there, I kind of took this out of default; it was the most appetizing thing at a reasonable price, but in the end, I was very pleased that I did take it.

It may not look like anything for the ethnic-crazed baked good fan that I am, but in the end, it's the taste that wins and Seasons does indeed know what they're doing. ^^

Rating: ***