We are hop-scotching through Oregon with a brief stint in Portland, Bend and then to the coast and back. Jan is teaching classes so we won’t be as settled during our time here.
However, a short stay is not necessarily a bad thing as Oregon promises to fill the pastry-shaped hole in our lives left by our stay in Albuquerque. It’s shocking how many doughnuts it takes to overcome their lack! Also, Albuquerque needs to bake more pastries.
So far, we’ve made repeat visits to Voodoo Doughnut in order to move past our usual orders of maple-bacon bars and apple fritters and explore the possibilities of cereal-topped goodness and jelly-filled torture. It’s a hard life. The shop is gimmicky, but the doughnuts are actually really, really good.
One of Jan’s consulting friends recommended that we visit Blue Star Donuts for their Cointreau crème brûlée concoction — the shop has a separate syringe for the liquor so you can infuse your grown-up donut like a boss. Unfortunately, they were out those for the day. I “settled” for a tangy Blueberry Bourbon Basil ring of goodness that delivered on all three flavors, while Jan deepened his relationship with maple and bacon-infused bakery items. Neither of us were disappointed so it may mean a repeat visit in the future.
Without meaning to, we stumbled upon even more pastry at a coffee shop. Seriously, we fully intended to huddle over cups of Peruvian coffee, but Portland makes that damned near impossible. Every shop has great coffee and pastry to go with it. Behold the light, flaky, and ultimately excellent coffee & praline poptart from Pine State Biscuits:
At some point, I think we just gave up and started checking out any bakery that looked good with the theory that it wouldn’t have lasted in downtown Portland if it wasn’t actually good. That, and a certain amount of Great British Baking Show fandom kinda explains how we went home with too many French pastries from St. Honoré Boulangerie. Choux & croissants for the win!
We will slow down because at some point the pastry will catch up with us. Just to be safe, I added a few new exercises to our mobile workout routine.
Have a recommendation for pastry in Portland? Let me know. Fast!
Looks tasty but my teeth ache at the thought of some of these sweeties. Enjoy with a pastry, and good coffee, in each hand.