5-01-2024 4:20am

Time for Dessert Declared as Mike and Jane Sample Pastries in Their Second Micro-adventure

Lesley Misko Editor

by Mike Strzelecki

The plan was straight-forwardly delightful: consume a baked good at seven different Boyertown bakeries in one morning.

My cohort in carbohydrate consumption was Jane Stahl, my junior high English teacher from circa 1975. If you recall, Jane and I paired up last year to determine the best slice of pizza in Boyertown. We did so by eating an individual cheese slice of pizza at seven different pizzerias in town - over the course of one lunch.

Well, it was now time for dessert.

Our micro-adventure called for meticulous planning. We focused on eateries that baked their own goods in-house. We implemented a rule that we had to have a different-style baked good at each location - no repeats. We scanned Yelp and Tripadvisor for reviews, and sought recommendations from friends. We mapped out our path, making sure all eateries would be open when we got there. Deciding what baked treat to eat (we shared all treats) would be a matter of on-the-spot negotiation.

I met Jane at her Studio B Art Gallery and scanned the paintings hanging on the walls. I marveled once again at the number of talented artists in the Boyertown area. We pushed off at 9:30 am in a windy rain and walked towards the Firefly Cafe and Charlotte Street Coffee Shop, on North Reading Avenue. We mentally prepared ourselves for the obscene quantities of flour, sugar, and butter in which we were about to partake. Firefly Cafe is a 100-percent plant-based eatery and has an enticing bakery that offers their confections at the attached coffee shop. The venue exudes a vibe that is young and hip, traits in which Jane and I both fall well short.

Firefly Cafe displays their baked goods in a series of large jars on their countertop. “I know exactly what I want,” proclaimed Jane immediately. I saw that she was eyeing a blackberry crumble bar, its glaze shining in the overhead light.

I was too focused on the orange poppy-seed scone to care. After a full inspection of all offerings, however, and in a fit of childish regression, I talked Jane into going all in with me on the homemade strawberry glazed pop tart.

The size was true to the original pop tarts, and it was lightly toasted to ideal crispness. The pink glaze had chunks of strawberries. The filling was rich without being overly-sweet. Milton, the talking toaster from my childhood television ads, was right - pop tarts are “Crazy Good.” We deemed our first culinary waystation a success.

We next skipped down the block to investigate Dice’s Creative Cakes. We arrived ten or so minutes before opening, and were forced to huddle under umbrellas in the pouring rain. At no point did we consider skipping the shop due to bad weather and moving on to our next bakery. Our journalistic integrity - and taste for pastries - was too strong.

The showroom was piled high with ornate tiered wedding cakes, but also had a refrigerated display unit full of cream puffs, turnovers, muffins, cupcakes, and other implements of confection. Jane and I opted to go the safe route and get the fudge walnut brownie. It was moist and cakey, and pleasantly pushed the chocolate limit for brownies, if there is such a thing. We deemed it a success; sometimes the safe bet is the tastiest.

For our third stop, cheesecake was on the menu. In Boyertown, all cheesecake cravings lead to Semper Pie, on South Reading Avenue. The play-on-words in the store’s name is because Kevin Murphy, who owns the business along with his wife Crystal, served in the U.S. Marine Corps. The couple once took a stab at baking an apple pie cheesecake for a family Thanksgiving gathering. It was a smashing success. Friends and family pleaded for more. Yada, yada, yada….they now have a popular brick and mortar store in the center of town.

Jane and I may have been feeling the weight of the pop tart and brownie, but we were well-trained culinary athletes committed to the sugary marathon. We were intimidated by both the portions of cheesecake offered to us (knowing we had four more stops ahead) and the sweeping varieties available. We were delighted to locate, in the refrigerated display, small samplers called Cuties. We agreed on the key lime cheesecake sampler and it was exquisite. Semper Pie perfectly achieved the tasty balance between sweet and tangy and creamy. Their deftness with cream cheese, sugar, and graham cracker is to be applauded. And as a bonus, we learned that Semper Pie donates a portion of proceeds to veteran’s funds.

Fully sated, we knew that we were still early in our journey, and tried to pace ourselves. But our fourth feeding station was calling. We hopped in a car and drove to Frecon Farms, on South Reading Avenue. I live in Baltimore but sometimes stop at this market during my visits home.

Going in, I was already well-aware of Frecon’s tremendous selection of baked goods and wondered how I would be able to decide on any one. I deferred to Jane, and noticed her eyeing a fist-sized puff pastry with yellow cream oozing out at different places. Frecon Farms called it the Lemon Cruffin.

