Wild Flour Pastry

Posted By Michael Stern on August 5, 2010 7:53 PM

We missed out on the dish Chris and Amy most highly recommended at Wild Flour Pastry: the sticky buns that baker Lauren Mitterer makes only on Sunday. But after consecutive morning visits on a Wednesday and a Thursday, we hardly feel deprived. We ate what may be the best turnover ever, anywhere -- a fine, flaky pastry radiant with butter flavor filled with a mix of Nutella and fresh strawberries. Served warm with morning coffee, it is a breakfast benchmark. In the same major league, Lauren's coffee cake muffin is loaded with crunchy pecan halves; her raspberry scone strikes the ideal biscuity balance of savory and sweet; and her red velvet cupcake could be a lesson for lesser bakers who try their hand at the red velvet fad but wind up with cloying clods. This woman is a virtuoso who plays her oven like a Stradivarius!

One of the great things about Wild Flour Pastry is that you can taste just about everything Lauren makes, going beyond cupcakes and morning pastries to lemon chess tarts, key lime pies, milk chocolate creme brulee and passion fruit pot de creme, because everything she makes, she makes in single-serving sizes. Of course, her whole repertoire is not available every day, but you can count on enough selections to sate the most voracious appetite.

The place is a tiny storefront with only two tables for the dine-in trade. And by the way, Lauren lived for several years in Seattle. The coffee and espresso are first rate, too.

Turnover

Cupcake

Muffin

Scone