Donuts, revamped!

This past long weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to head down to good ol' Calgary just to get away for a quick over night trip. I love Calgary. There are always new foodie spots to hit and there are many interesting restaurants/bakeries popping up. We stayed in the southwest part of downtown, home to some unique restaurants, bakeries and shops, one of them being the brand new Jelly modern doughnuts. 

I definitely recall reading about this new bakery in the August/September issue of the Where magazine. I always pick up this magazine when I'm in town because it always gives great reviews and recommendations on restaurants/diners/bakeries scattered across the city. I'm not too big of a fan of doughnuts, but I was curious as to what they meant by "modern". My boyfriend's eyes lit up when he heard 'doughnuts', so we decided to give this place a try. Even better: when we looked up the location of Jelly on our GPS, lo and behold, it was right beside our hotel!

After checking out of our hotel, we made our way to Jelly. The exterior of the bakery was very eye-catching: Jelly is in bright pink, as well as their logo, a doughnut of course, with white-very simple.

The showcase of doughnuts was amazing! I felt like a kid in a candy store. An astonishing array of unusual doughnut flavours filled the showcase-lemon, s'mores, peanut butter, madagascar bourbon vanilla, coconut, apple pie, maple bacon (what we came for!) and many more. You can check them out here.

I was trying to get a shot of the menu, as you can see that didn't work out so well (still not bad for a camera phone!)

 

Look at those doughnuts!

Look again! They even have bite sized doughnuts in the same flavours of the original sized ones-except they call them 3 bite doughnuts. Cute!

The individual prices of the doughnuts were $2.25, which is a little pricey considering they are just doughnuts; however, their catch is that they use local, organic and only the best ingredients possible to make the donuts. The fillings are hand-filled and everything is made fresh that day. To include some examples, the bacon they use is from Valbella meats in Canmore (which I absolutely love!) Vital Green and Chinook Honey. Their doughnuts are preservative-free, which means they are best consumed within 24 hours.


We opted for 1/2 dozen (1 dozen seemed like too many, considering I don't have much of a sweet tooth). We chose maple bacon (of course!), lemon, s'mores, peanut butter, coconut, madagascar bourbon vanilla. 

Our flavours L to R clockwise: S'mores, bourbon vanilla, maple bacon, lemon, coconut and peanut butter. All sooooo delectably delicious.

We first devoured the maple bacon...how could we not? Although most can agree that maple and bacon go together very well, and they do, my boyfriend and I agreed that there was not enough bacon bits on the doughnut. There wasn't enough of the satisfying bacon taste we get every Sunday morning. Other than that, it was yummy. 

Interior.

So far, we've tried s'mores, peanut butter and madagascar bourbon vanilla. The s'mores was my favourite so far (they even make their own marshmallows!), but the other ones were very tasty as well. I gave the lemon doughnut to my dad because he loves lemons; the coconut doughnut is on the menu as tomorrow's dessert. 

They even make birthday donuts!

Any of you planning a trip to Calgary anytime soon? Make sure to include Jelly modern doughnuts as your next sweet tooth venue because it's worth the trip there. We'll definitely be making a second trip!

Jelly modern doughnuts is located at 100 1414 8 street S.W., Calgary, Alberta

Verdict: sooo scrumptious!

My Calgary quest for macarons!

Calgary, Alberta

I have to admit that recently, I have been a bit obsessed with macarons. I asked for them on Valentine's Day because that's all I really wanted (and perhaps some nice jewellry...) but seriously. Those little delectable bites make me and my tastebuds happy. The colour, the look, the flavour, the crispness and chewiness of the meringues are just awesome! My boyfriend and I were going to Canmore for the long weekend so I figured we could stop by  Calgary to see what they have to offer for these great little French treats.

I had already done my macaron research prior to the trip. I am sure Calgary has more than two places that make macarons, but two caught my attention with the limited amount of time we had: Yann Haute Patisserie and M for macaron.  

Yann Haute Patisserie



Isn't it cute?

This wonderful, antique-looking, yellow house is situated in the Mission area of Calgary, (south of the Saddledome ) just off of MacLeod Trail. I honestly have not been to this area of Calgary, but it sure is beautiful. We drove by many eclectic looking restaurants and beautiful condos right by a small creek. I regret not taking any pictures of the interior of the bakery (everyone seemed too busy), so you'll have to imagine what it looked like, or go see for yourselves! The actual bakery/store is very small inside. The product display is a little similiar to Duchess Bake Shop; glass encases the baked goods. There wasn't a grand selection, but there were pastries, and of course, lots of macarons!

I chose all 7 different flavours that day: lemon, pistachio, chocolate, strawberry, blackcurrant & violet, Irish Cream and the flavour of the day: orange & carrot. These were some pretty interesting flavours that I have never heard of for macarons.

You can't miss the bright yellow and pastel purple!

M for macaron

M for macaron is located in Calgary's Kingsland Farmers Market.

Next stop was M for macaron. M for macaron does not have a permanent place of residence, but are currently located in the Kingsland Farmers Market in Calgary. My boyfriend and I stopped to try a sample of the pizza stand next door, when I looked over and saw what I was looking for: macarons! What an astonishing array of flavours-I felt like a kid in candy store! We chatted it up with the part-owner, who owns the macaron stand with his wife, who is also the baker. What is also great about them is that they also offer macaron classes for those who are interested in making them, as well as eating them (me for sure!). More information is available on their website.



May I have one of each, please?

 I'll have to admit that the flavours offered here were very unique and unheard of (for me) for macarons. My boyfriend and I chose 3 flavours each; he chose strawberry-banana, strawberry and green tea, and the flavour of the day, peanut butter and Welch's grape jelly, while I chose toasted coconut, salted caramel and raspberry passionfruit.

M for Macaron macarons!

Comparison & flavour tasting

My boyfriend was never a huge fan of macarons until we tried these ones from Calgary. The sizes of these macarons were 1/4 larger than the ones from Duchess (the only other ones we've ever tried). We both agreed that the slightly larger size is just the right portion for a sweet tooth. With that being said, my boyfriend gave praise to M for macaron macarons. With unique flavours, their meringue cookies had just the right chewiness and crispiness. They tasted what they should have. I'll have to second that-M for macaron did very well. Though I'm not big on crazy flavours, their flavours tasted exactly what they should have. They weren't overpowering, but prominent enough so if one would not know the flavour, one would be able to tell. Their meringue cookies were just the perfect consistency, too.

As for Yann's Haute Patisserie macarons, we both agreed they were aesthetically beautiful. The flavour and consistency were a bit disappointing for us. The meringue cookies were too dry and lacked chewiness, and the flavours weren't as prominent as M for Macaron. Perhaps they weren't fresh that day, or wasn't a good batch. Either way we thought they could of done better.

Compared to Duchess' macarons and the ones I've tried in Calgary, I feel like I am still a loyalist. Though their macarons may be small, they got the flavours and textures just right. But that is not to say that next time we are in Calgary, we won't be stopping for macarons. M for Macaron will have to be a must stop. I will still give Yann's another shot as they have other pastries I would love to try, and well, macarons don't always turn out perfect (though they are a professional patisserie).

(On a side note: the farmers' market is definitely one place you should check out when you are in Calgary. It is open year-round and they offer a great variety of produced and locally produced goods.)

Verdict: very scrumptious!

-M for Macaron is located in the Kingsland Farmers Market on 7711 MacLeod Trail (1 min. south of Chinook Mall
-Yann Haute Patisserie is located at329, 23rd Avenue S.W., Calgary , Alberta