Bakeries and Mondayitis

I have found, just lately, that I am getting that feeling in my stomach that I used to get on Sunday nights when I was working. You know that little pang that the weekend is coming to a close and the nose will be pressed firmly to the grind stone in just a few short hours? It is not so much that my nose is pressed to the grindstone on a Monday but more that Tet and Scarlett both head off to work and school at 7.45 and there I am in the empty house. Life really is telling me I need to get busy organising a kick arse CV and trotting it round the local international schools in the area. If only a little fairy would come and wave their wand and present the thing tied in a ribbon I would be so much happier...

We had a very relaxed weekend for a change. The only organised activity we had planned was Scarlett's gym class on Saturday morning. 

Once that was over the rest of the weekend stretched before us like a blank canvas. I had recently read reviews of a new bakery that opened not far from us run by a French Baker with wonderful pastries and coffee. We decided to head there after gym to see if the hype was justified.

I had pretty high hopes but my expectations were well and truly blown out of the water. We decided to order a croissant, pain au chocolat and a Salted Caramel pastry as we had already eaten breakfast. I added a couple of lattes to the order as we were offered a table in the very crowded restaurant by a super attentive waiter. We had thought we would have to take away so that was a nice surprise.

The croissant was delicious. Buttery, crisp on the outside and meltingly soft on the inside. Just a total delight! The pain au chocolat looked beautiful but Tet and Scarlett devoured it in record time so I can only take their word that it was delicious. The absolute triumph was the caramel pastry. It was totally moorish. Not too sweet but caramelly and delicious with a wonderful buttery flavour. The coffees were also delicious.

So the next morning we felt like going out for breakfast and long story short we headed back to the bakery. This time I took some photos of the food before we ate all of it! We ordered a couple of the caramel pastries, a chocolate brioche for Scarlett and an almond brioche for Tet and I to share. We also grabbed a lemon curd tart to go with our flat whites.

The caramel pastry was calling my name so I was halfway through before I thought to take a picture. Just as amazing as I remembered from the previous day. I had no expectation that the other treats would be as delicious but they looked promising.

The almond brioche was enormous. We definitely needed to share it. The pastry was topped with marzipan and slivered toasted almonds and a sprinkling of icing sugar. It was just delicious! The brioche was melt in the mouth and the almond flavour was strong but not overpowering. The contrast of the crunchy almonds and the squidgy brioche was perfect. Scarlett loved her more modestly sized chocolate brioche and declared it yummy and soft. The best treat of the day though in my eyes was the lemon tart. It was super tart in flavour and the creme patisserie was just perfect. Both Tet and Scarlett thought it was too tart but I loved it. We also bought a delicious loaf of fig and fennel bread to take home and it is delicious. One of the super friendly staff told me she had eaten it with goat's cheese the previous day and it had been delicious. I had the same for breakfast today and it was divine. 

So the diet is officially out the window and I plan to get fatter and fatter on delicious buttery pastry!

We discovered a great playground at Mt Emily yesterday too so Scarlett had a lovely time playing on the swings and slides. All in all just a lovely cruisey weekend.

I did get up to some crafts but this post is already a bit of a novel so will share those tomorrow. I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I enjoyed catching some of the Queen's Jubilee Flotilla last night on the telly. What a great occasion to mark 60 years as queen!