Best of the City 2012: six of Toronto’s best sweet things, from vegan brownies to fior di latte gelato
Best of the City 2012: six of Toronto’s best sweet things, from vegan brownies to fior di latte gelato
GELATO
Il Gelatiere Artigianale
647 Mount Pleasant Rd., 416-488-2663
“Fior di latte” translates as “flower of milk,” and whether it’s made into mozz and dotted on thin-crust pizza or churned into ice cream and scooped into a cone ($4), its whole-milk flavour is unmistakable. This family-run shop makes 90 litres of fior di latte gelato every two days. Most of it is used as a base for other flavours, but about 20 per cent is sold as is—just fresh cow’s milk and touch of sugar. Delicate yet unbelievably rich, it has a simple hint of sweetness that makes even the purest vanilla ice cream seem, well, vanilla by comparison.
VEGAN BROWNIE
Bunners
3054 Dundas St. W., 647-352-2975
Vegan treats are usually sawdust-dry or fruitcake-heavy—the stuff of food martyrs, not hedonists. Bunners’ owner Ashley Wittig avoids those pitfalls with a blend of gluten-free flours and, as she puts it, “lots and lots of applesauce.” Her phenomenal brownie ($3.25) is, like everything she makes, entirely indulgent. The applesauce binds the batter like eggs and makes the cake incredibly moist, while Fairtrade cocoa and a huge helping of dairy-free chocolate chips provide a deep chocolate hit that will satisfy any sweet tooth, egg-averse or otherwise.
ICE CREAM SANDWICHUncle Betty’s
2590 Yonge St., 416-483-2590
Fried dough is all the rage, especially at this midtown diner, which procured its showpiece doughnut maker from New York’s famous Dreesen’s Donuts. The machine pumps out piping hot vanilla rings, which are best enjoyed in pairs with a tennis ball–sized scoop of Greg’s famous roasted marshmallow ice cream melting in between. Drizzled with chocolate or caramel and topped with nuts, crushed Skor bars or sprinkles, the sandwiches ($5.50) require a knife and fork, and a free afternoon to recover from the sugar rush.
DESSERT
Stock
Trump Tower, 325 Bay St., 416-637-5550
Pastry chef David Chow trained at Le Cordon Bleu and brings a French flourish to even the most homespun desserts. His lemon-lavender gâteau is a Jenga tower of sensational flavours and textures: a featherweight, lavender-flecked citrus cake layered with kapow-packing lemon mousse and a delicate filigree of lavender-pistachio tuile. Alongside, there’s a scoop of tart yogurt sorbet and a pile of lavender pearls that look like tiny bath beads and burst with floral punch. $13.
TOAST TOPPER
Honey World
92–95 Front St. E., St. Lawrence Market, 416-214-0101
Oleg Konashenkov (a former beekeeper) sells raw Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey from a basement stall in the Market. The stuff is almost absurdly artisanal. A team of beekeepers camps out in the Tasmanian rainforest every year between January and March to capture the fleeting blossoms of the leatherwood tree. The nectar is processed using a specialized cold-temperature technique that ensures a super-creamy texture. It’s $23 a tin, and worth every cent. A light floral sweetness and a spicy warmth make it terrific with toast, tea or cheese—or straight from the can.
CAKE ARTIST
Bakerbots
205 Delaware Ave., 416-901-3500
Rosanne Pezzelli, the city’s most creative cake decorator, was an OCAD student, illustrator and painter before she studied pastry at George Brown and sugar (yes, there’s a whole class for that) at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Her dual education is evident in every eye-popping, wildly detailed cake she creates. For one little boy’s birthday, she crafted a pitch-perfect Fender Telecaster out of cake and pastillage, complete with different gauges of florist wire for the strings and a robin’s-egg-blue paint job ($400). The family was so happy with the guitar that they ordered an Eddie Van Halen Phase 90 effects pedal cake as a follow-up.
By Denise Balkissoon, Ariel Brewster, Andrew D’Cruz, Bronwen Jervis, Emily Landau, Signe Langford, Jason McBride, Mark Pupo, Peter Saltsman and Courtney Shea | Photographs by Emma McIntyre
, its whole-milk flavour is unmistakable. This family-run shop makes 90 litres of fior di latte gelato every two days. Most of it is used as a base for other flavours, but about 20 per cent is sold as is—just fresh cow’s milk and touch of sugar. Delicate yet unbelievably rich, it has a simple hint of sweetness that makes even the purest vanilla ice cream seem, well, vanilla by comparison.
