Cannelle Patisserie – Exterior, Interior, One of its refrigerated pastry displays, and the St. Honorés
Cannelle Patisserie is one of the hidden patisserie gems tucked in Queens. Whenever I do walk through a few neighborhoods in Queens – Flushing, Long Island City and Astoria – they tend to be bakeries that sell mediocre, run-of-the-mill layered sponge cakes filled with whipped cream and fruit or “ghetto” bakeries that look very questionable that I don’t even want to step my foot in there because the place looks so run down.
Cannelle is nothing like that. It’s clean, bright, and have lots of seating. Their long displays were filled with gorgeous cakes (individual sized and large) and various viennoiserie that would sweeten up your mornings – all for about half of what you would pay for any bakery in Manhattan!
Part of the potential damage…to go
Continuing my trek in Queens (from the amazing Sripraphai lunch), a 30-minute walk (about a mile away) we found this bakery inside a strip mall. Though most of their pastries are French, there’s a couple that are Italian and even Jewish (e.g. the rugelach).
My friend and I went a little bit crazy to try to get our grubby hands as much pastries as possible in this visit (see above photo). Though I did not try everything in that box, the two I did manage to have were the slice of Gâteau Breton, a rare sight to see this Brittany butter cake in New York City, and the canelé. The latter was the closest to perfection (and my current pastry obsession hailing from Bordeaux). Very creamy, custard-like interior with a thin caramelized crust. For $2, you can’t beat it and I’ve spent a lot more in Manhattan bakeries for a much mediocre product.
For the pastries we had at the shop, their slice of Napoleon (or millefeuille) was divine. Very fresh, crisp layers of puff pastry layered with thick vanilla pastry cream with the top layer with the signature zebra patterned fondant icing.
St. Honoré
The St. Honoré was the best I’ve eaten in years! The choux pastry was crisp and had the desired airy interior, filled with the same thick, pudding-like vanilla pastry cream, layered with fresh whipped cream to lighten up the texture. The caramel glaze was nicely done. I was speechless as I was having an epiphany.
The slice of Praline Crunch is essentially a chocolate-hazelnut cake that has a moist, thin brownie base, layered with chocolate hazelnut ganache with crispy feuilletine, and dense milk chocolate ganache. My friend says this tastes like the Perugina Baci chocolate in a cake form, which he is correct.
For all the pastries purchased, the entire thing cost $27! This would have been at least $50 if we purchased this in any Manhattan bakery. It’s astounding how inexpensive and high quality the pastries were. If you manage to be out around this neck of the woods and have a large sweet tooth, you should stop by here.
To view more photos of this visit, please view the slideshow below (or CLICK HERE for my photo set):
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Information:
Cannelle Patisserie
Official website
75-59 31st Avenue
Jackson Heights, NY 11370
Map
Phone: (718) 565-6200
