14 APRIL 2020
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CONCHA
At All Day Baby in Los Angeles, pastry
director Thessa Diadem’s takes on the
Mexican concha are piped full of straw-
berry jam (pictured), bay leaf cream, or
Thai-coffee jam. The only reasonable
approach here is to try one of each.MOCHI DOUGHNUT
Berkeley’s Third Culture Bakery’s mochi
doughnuts come in nine flavors, includ-
ing yuzu lemon and mango passion fruit
(pictured). These Japanese treats, baked
rather than fried, are extra crispy thanks
to a mochiko (sweet rice flour) base.EVERYTHING BAGEL CROISSANT
For anyone who has had to defend their
love of savory pastry over sweet, the
everything bagel croissant from Bon
Temps in downtown L.A. is some much-
needed validation. This flaky masterpiece
is filled, of course, with cream cheese.BUN BUN
Once upon a time, a kouign-amann and a
doughnut fell in love. The result? L.A. cult-
favorite coffee shop Go Get Em Tiger’s
Bun Bun, which has a cinnamon cream
cheese filling tucked inside layers of
crunchy, surprisingly light puff pastry.TRIPLE-CHOCOLATE CROISSANT
This is the pastry case mainstay’s final
form: At République, the team substitutes
cocoa powder for some of the flour in a
traditional croissant recipe and uses a
rich, decadent chocolate sauce made in-
house with 64% cacao.KAYA BUN
One of the most photogenic treats from
San Francisco’s Breadbelly bakery is a
fluffy milk bun stuffed to the brim with a
bright green and floral custard of coconut
and pandan—a fragrant grass that smells
like vanilla.ITH ITS CORNUCOPIA OF FRESH, local ingredients year-round and the ability to at-
tract talented chefs from Malaysia to Japan to Paris, it’s more than just kismet that
California has become home to some of the most head-turning, palate-provoking
pastries around. “I think we can attribute the diversity we have experienced in the
pastry scene to the rise of a multicultural generation of American cooks into res-
taurant ownership,” says Clement Hsu, co-owner of San Francisco’s Breadbelly bakery, who makes
a milk bun stuffed with kaya jam, a bright green and floral filling popular in Southeast Asia. “The
food being made now reflects who we are —ethnically diverse and unabashedly willing to combine
cultural heritage with traditional European-American training,” Hsu says. Below, our favorite baked
goods across the state.W
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