DORSET — Imagine a blustery day around Thanksgiving. Where is a cozy spot to linger with friends and family over breakfast or lunch? Where might you stop in for flaky, buttery croissants? Chocolate cupcakes or crunchy, nutty cookies?
The Dorset Bakery has a battalion of bakers (OK, five) bustling around cramped kitchen quarters using Hobart mixers, whipping up some of the best baked goods this side of … say, Europe, from where the bakery takes its inspiration.
Lead baker Chelsea Lutz recently filled a table with baked goods capable of bringing warmth to a chilly day. And as envious diners strolled by, a colleague and I sampled them, our bodies soon drifting heavenward, floating on a delicate balance of sugary, buttery goodness.
First up: soft, puffy Parker House rolls, with just a hint of sweetness (perfect for Thanksgiving turkey).
Having given a nod to a main course, we plunged into desserts, sampling first a pumpkin bar, a riff on traditional pumpkin pie. Like all of the desserts we sampled, the sweetness was balanced, allowing flavors and textures to emerge. Here, cream cheese gave the pumpkin bar a pleasingly fudgy density, highlighted by a thin cream cheese top and swirl of whipped cream.
The pecan bourbon pie features pecans (of course) atop a firm, chess pie filling –with just hints of bourbon – in a lightly crunchy pie crust.
The apple galette epitomizes the bakery’s approach, a galette being a rustic, freeform pastry – which here manages to look elegant and inviting and rustic all at the same time. The apple galette is flavored by a thin layer of frangipane that gives the sliced almonds a counterpart of sweet velvety almondiness, all of which plays off the Granny Smith apples. The bakery also makes a blackberry and fig galette.
The chocolate pecan tart features semisweet chocolate and a thin, crisp crust.
For Thanksgiving, the bakery will stock Turkey cupcakes (turkey being the decoration, not the flavoring) — chocolate or vanilla — as well as its usual wide selection of gluten-free baked goods. Customers wanting vegan baked goods, a whole galette, or a custom cake will need to order two days in advance (Thanksgiving orders by Nov. 18).
The macaroons (coconut confections — nut-free or chocolate and nut) come from a recipe created by lead baker Lutz’s grandfather, who had his own bakery in Princeton, New Jersey, so her commitment to fine baking runs deep. And in these chewy, tasty macaroons, Grandpa Lutz lives on.
To help out harried locals, Dorset Bakery soon plans to carry take-home dinners from the kitchen of its sister establishment, Barrows House. (Pot pies and eggplant parmesan? Maybe. We hope.)
And of course, Dorset Bakery offers many other examples of small batch baking at its finest (its original cinnamon croissants, biscuits and sausage gravy on the weekends, Dorset French toast — and for lunch — paninis, and the Dorset BLT, just to name a few).
