Dominique Ansel Bakery

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: figure out how the hell he gets his madeleines so light

In Soho I usually try to walk as fast as I can to avoid the random tourist that just kind of stand there or sometimes in the middle of the street to take a picture and I hope that a cab hits them. What? I just said hit, not kill them, there is a difference. However I find myself slowly down to stop at Dominique Ansel Bakery. Dominique Ansel is not a cutiesy cupcake baker, rather one of those, trained in France and worked in Boulud kind of bakers. He ventured out on his own and started up this bakery, sometime last year. At Dominique Ansel bakery, they are making delicious sweets and pastries that would make a Frenchman think twice that there are no good croissants or pastries in America (though they would never tell you that). Like more bakeries that have croissants, I always go for one step further and get a chocolate croissant.

 Any reason to get more chocolate in my diet in the morning is always a good thing. The chocolate croissants are rich and airy and have a shattering flakiness. Of the flaky awesome butter pasties is the kouign amann or DKA for short or to skip butchering the name of this pastry. This is a pastry from Brittany that uses salted butter and has sugar laminated in resulting in a caramelized pastry.

The caneles here are some of the best I have had. There are few places in New York that have caneles, which is odd because when I visit Taiwan, almost all the bakeries there have them. However, the caneles here are the best I have had so far. The outside is rigid, but break through the caramelized exterior; you get a custard-like center. These are so good it makes me finding reasons to justify the purchase of canele molds. Canele molds, the no-shit ones, are made of copper and average about 20 a piece. So, who wants to be my Sugar Mama?

Madeleines are one of my favorite cookies and whenever a place has them, I always need to try them even if I know they are going to bad (like the ones in a Dakar gas station). Tangent, I do not know why they are considered to be cookies by the French, they are just mini cakes. Anyways, the madeleines here are baked to order so you need some patience on your part but you are rewarded with light little cake bites that are fresh from the oven.

The staff at Dominque Ansel is friend and you can see him there all the time either baking to running the register. He is committed to his place and the food and pastries here are the result of his hard work. I find myself now trying to be in area so I have an excuse to come by. 

Dominique\Ansel Bakery
189 Spring St
New York, NY 10012
http://dominiqueansel.com/