Jane and I sat at a high table and dug into the puff like hyenas on a fresh-kill. We tore at the pastry shell and fork-fought over the lemon filling. It was a near-perfect pastry with the ratio of shell to filling being on point. The lemon cream filling was properly sweet without being overpowering. We devoured the treat in a matter of seconds.

It was time to leave town and explore the outlying areas. It was suggested that we investigate a new bakery in Gilbertsville called Ciera’s Sweets. We had a lovely visit with Ciera. She is an expert baker who began decorating cakes at the age of 10, competed in baking competitions throughout school, and won a full-tuition scholarship to Johnson and Wales University, in Denver, where she majored in baking and pastry arts. Now, at the young age of 24, she is ready to share her passion, knowledge, and baking experience with the public. She had a sparkle in her eye when talking about her creations.

The specialty at Ciera’s is cupcakes - she has so many colors and varieties. Agreeing to one kind was not easy, as Jane and I went back and forth on several. Ciera patiently directed us to one of her personal favorites, the chocolate raspberry variety. Mixing fruit and cake is typically forbidden to me, but on this day, the light raspberry sweetness complemented the dark chocolate cake nicely and the cupcake was properly moist and, to use a hackneyed expression, truly bursting with flavor. We were batting five for five.

Feeling over-laden, we drove back roads to Bechtelsville, where we anxiously awaited Pennsylvania Dutch treats at Aunt Nannie’s Bake Shop. This was the eatery most recommended to us by friends. It took over a 1950’s style diner called Bel Air, and maintained its flashy colors, booths, and a vintage blue car on the roof.

Aunt Nannie’s is not for those with the pedestrian sweet-tooth - someone that likes a tiny treat here and there to satisfy a craving. This bakery is for those hard-core palates that crave heavy Pennsylvania Dutch renderings. Rows and rows of extra-gooey shoofly pies and funny cakes. Stacks of AP cakes. Trays of sticky buns. I barely even noticed the other fresh-baked pies and cookies hidden in the shadows..

Jane and I scanned the display cases. The softball-sized sticky buns practically grabbed me by the collar and screamed my name. The gleam in Jane’s eyes told me she agreed. Our only decision came down to fine details: do we want one that is plain, with walnuts, with raisins, or with both. As a young kid, I always thought that raisins on sticky buns were actually dead flies stuck to the goo, so I typically pass on that type. But Jane declared raisins to be mandatory on any sticky bun that she consumed, so I relented. And I next sat down to one of the best sticky buns I have ever eaten.

For our seventh and final stop, we opted to forgo a bakery and instead visit a restaurant in town called Grind, on South Reading Avenue. Our quarry was mousse (recognizably not a baked good, but a sweet nonetheless). It was reported to us that Grind had the best. We purposely saved this particular stop for our seventh and last one, since we theorized that, even though our stomachs were full to capacity, the mousse would just seep into any available interstitial space. Our theory proved solid.

Full confession: I am not a fan of mousse. Too light and airy. Too insubstantial. But I am also man enough to admit when I was wrong. Grind’s mousse was on another level. The mouse was thick, full-bodied, dark chocolate, and served in a huge soup-sized bowl. Two lumps of cream flanked the crock, showered with dark chocolate shavings. Around the rim of the bowl were fresh-cut strawberries. Not to overuse superlatives - this was the best chocolate mousse that ever slid past my taste buds. Jane limited herself to a few spoonfuls, but solely in the name of preventing waste, I licked the bowl clean.

With another food micro-adventure in the books, Jane and I managed a warm goodbye hug, despite our pleasantly (or maybe unpleasantly) distended tummies. On my drive back to Baltimore, I cataloged three takeaways from our trek of treats.

First, sugar comas are real. I felt “off” the rest of the day - jittery and amped up. I slept fitfully that night, still surfing my sugar wave. Apparently sugar rushes are not just kids' business.

Second, Boyertown has their sweets very well dialed in. It would take more than two hands to count the number of fantastic bakeries in town, all of them top-shelf. I applaud the Boyertown folks for their continued support of so many bakeries, particularly the independent ones. And a special hat tip to Pennsylvania Dutch for continuing to provide us with so many tasty and unique cultural treats. Not being able to fit a bear claw into the rotation may be my only flaw on this day.

Finally, even though I was at full sugar saturation, I was already planning in my head my next food micro-adventure with Jane. I wonder if Boyertown has any good cheesesteaks?

* Mike Strzelecki is a freelance travel and outdoor writer, and 1981 graduate of Boyertown Area Senior High School. He writes from his house in Baltimore, Maryland. In his spare time, he joins his wife on adventures around the country observing and photographing birds.