My Latest Bakery Obsession Is...

...Flour Bakery and Cafe, in the western part of the South End.

After hearing multiple impassioned recommendations of this establishment, I realized that I had to go - and, it has since become a weekend fixture, with a Flour baked item and/or meal characterizing three of the past four weekends. So, what makes Flour so incredible?

The baked goods, both breakfast items and desserts, have exceptional, unique flavors, and you can simply taste the quality:

• Orange chocolate muffin (in image, upper center) - this muffin has orange-flavored dough with bits of orange zest, candied orange, and possibly marmalade mixed in. It is covered in a thin, sweet, faintly-orange glaze. The chocolate used in the muffin is so rich and dense flavor-wise, and is so soft and pliable to the touch, that I think it might be either trufffle chocolate or extra-thick ganache. The orange flavor is neither too tart nor too sweet, and the chocolate-to-batter ratio is perfect! [A side note - stay tuned for a blog entry on my attempts at recreating this muffin!]
• Ginger pear muffin (lower center) - this muffin has a pleasant, faint ginger flavor, and moist chunks of pear are mixed throughout the batter. The pear chunks are the perfect texture for a muffin, meaning they are neither too mushy nor too raw. The top of the muffin is sprinkled with sugar crystals to counteract the faint gingery tartness.
• Vegan chocolate cupcake (to the right of the ginger pear muffins, dusted with powdered sugar) - this is the only "average" item I have yet encountered at Flour. The same chocolate bits found in the orange chocolate muffin are in this cupcake, which are delicious, but the cake itself has too many air pockets and not enough chocolate flavor. It is also extremely dry for a vegan baked item, considering the general vegan recipe convention of substituting oil for eggs.
• Chocolate cupcake - this is a cupcake to remember! It is extremely dense (one cupcake has considerable heft, more than a muffin 1.5 times its size!), and I'm guessing that the recipe started as a devil's-food recipe but was customized to allow for a more flavorful - and darker - chocolate. The replacement chocolate is rich, and the cupcake is almost creamy as it melts in your mouth. The finishing touch is an ample helping of white vanilla buttercream frosting, concentrically swirled across the top of the cake.
• Boston cream pie - I am usually ambivalent / leaning towards "meh" regarding Boston cream pies, but Flour's take on this traditional Omni Parker House dessert is worth eating! They get several things right that most BCP bakers don't: (1) instead of skimping on the most important ingredient, they use plentiful delicious chocolate on the top and sides of the dessert; (2) the cream filling is light, rather than globular and custard-like; (3) the cake layers in between the cream filling are actual vanilla cake, rather than the spongy, eggy excuse for cake frequently employed elsewhere.

I can't wait to expand upon this list! It has been hard to set a limit thus far. On top of the baked goods, they have delicious cafe fare AND cafe beverages:

• Turkey sandwich with cheddar cheese, mixed greens, and cranberry chutney (oho, chutney!) on homemade bread
• Lamb sandwich with goat cheese, mixed greens, and tomato chutney (another chutney? wow!) on homemade bread
• Tomato-fennel soup containing assorted mashed vegetables
• Made-to-order pizza with fontina cheese and slightly-sweet dough
• Spicy hot chocolate - in the increasingly-popular tradition of Mexican chocolate, Flour adds cinnamon and cayenne/chili powder to their standard cocoa to create an invigorating, mouth- and eye-watering beverage. You can customize the milk; I notice no weakness in ordering skim. The spicy-sweet combination is a winner, and while I may have become more used to that pepper punch after several helpings, it still poduces the same reaction!

So, who wants to go to Flour this very minute?! I am all for making two trips in two days. :) If not today, how about next weekend? Also, they have a second location along the Fort Point channel, so any Southie residents in search of exceptional cafe items can satisfy their needs. Happy Flouring!