How to win over the Daily Info team? By sending us lovely baked goods on a Tuesday morning, which
I went for the pain au chocolat which impressed with its light and fluffy pastry. It was a very neat pastry with none of the usual overflow of chocolate that is the downfall of lesser pain au chocolat. Here everything is perfectly contained in a neat flaky package. My only desire was for more chocolate, but I am something of a chocoholic. The pain au raisin was also tasty, with a filling texture and a lovely glaze on top.
Susie, what were your initial thoughts on the baked goods?
It's a fantastic treat to sample gorgeous (and spelling-bee-widow-making) viennoiserie from an authentic French patisserie. When it comes to pastry, Gatineau seem to live by the admirable rule of 'no such thing as too much Normandy butter', which gives their croissants and pains au chocolat a kind of succulent crispiness which is very appealing - though it can get a little heavy after the first half dozen cakes.
So the Daily Info tip is croissants in moderation - if moderation is 5 pastries. Bloke, you sampled a variety of them. How were they?
Well they were all very good, not over sweetened as supermarket pastries tend to be. The apple cinnamon crumble was moist, lightly sweet, and had a good flavour while the croissant was buttery, and had a good, dense even doughy texture. The almond croissant had an interesting, almost cakey texture, with a light almond flavour, that was, thankfully, not too sweet.
The pain au raisin also had an agreeably dense texture. It was not too sweet, had a nice glaze, with good caramelisation; not full of crème pat but a proper pain au raisin! It would be difficult to pick a favourite as all pastries I tried were exceptional.
Did the rest of the team have any favourites?
Susie: Stand-out for me was the apple crumble cinnamon, a pastry tart with a thin but potently flavoured layer of apple purée with an almond crumble topping. It was delicious, a bit different, and not overpoweringly large.
Katy: Mine was the croissant au apricots; it was a picture-perfect pastry! There was a satisfying initial crunch on my first bite so it was certainly well-baked. The apricot tasted fresh and not overly sweet which was just right when paired with the extremely buttery pastry. The slight glaze was nice but I did almost cut my finger on a particularly crisp bit of pastry! Handle with care!