Loaf
Double Baked Almond Croissant
Gougere
Kougin Amann
Pain au Chocolate & Peanut Butter
Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookie
Molasses Ginger Snap
Crispy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
Chocolate Chip Torsade
Cinnamon Walnut Currant Scone
Featured as part two of a three bakery morning in Durham it was just after 8:30am that we entered the cozy confines of Loaf and with the smell of yeast, cinnamon, and vanilla mixing in a wave of smoking wood it was fortunate for the third stop that the Parrish Street bakery offers no indoor seating, for if they had we very well may have just stayed…or asked to move in.
At one time a Farmer’s Market staple, but now turned brick and mortar under the direction of a former neurobiology student whose love of baking led him to trade in brain studies for starch science, it was to a short line of locals that I was met on entry and taking this time to peruse the pastries I knew almost immediately that a large order would follow – a situation only worsened when I asked the woman behind the counter what was warm and fresh with the response entailing no less than a half-dozen items, all but one ordered along with some other interesting options to a total tally of nine.
Relocating elsewhere, if only due to the cold street outside, it was just moments after seating that the bag was unpacked and setting aside cooler items to focus on those most fresh it was unquestionably in the Almond Croissant that the tasting began, a thick shattering shell giving way to laminated layers and dense almond filling that wowed amidst all the butter, a Pain au Chocolate with an additional core of Peanut Butter showing equally well, though rich enough that sharing and coffee were a must.
Turning savory with a slightly deflated gougere, rich with cheese and sage amidst the soft core, it was back to sweets that attention turned and although the Kouign Amann proved just a touch too heavily salted atop the caramelized crown and substantially buttery core the still-warm scone and baton shaped torade were absolutely exemplary – the former more moist than most while the later was rich with dark chocolate chips still slightly molten on the tongue.
Finishing up with three cookies, each tasted later in the day when capacity was refound, suffice it to say that those fancying crispy cookies would be well advised to investigate the goods at Loaf because although I tend to prefer my baked goods more soft-set at the center it would be hard to say the Gingersnap, Chocolate Chip, or Oatmeal raisin were anything less than the best of their kind that I have ever found, each surprisingly less sweet than average with even the molasses imbued wafer finding its foil in the substantial use of spice, the smell of the bakery itself brought forth in each bite.
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