Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Baker About Town: Pascale Bakehouse

I've been meaning to try Pascale Bakehouse for months.  One of the newer branches of the Pascale restaurants, the Bakehouse is a casual downtown lunch spot nestled in the historic Hotel Syracuse.  Since it's only open for lunch and I rarely indulge in a weekday lunch out, it had remained on my "must try" list.  That changed last Friday.  Sort of.  I didn't actually get lunch, but I managed to score a nice variety of baked goods to sample.

I was first seduced by a big glass case that was home to five of six very pretty cakes, including a flourless chocolate and a carrot.  I was intrigued by the mocha caramel cream, which was already sliced and ready to go in little plastic clamshells.



I'm sad to say that I was a bit disappointed.  I could detect no mocha at all in the cake itself; there was a nice coffee flavor in the decorative frosting swirls, but there were only a couple of those.  Without the balance of coffee, the overall effect was very, very sweet.  The cake was pleasantly moist, however, and the caramel offered a nice richness.

When you walk up to the counter, your eyes can't help but be drawn to the giant glass jars filled with cookies.  I was torn, but ultimately decided against snickerdoodle in favor chocolate chunk and chewy ginger.




The chocolate chunk cookie was good.  The chocolate was chopped, so there was a nice balance of chunk with flecks of chocolate throughout.  It wasn't quite as chewy and I like my cookies, but few are.  The true gem of this visit, however, was the chewy ginger cookie.  Chewy it was, with a perfect blend of sweet and spice.  Even better, there were pieces of candied ginger hidden beneath the surface.  They added texture as well as little bursts of ginger flavor. 

I will return to Pascale just for one of those cookies.  No, that's not true; I will return to Pascale for lots and lots of chewy ginger cookies.  I'd encourage you to do the same.  They're open 7:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; lunch is served 11:00 until 2:00.

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