It's a truly comforting thing to have freshly baked croissants. The warm, light whisps of dough inside of a buttery, rich, crisp crust ready to be dunked in coffee or pulled apart and slathered in butter and/or jam is the kind of thing I dream of (really!) So I must say I was rather looking forward to a delivery from Flourish bakery last week.
Flourish Bakery are a brother sister owned artisan bakery based in Watford. They count Michelin star restaurants among their customers and offer (in normal times) a great cafe menu at their site. But in these times, they open up a "hatch" at their site for collections and also offer deliveries. Orders are easily placed on their website and need to be made by 2pm for delivery or collection within 48 hours.
We placed an order for some croissants, pain au chocolat, sourdough, rustic loaf and -another of my weaknesses- Irish soda bread. It arrived at 9:30am on the delivery day and each item looked perfect. The pastries were shiny and golden and the sourdough and rustic loaf bread was conveniently sliced and was light and fluffy!
I couldn't wait and dove right in for a croissant. It was utter perfection. Really glorious with great lamination, rich flavour, light layers and not too buttery. I would eat a great many of those! The pain au chocolat was also pretty great. The chocolate was of a high quality and well distributed in the pastry. All I needed was a latte to dunk it into for the perfect morning treat!
I would say that the sourdough lacked that super crisp, tough crust that I love about sourdough, and the flavour of the loaf was a little bland as I expected that sourdough tang. However, the Irish soda bread MORE than made up for it! It was so beautifully oaty and dense that I slathered, and I mean slathered specifically bought Irish butter all over it so thickly that I could see my tooth marks in it (what the Danes call "tandsmør"!) I am so upset that loaf has finished now.
I will definitely be ordering from Flourish again, not only for that fresh pastry that I may ask J to bring to me with a coffee in bed -if I'm lucky enough to get a lie in one day!) but also to get that soda bread in my life again. I want to eat it with everything. One of their highlights is their cream tea set too (scones with cream and jam) which we will also try next time as a treat!
Service:
Really easy to use their website and door to door delivery is pretty dandy too! Quality: Pastries and the soda bread were the highlight and great quality. We have yet to try some of their cakes and sweet treats so may do that next time. Value & Price: With bread at around £2.50 a loaf and pastries starting at £1.50 it's pretty great value for money. Minimum order is £20 but everything can be frozen so I'd say stock up! Overall: EXCELLENT. Divine fresh baked goods to your door. Nothing trendy there like cruffins or cronuts etc but the basics are done so exceptionally well!
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