Oakmont Bakery - Oakmont PA

YES: Silver trays
NO: Plastic plates + cutlery
YES: Paczki ("Push-key"), made for Lent every year, soft & doughy with fruit fillings! Blueberry, apple, prune(!), cherry...10 to choose from here.
NO: Gravity-defying custard (so gelatinous!). I'm no expert on custards, but I feel like when you hold it upside down it should fall?!
YES: Maple cinnamon roll with nuts (pecans?! amazing!), crispy and delicious.


YES: Ms. mardi-gras-bead-sporting baked goods slanger (I was there on Fat Tuesday)


YES: The bakery's slogan: "We Create Delicious Memories"
YES: Definitely check this place out when you are around Pittsburgh, worth every mile and the beautiful snowy drive through Verona along the Allegheny River.

Dunkin' Donuts - Penn Hills PA

Not happy about a 5am trip to the airport to bid adieu to my dear brother, but it was made bearable by the drive-thru at the local DD. Bland, sugary de-frosted maple- and chocolate-raised doughnuts courtesy of the Massachusetts-based behemoth. Mmmmm---delish.

Stoecklein's Bake Shop - Penn Hills PA

Maple Loaf! It was a frickin' cinnamon roll with maple frosting! Like comparing apples & oranges, yes, but it really gave my old Red's Maple Bar a run for the money.



Also got a vanilla coconut bar that was creamy and delicious. And a maple cake jobber that was nice and cripsy. Overall, I would say this doughnut shop is well worth the trip east if you find yourself in Pittsburgh.

Interlude: the Gibraltar - Farley's East - Oakland CA

I wanted to take this opportunity to explain the most perfect coffee beverage, the Gibraltar. Taller than a macchiato but shorter than a latte, it is the perfect get-up-and-go for your morning, or keep-you-going to round out your afternoon.




Conceived in San Francisco at the Linden Street Blue Bottle (and named after the discount glassware they found at a restaurant supply store), the Gibraltar offers the same amount of espresso as a latte does, but with less steamed milk. Try one!
(Thanks to Young and Foodish for the history lesson)
Addendum: The Gibraltar is also called a "Cortado" and it can be found as such at Stable in San Francisco (among other places, surely).  The barrista there told me it's also called an "Africaner" but I am inclined to not believe him until I can do more research.

Walton Donuts - Denver CO

We find ourselves in Denver on a business trip and treated our clients to a round of doughnuts from Walton. We got them to go and the nice lady unfortunately messed up our order: 2 glazed old-fashioneds instead of one glazed and a chocolate. Oh well. We also received a chocolate twist, maple raised, and a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (Rule #5 of Sales: Know Your Client).



They were all good. Does the high altitude help or hinder the yeast rising? The old-fashioneds were formed beautifully, something I can appreciate after creating so many out of wax these days. The maple raised wasn't epic but my dear readers know that anything maple has a lot to live up to. The chocolate twist became an afternoon snack after a hike in Boulder. Nice and fluffy.

On Monday, back to the Bay Area and familiar ground.