VEGAN BROWNIE
Bunners
3054 Dundas St. W., 647-352-2975
Vegan treats are usually sawdust-dry or fruitcake-heavy—the stuff of food martyrs, not hedonists. Bunners’ owner Ashley Wittig avoids those pitfalls with a blend of gluten-free flours and, as she puts it, “lots and lots of applesauce.” Her phenomenal brownie ($3.25) is, like everything she makes, entirely indulgent. The applesauce binds the batter like eggs and makes the cake incredibly moist, while Fairtrade cocoa and a huge helping of dairy-free chocolate chips provide a deep chocolate hit that will satisfy any sweet tooth, egg-averse or otherwise.
ICE CREAM SANDWICH
Uncle Betty’s
2590 Yonge St., 416-483-2590
Fried dough is all the rage, especially at this midtown diner, which procured its showpiece doughnut maker from New York’s famous Dreesen’s Donuts. The machine pumps out piping hot vanilla rings, which are best enjoyed in pairs with a tennis ball–sized scoop of Greg’s famous roasted marshmallow ice cream melting in between. Drizzled with chocolate or caramel and topped with nuts, crushed Skor bars or sprinkles, the sandwiches ($5.50) require a knife and fork, and a free afternoon to recover from the sugar rush.
DESSERT
Stock
Trump Tower, 325 Bay St., 416-637-5550
Pastry chef David Chow trained at Le Cordon Bleu and brings a French flourish to even the most homespun desserts. His lemon-lavender gâteau is a Jenga tower of sensational flavours and textures: a featherweight, lavender-flecked citrus cake layered with kapow-packing lemon mousse and a delicate filigree of lavender-pistachio tuile. Alongside, there’s a scoop of tart yogurt sorbet and a pile of lavender pearls that look like tiny bath beads and burst with floral punch. $13.
TOAST TOPPER
Honey World
92–95 Front St. E., St. Lawrence Market, 416-214-0101
Oleg Konashenkov (a former beekeeper) sells raw Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey from a basement stall in the Market. The stuff is almost absurdly artisanal. A team of beekeepers camps out in the Tasmanian rainforest every year between January and March to capture the fleeting blossoms of the leatherwood tree. The nectar is processed using a specialized cold-temperature technique that ensures a super-creamy texture. It’s $23 a tin, and worth every cent. A light floral sweetness and a spicy warmth make it terrific with toast, tea or cheese—or straight from the can.
CAKE ARTIST
Bakerbots
205 Delaware Ave., 416-901-3500
Rosanne Pezzelli, the city’s most creative cake decorator, was an OCAD student, illustrator and painter before she studied pastry at George Brown and sugar (yes, there’s a whole class for that) at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Her dual education is evident in every eye-popping, wildly detailed cake she creates. For one little boy’s birthday, she crafted a pitch-perfect Fender Telecaster out of cake and pastillage, complete with different gauges of florist wire for the strings and a robin’s-egg-blue paint job ($400). The family was so happy with the guitar that they ordered an Eddie Van Halen Phase 90 effects pedal cake as a follow-up.
By Denise Balkissoon, Ariel Brewster, Andrew D’Cruz, Bronwen Jervis, Emily Landau, Signe Langford, Jason McBride, Mark Pupo, Peter Saltsman and Courtney Shea | Photographs by Emma McIntyre){kind=link}
“Vegan treats are usually sawdust-dry or fruitcake-heavy”? Whoever wrote this must be writing from Brampton circa 1978 or something; if they actually lived in present-day Toronto, they’d know this city has the best vegan treats in the world: Sweets From the Earth, Tori’s Bakeshop, Lovemuffin Bakery, Bloomer’s, Vegan Danish Bakery, and then outside Toronto Kindfood and Rise Above. All these bakeries are stellar bakeries, period, and don’t fit your close-minded and out of date notions of reality at all.
Why is Dessert Lady not on this list? Their awesome.
I don’t know if you get to taste all the different gelato in the city and you might like the one from il gelatiere the bes,as you say above . I know for fact that is not just milk and sugar!!!!!!!
There is also cream and other ingriedents.
So there is a little bit more fat and sugar in it!!!! I personally like the gelato from Hollywood gelato and the best one is in two locations Yonge- Daivisville and Cumberlad (Yorkville) at .Gelato simply italian.
They are the Masters of this product.You should go try it next time.