Some ideas from Canto 6

Canto 6 Bakery and Cafe
3346 Washington Street
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-983-8688
http://www.canto6bakery.com/

A few meetings have taken me out of my normal routine and into other parts of Boston, so I have had a chance to visit Canto 6 in Jamaica Plain and Clearflour in Brookline over the last two mornings, both of which are exceptional European-style bakeries. As usual, I was looking for baked goods that could be translated into a larger retail setting.

Honored as the best bakery in Boston for sweets by Boston Magazine, Canto 6 is named after the ring of hell in Dante’s Inferno reserved for gluttons. They are known for their cannelés, a pastry which looks more like a burnt cork or a lamp finial than a dessert. Cannelés are made in small fluted molds, traditionally coated with beeswax, which caramelize the exterior of the vanilla and rum flavored batter. Trader Joe’s has quite good traditional and chocolate versions in their frozen section at $4.95 for six.

Having never been there, there was a lot to try: (clockwise starting in the upper left) the bourbon glazed bread pudding, a tappo - which means cork in Italian, essentially a bouchon which means cork in French, a milk chocolate hazelnut cookie, the lemon shortbread, a triple chocolate cookie, an oat cranberry bar, a plum-raspberry galette and an almond croissant. As an afterthought, I also tried a sugared brioche. Sadly, no cannelés.

So here are some ideas that may work in a larger retail setting:

• Bourbon glazed bread pudding
  Baked in a Novacart paper mold, mine was doubled – perhaps a mistake but more likely necessary to hold the wet interior – it would need to be in a refrigerated or frozen section. Its great positive is the very attractive glazed and caramelized topping which tumbles out of the wrapper. It is breadier than I like my bread pudding, but visually very appealing.

• Triple chocolate cookie
  There is so much chocolate out there, how is it possible to get excited by something new? For that matter, is anything new? This cookie is worth a look. It has a very wet, very pleasing uncooked center, with a light almost meringue-like exterior, that you might find on a French style macaroon. A problem, at least for me, is it leaves bitter remnants of cocoa nibs in your mouth - or was it the skins from the walnuts? The start is quite fantastic, but the finish needs a change.
  

• Sugared brioche
  So lovely that I didn’t take a picture of it, a problem I repeated today at Clearflour. Consumed quickly as an afterthought, it was perhaps the nicest find of the visit. A rich brioche dough with a crusty sugared top. While Canto 6’s largest cost after labor is high-fat butter, it seems like this could possibly have containable ingredient costs that might lend itself to a larger retail environment. The crusty sugared top gives you a great hit of sugar that makes this less of a roll and more of a breakfast treat.

• Almond croissant
  Why does an almond croissant warrant a mention? Its exceptional flakiness and rich almond filling which is baked onto the exterior, rather than the interior. I have always wondered why no one recreates the crisp, shattering exterior of a great croissant in a supermarket environment. Whole Foods seems to do a good job, but I expect that this is with items that are baked and sold the same day. Why are most store-bought croissants so soft? Is this because consumers use them to make sandwiches and they are essentially a bread replacement? Is this a constraint of the physical properties of the dough which cannot sit at room temperature for more than a day without softening, or is this a consumer preference? Half of this is up on my shelf, so we’ll see how it tastes after sitting in plastic for a few days.

Pictures and comments on Clearflour will follow.